“Then there’s the Most Obscure Yet Weirdly Fascinating Art Book: Daniel Rothbart’s Jewish Metaphysics as Generative Principle in American Art, published by Ulisse & Calipso of Naples, Italy. Mr. Rothbart links postwar American abstraction to the Jewish iconoclastic tradition – Clement Greenberg and the Second Commandment – and reveals the influence of cabalistic mysticism on artists as diverse as Barnett Newman, Morris Louis, Sol LeWitt and Jonathan Borofsky.”
Praise for Jewish Metaphysics as Generative Principle in American Art
Praise for Jewish Metaphysics as Generative Principle in American Art
“Sculptor Daniel Rothbart is the author of a short book in which he traces the influence of Jewish metaphysics on the work of (among others) Barnett Newman, Morris Louis, Mark Rothko, and Sol LeWitt. This gives an indication of the seriousness of his concerns and the originality of his outlook. His work is untimely in the best sense, infused with nostalgia for an age (part historical, part mythical) when utilitarian objects were not just finely made but had a sacred aura.”
SYNOPSIS
Rothbart traces the influence of Judaism and Jewish thought on the development of American art, beginning with Abstract Expressionism and arriving at the Conceptual Art of the 1960’s. He suggests that the affinity between Jewish artists, critics, and collectors, and the new abstract art, was at some level conditioned by the second commandment of the Decalogue, which forbids the making of idolatrous images. He also discusses Jewish mysticism or “cabala,” its themes, imagery, and symbols, which manifest themselves in American art. Introduction by Enrico Pedrini.
Rothbart rintraccia le influenze del giudaismo e della metafisica ebraica sullo sviluppo dell’arte americana, a partire dall’espressionismo astratto per finire con l’arte concettuale degli anni ’60. Egli suggerisce che le affinità riscontrate fra gli artisti ebrei, i critici ed i collezionisti e le nuova arte astratta, siano state in qualche modo condizionate dal secondo commandamento del decalogo, che proibisce la creazione di immagini idolatre. Egli tratta anche del misticismo ebreo, o ‘Cabala’, dei suoi temi, immagini e simboli, che hanno in parte condizionato l’arte americana. Prefazione di Enrico Pedrini.
REVIEWS
-
1995
Ash, John, Daniel Rothbart, Lee Arthur Studio, Artforum International, 33 – 7 (1995), 92-93
-
1994
Coen, Emanuele, La metafisica ebraica come uno dei fondamenti dell’arte Usa. Un libro di Rothbart (Jewish Metaphysics As Generative Principle of Art in the U.S.A. A Book by Rothbart), Il Manifesto, Roma 30 Dicembre 1994.
-
1994
Coen, Eva, La metafisica ebraica come uno dei fondamenti dell’ arte americana (Jewish Metaphysics As Generative Principle in American Art), Arte e Critica, Anno II – N. 4, Roma Inverno 1994.
-
1994
Gleason, Mat, Coagula’s Bookworm File, Coagula, Los Angeles, November 1994.
-
1994
Napack, Jonathan, New Museum Sick Talk, Gallery Hopscotch, New York Observer, September 19, 1994.
COLLECTIONS
Allen Ginsberg Papers Collection, Stanford University
BOOK LAUNCH
