Mapping Jewish Avant-garde in East Central Europe. Network between locality and transnationality.

• Applicant: Malgorzata Stolarska-Fronia, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: General and Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies ; Art History ; Religious Studies and Jewish Studies
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 505204432

The aim of this project is to examine the Jewish avant-garde in the visual arts as a wide cultural movement entangled within the international web of the avant-garde. The Jewish avant-garde was a cultural phenomenon of transnational character and engaged artists who were active in artistic milieus in Russia/SU, Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Germany, Austria and Romania between 1912 and 1939. It consisted of formal groups (i.e. Die Pathetiker, Yung Yidish, Di Khalyastre, Kultur-lige) and individual artists, which were aligned in the search for the expression of the new, Jewish identity through art. This phenomenon had a hybrid character, because, in addition to the features characteristic of the whole avant-garde movement, it also contained references to the Jewish tradition and philosophy such as chassidic spirituality, messianic and apocalyptic notions. The Jewish avant-garde encompasses artists, writers, poets, theater and film makers. Their shared goal was to create a new Jewish art that would be independent yet equal to other art movements, while at the same time appealing to the contemporary Jewish audience. The project will span over three years of research and writing aiming at a monograph (in English) on the international network of the Jewish avant-garde in the interwar period. The main research goal is to reconstruct the development of discourses on the art of Jewish artists created within the formal and informal artistic milieu in Central and Eastern Europe. The subject of the analysis are source texts published in the Jewish press (in Yiddish, Russian, Ukrainian, Polish and German), manifests, memoirs, and philosophical writings. Subsequently, the basic characteristics of this discourse will be distinguished. Together with the actual works of art, these features will serve as material for the analysis of ideas characterizing the Jewish avant-garde, as well as a basis for the comparative analysis which will reconstruct the dynamics of its network. The analysis will cover the unique formal and ideological features of the approach of Jewish artists to their own work, as well as the manner in which this work was perceived by art critics. Although this research project strives at a transmedia and interdisciplinary approach, it will mainly focus on visual art and artists. Due to the hybrid and dynamic nature of the Jewish avant-garde milieus, the research will require tools and methodology that goes beyond the traditional methods used in the history of art. Thus, an interdisciplinary approach, close to the perspective used in the sociology of art and cultural history will be implemented. Such a perspective will be imposed not only by the diverse nature of the sources which, apart from the works of art and artistic reviews, must include Yiddish literature, theater, film and music as well as philosophical writings, but above all, by the transnational and extraterritorial character of this group of artists.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants