Temple Isaiah of Great Neck will be hosting a lecture titled “Jewish Masters of Modern Art – Rosenberg, Greenberg and the Postwar Triumph of American Art” on Sunday, Feb. 25 at 2:00 P.M.
The lecture, part of Temple Isaiah’s continuing series about Jewish artists and their role in the art world, will be presented by Dennis Raverty, award-winning teacher, author and art historian.
After World War II, the international art center moved from Paris to New York, and 20th Century Modernism reached its dramatic climax.
The robust, expressionistic work of these artists were the fulfilment of a romantic search for the sublime that stretched all the way back to the previous century. Many artists from this postwar generation were of Jewish descent, including Frankenthaler, Krasner, Newman, Rothko and Nevelson.
Less familiar to us today were the rival art critics Clement Greenberg and Harold Rosenberg, who shaped the discourse around postwar modernism and helped facilitate its ascension onto the world stage.
They also provided an interpretation of these works that the U.S. government clandestinely used as a weapon of cultural diplomacy though the Museum of Modern Art’s international exhibitions program during the Cold War.
For decades Raverty has delighted audiences with lively presentations at libraries, churches, synagogues, hostels and business lunches on a variety of topics in the history of art, from the Italian Renaissance to the Harlem Renaissance.
Raverty recently retired from his role as an Associate Professor at New Jersey City University where he taught 19th and 20th-century art history, the art of West Africa, the diaspora and African American art, as well as the Renaissance and Baroque periods in Europe.
Raverty lives in New York City, and is currently co-authoring a book on American illustration with Dennis Dittrich, former president of the Society of Illustrators.
Temple Isaiah is located at One Chelsea Place, off Cutter Mill Road in Great Neck.
Please contact the Temple at ISAIAHGN@YAHOO.COM or (516)487-5373 for further information on this fascinating presentation. Suggested donation is $15. Light refreshments will be served.