Batsheva Goldman-Ida

Introducing the articles as Guest Editor of Volume 13 on "Kabbalah and Art" for the journal Images, published by Brill (December 23 2020). I had the privilege to oversee an outstanding collection of eight articles by important scholars of Kabbalah and art historians.Please look for them on this site. 1. Zvi Mark, "Picture and Story Visual Imagery Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav" ; 2. Mirjam Knotter," From Angel to the Shekhina in Work of RB Kitaj"; 3. Batsheva Goldman-Ida, "Jonathan Leaman - In Conversation"; 4. Batsheva Goldman-Ida "Introductory Remarks on Georg Langer 'Mezuza,' 1928"; 5. Eliezer Baumgarten, "Faces of God: Ilan of Rabbi Sasson ben Shandukh"; 6. J. H. Chajes, "Diagramming Sabbateanism"; 7. Judy Jaffe-Schagen, "Displaying Mysticism Exhibition Design," 8. Elliot R. Wolfson, "Metaphor, Dream,, and the Parabolic Bridging of Difference - A Kabbalistic Aesthetic" (published in Vol. 14, pp. 1-14).

Introduction to new English translation of an article by Jiří (Georg) Mordechai Langer  (Prague, 1894 - Tel Aviv, 1943): ''On the Function of the Jewish Doorpost Scroll (Mezuzah),'' first published in Freud's Imago Journal in 1928. Langer suggests an explanatory model for the ritual object in the context of compulsion neuroses and totem theory.

Errata: Note 3 should read: Elliot R. Wolfson, Language, Eros, Being: Kabbalistic Hermeneutics and Poetic Imagination (New York: Fordham University Press, 2005); Note 14 should read: Mordechai G. Langer, Die Erotik der Kabbala (Prague: Verlag Dr. Josef Flesch, 1923).

This is the first of two articles for the Brill journal Images, no.13, an issue on "Kabbalah and Art," of which I am Guest Editor.  Jonathan Leaman (b. 1954, London) is a British painter who is represented in the Tate Collection. This article, the result of 15 years of his correspondence with art historian and museum curator Batsheva Goldman-Ida, focuses on a group of works by the artist from the last two decades. Leaman’s familiarity with major Kabbalah scholarship, combined with his wide knowledge of poetry and philosophy, enable him to engage in concepts related to Kabbalah and art in a discursive manner that is unparalleled in modern scholarship. This article showcases Leaman’s remarks with source material for the benefit of the reader. Leaman is one of the most important contemporary artists in the area of mystical art. His introduction to the public is long overdue. His paintings are an authentic, creative expression of the considered material filtered through the artist’s own self-awareness. Leaman’s keen interest in haecceity, hypostatization, and reification is juxtaposed with Goldman-Ida’s interest in object history and linguistic mysticism, and with key Hasidic and kabbalistic concepts such as worship through corporeality, divine contraction, and rectification.

This essay discusses the early Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts in Jerusalem (1906-1929), highlighting the connection to Vilnius of its founder Professor Boris Schatz and of one of its teachers, Abel Pann. While Prof. Schatz represents a more academic painting style, Abel Pann is a representative of a modernist style.

© Lietuvos mokslų akademija,

Discussion of the history and meaning of Reb Nachman of Breslov's chair - Dem Rebns Benkl - received in  Breslov in 1808 and preserved until today in the Great Breslov Yeshiva in Me'a She'arim Jerusalem through an analysis of the Rebbe's dream, sermon Tik'u Memshala, given the same year (1808) and The Tale of the King’s Son and the Servant Woman’s Son Who Were Exchanged (1809).

This essay discusses the significance of Judaica created from shmire (a blessed coin; from the Hebrew root sh-m-r meaning safeguarding; plural: shmiros) and the range of objects made by forging a collection of such coins into a ritual object. William Gross has a special collection of these objects, perhaps the largest in the world. We are thus fortunately able to reference the collection to underline various aspects of this truly singular phenomenon. All illustrations are from the Gross Family Collection. The custom is unique to Hasidism. In fact, it can be used as a useful parameter for identifying Hasidic objects in a collection.

Windows on Jewish Worlds • Essays in Honor or William Gross, Collector of JudaicaEdited by Shalom Sabar, Emile Schrijver, and Falk Wiesemann

Original essay on synagogue architecture with insights into social and intellectual history, visual symbolism, folklore and local customs; includes section on alternative prayer spaces in Hasidism. A Leiden-Boston: Brill publication, edited by Steven Fine.

Supplementary material regarding Gershom Scholem (1897-1982) and his ideas on Jewish art and Judaism in his early years as they relate to Cubism. Background material to the article  "Scholem’s Views on Art and His Approach to Art History" by Batsheva Goldman-Ida In: Scholar and Kabbalist: The Life and Work of Gershom Scholem, edited by Mirjam Zadoff and Noam Zadoff (Leiden-Boston: Brill, 2018), pp. 171-206.

Not published.

Focusing on Gershom Scholem's time in Berlin and his interchange with Walter Benjamin regarding the painting by Paul Klee known as Angelus Novus (1920), I discuss Scholem's ideas and exposure to art. I also examine the application of Scholem's methodology to art history research. In: Scholar and Kabbalist: The Life and Work of Gershom Scholem, edited by Mirjam Zadoff, Noam Zadoff (Leiden - Boston: Brill, 2019), 171-205.
In an Addendum, I provide readers with an expanded discussion of Scholem and Cubism.

In the section of the journal " Museum Musings, " the curator discusses the process of developing the exhibition concept and its realization for "Alchemy of Words: Abraham Abulafia, Dada Lettrism" (Tel Aviv Museum of Art, 16 June–19 November 2016), discussing  what lay behind the unique constellation of the show: the connections that were made, the discoveries, and other considerations .

Lecture on  Eugène Blot (1857-1938), whose daughter Claire Eugènie (1883-1966) married Moyse Themanlys of the Idéal et Realité Group in Paris.
Blot was an avant-garde art dealer and ran a foundry for bronzes, where he featured Camille Claudel. He was founder and treasurer of the Société desAmis du Musée du Luxembourg, now the Musée nationale d’art moderne, Centre Pompidou, and President of the Salon d'Automne (1903). Among the artists whose works he acquired - Armand Guillaumin, Monet, Manet, Van Gogh, Bonnard, Toulouse-Lautrec, Cezanne, Degas, and more.

This case study combines the disciplines of art history, community history, and ethnographic fieldwork to identify a group of museum objects within their cultural context. It shows how ethnography can be used to supplement the tool box available to the art historian in a positive way. Thus, private collections are used to identify the group of Hanukkah lamps of sheet metal in museums. Images of the lamps in folk and fine art, and mention of them in newspaper advertisements and community satirical publications—all contemporary to the period of their use—were consulted. Over 80 interviewees from southern Germany, Alsace, and the Netherlands were interviewed; the majority former teachers from a Jewish school in Wurzburg, others residing in Jerusalem and on the Moshav Shavei Tzion. As a result, the Hanukkah lamps were identified by country, ethnic group, religious affiliation, and object name in the local idiom. Tracing the development and geographic spread of the form also enabled us to identify the same lamp used in different social contexts, among itinerate members of society and the bourgeoisie.

Batsheva Goldman-Ida, “’Chanukka-Eisen’ und der Aufbruch zur Urbanization, Das Landjudentum im Zeitalter der Industrialisierung,” Aschkenas, Zeitschrift fü5 Geschichte und Kultur der Juden, Themenheft Medinat Worms, edited by Annette Weber, 12, 1/2 (2002): 127-139.

In-depth on the history of silversmithery in Baghdad in the 19th and early 20th centuries, including a discussion on the jewelry and household objects in silver and niello; discussion of silversmith workshops and makers. Information on the Subba (Mandaean) silversmiths of Iraq. With Dr. Olga Goldberg-Mulkiewitz, Professor Emeritas, Folklore, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The research was undertaken while (Founding) Curator of the Babylonian Heritage Center Museum, Or Yehudah (1983-1988).

Arabic-Hebrew Lexicon of Object Names in the Judeo-Arabic dialect of the Jews from Djerba, Tunis, with transliteration in Arabic and Latin characters.
Funded by the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, New York, to enable researchers to find objects in the field.

The Museum's rare collection of photographs and drawings by Alois Breyer (1885–1948) of East-European wooden synagogues destroyed in WWII, in a dialogue with two leading modern artists showing how geometric abstraction transforms the language, narrative and beauty of the synagogues into a modern and contemporary idiom

This is the first exhibition in Israel of works by Friedrich Adler (Laupheim, 1878 – Auschwitz, 1942), a member of the Deutscher Werkbund (German Craft Alliance) – an association of designers, architects and manufacturers who paved the way, in the first half of the twentieth century, from Historicism to Jugendstil, to Art Deco and budding Modernism in Germany. The group set out to instill "style and spirit" in the industrial world of capitalism and in the urban landscape (often depicted critically by George Grosz, see lithograph), believing in art's ability to effect a change in society and in the religious hegemony.

Adler, considered one of the earliest modern industrial designers, was a contemporary of Walter Gropius (1883-1969), who founded the Bauhaus School in Weimar.

Critical review on the exhibition Friedrich Adler: Ways and Byways curated by Batsheva Goldman-Ida (Tel Aviv Museum of Art, 26 Oct 2012 - 2 March 2013),in comparison to two other exhibitions the same year: Forging Ahead: Wolpert and Gumbel, Israeli Silversmiths for the Modern Age (Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 23 November 2012–6 April 2013), curated by Sharon Weiser-Ferguson; and Common Roots. Design Map of Central Europe (Design Museum Holon, 15 November –23 February 2013), curated by Agnieszka Jacobson and Galit Gaon.

In 1907, an Exhibition of Jewish Artists opened in Berlin. Reflecting the Berlin Jewish community which sponsored it, it was replete with contradictions and paradoxes: Jewish, but not religious; nationalist, but not Zionist; assimilated and German, but also with works by East European Jews. The original show featured over 200 works of painting and sculpture, and Judaica objects.

Catalogue essay in English and Hebrew on Eretz-Israeli and Israeli Artists impacted by Chaïm Soutine from the 1930s to contemporary and emerging artists and the artist himself, culled from original artist statements and based on new research. Exhibition at the Mishkan Museum of Art Ein Harod, Israel (9 November 2019 - 18 April 2020), with about 20 paintings by Soutine and some 100 artworks by about 45 Israeli artists. Co-curated with Yaniv Shapira, Director and Chief Curator, Mishkan Museum of Art Ein Harod, and Souria Sedakova, Curator, Pushkin Museum, Moscow.

Catalogue of Tel Aviv Museum of Art exhibition (26 Oct 2012 - 2 March 2013), presenting selection of works by Jugendstil / Art Deco / Deutsche-Werkbund designer and artist Friedrich Adler (1878-1942) in context of Zionist movement and avant-garde art.

Catalogue to Tel Aviv Museum of Art exhibition (10 July - 18 October 2014), tracing impact of synagogue architecture on modern artists El Lissitzky and Frank Stella, based on museum photography collection of synagogue photos and original architectural drawing done by Alois Breyer of Vienna between 1910-1913.

Hasidic Art and the Kabbalah presents eight case studies of manuscripts, ritual objects, and folk art developed by Hasidic masters in the mid-eighteenth to late nineteenth centuries, whose form and decoration relate to sources in the Zohar, German Pietism, and Safed Kabbalah. Examined at the delicate and difficult to define interface between seemingly simple, folk art and complex ideological and conceptual outlooks which contain deep, abstract symbols, the study touches on aspects of object history, intellectual history, the decorative arts, and the history of religion. Based on original texts, the focus of this volume is on the subjective experience of the user at the moment of ritual, applying tenets of process philosophy and literary theory – Wolfgang Iser, Gaston Bachelard, and Walter Benjamin – to the analysis of objects. All those interested in Hasidism, Jewish mysticism, decorative arts, and Judaica, will welcome this book that brings together original texts and rare Hasidic objects with new methodological tools of process philosophy.

Dr. Batsheva Goldman-Ida
Tel Aviv Museum of Art, 2016
Paperback, 217 p., 116 ill., (94 colour), Hebrew/English
ISBN: 978-965-539-136-7

Featuring excerpts from Gideon Bohak, Bernard Blistene, John Cage, Umberto Eco, Abraham Leader, Maurice Lemaitre, Francois Letaillieur, Roland Sabatier, Przemyslaw Strozek, and more.

Survey of modern and contemporary Israeli art in relation to Chaim Soutine, focusing on the figurative and expressionist use a sense of immediacy;  an impasto brushstroke;  revealing the soul; thin, contorted brushstrokes. Touching on themes of sacrifice, gender and identity; war and daily life; ritual and religion. With Notes in Hebrew.

For more information, see my article in English see: "Light from Within" from the catalogue of the exhibition Naked Soul: Chaim Soutine and Israeli Art (November 9, 2019 - March 21, 2020; scheduled to close April 18th, early closure due to COVID-19).

Other lecturers: Sylvie Patry - Director for Curatorial Affairs and Collections, Musée d'Orsay, Paris; Sophie Krebs - Chief Curator, Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris; Dr. Jolanta Širkaitė - Lithuanian Culture Research Institute; Yigal Zalmona, former Chief Curator-at-Large, Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Yaniv Shapira - Director and Chief Curator, Mishkan Museum of Art, Ein Harod - Artists panel moderated by Yaniv Shapira with  Idit Levavi-Gabbai, Jonathan Hirschfeld, Assaf Rahat, and Tama Goren.

Lecture Notes for Presentation "To and Fro" - Contemporary French Artists and Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav (Watershed Conference and Exhibition, Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, 30.10.2017).
New references to Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav and visual imagery, focus on his familiarity and interest in aesthetics, art, and artisanship; group of six contemporary French artists and their connection to Rabbi Nahman. (Heb)

Lecture Notes for Presentation "To and Fro" - Contemporary French Artists and Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav (Watershed Conference and Exhibition, Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, 30.10.2017).
New references to Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav and visual imagery, focus on his familiarity and interest in aesthetics, art, and artisanship; group of six contemporary French artists and their connection to Rabbi Nahman.

This conference presentation - "To and Fro": Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav and Contemporary French Artists - accompanies an exhibition of the same name at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, and presents Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav's unique visual imagery and how it impacts on contemporary artists, using original source material.

Lecture Presentation for the workshop "The Cosmic Movement: Sources, Context, Impact" (Beersheva, 20-22 March 2017). Parisian Art Dealer Eugène Blot (1857-1938), a Sunday painter and owner of a bronze foundry, founded the Societé des Amis du Musée du Luxembourg (precursor of the Musée Pompidou) in 1895 and was President of the Salon d'Automne (1903). An an associate of Ambroise Vollard, Bernheim-Jeune, Paul Rosenberg, and other art dealers, he produced bronzes by Camille Claudel (1905) and promoted the Post-Impressionists. His daughter Claire Blot married Louis Moïse Thémanlys, who was associated with the Cosmic Movement and the Idéal et Réalité group.

Expressionism and the New York School

Section in Tel Aviv Museum of Art exhibition "Collective, Reflections on the Museum Collections" (19 June - 14 October 2017)

"When I first started doing the stain paintings, I left large areas of canvas unpainted, I think because the canvas itself acted as forcefully and as positively as paint or line or color. In other words, the very ground was part of the medium, so that instead of thinking of it as background or negative space or an empty spot, that area did not need paint because it had paint next to it. The thing was to decide where to leave it and where to fill it in and where to say this doesn't need another line or another pail of colors. It's saying it in space." "The only rule is that there are no rules. Anything is possible… It's all about taking risks, deliberate risks." – Helen Frankenthaler This group of works offers a rare glimpse into Abstract Expressionism in the early 1940s through the late 1950s. The works chosen reflect the interaction of the artists of the New York School, and their impact on each other. Hans Hofmann taught Frankenthaler. Gorky was a close friend of de Kooning, and also a teacher of Rothko. In these work, figurative elements are still discernible within the abstract stratum. For this reason, these works remind us of the Lyrical Abstraction of Israeli artists Yossef Zaritsky, Yehezkel Streichman and Avigdor Stematsky, and later, of Lea Nikel and Moshe Kupferman. In Cinerama, 1957, Frankenthaler uses the narrow, horizontal format of the Cineramic method with individual strips marked by seams. Leading outward on either side, the gentle imagery of the triptych-like work seems to extend the imagined space. On a visit to her studio, Morris Louis and Kenneth Noland were impressed by Frankenthaler's Mountains and Sea, 1952, and her "soak and stain" technique of thinning oil paint with turpentine (later done by adding water to acrylics). For Louis, Frankenthaler provided "a bridge between Pollock and what was possible." Hofmann taught the "push and pull" of contrasting colors in lieu of line perspective. These factors led to Color Field painting freed of representation.

A new review on the book "Hasidic Art and the Kabbalah" (Leiden-Boston: Brill, 2017 [published in 2018)). Relating to the recent "Hasidism: A New History" (Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2018), edited by David Biale and others, Balakirsky Katz discusses gender and the unique insight of a woman scholar. The  leitmotif of partitions as an underlying structure is shown to be a useful tool for understanding the book.

Further to my lecture at the 2017 research workshop The Cosmic Movement: Sources, Contexts, Impact (Beer Sheva:  Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, 20-22 March 2017), additional information on the art dealer and enthusiast Eugène Blot (1857-1938), whose daughter Claire Eugènie (1883-1966) married Moyse Themanlys of the Idéal et Realité Group in Paris. Blot was an avant-garde art dealer and ran a foundry for bronzes, where he featured Camille Claudel. He was founder and treasurer of the Société desAmis du Musée du Luxembourg, now the Musée nationale d’art moderne, Centre Pompidou, and President of the Salon d'Automne (1903). Among the artists whose works he acquired - Armand Guillaumin, Monet, Manet, Van Gogh, Bonnard, Toulouse-Lautrec, Cézanne, Degas, and more.

SEE ALSO LECTURE PRESENTATION AND WORKSHOP PROGRAM ON THIS SITE