MODERNISMS IN ACTION: COMPARING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN VISUAL ARTS, SOCIAL CLASSES AND POLITICS IN ISRAELI NATION-BUILDING

Abstract

Autonomy, unity, identity: these three themes and ideals have been pursued by nationalist thinkers everywhere since Rousseau and Herder (Hutchinson & Smith, 1994). Zionism, founded in Europe at the end of the nineteenth century,¹ is a particular case of a national movement, putting into practice the idea of a political community located within the boundaries of a single nation-state. Yet, at the same time, the Jewish nation-building process, which began in Palestine in 1881 and achieved its aim of independence in the spring of 1948, with the establishment of the State of Israel under the political leadership of the Labor movement, was unusual in its complexity and marked, from its inception, by dramatic struggles over the distribution of power.

Citation

Trajtenberg, G. (2003), "MODERNISMS IN ACTION: COMPARING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN VISUAL ARTS, SOCIAL CLASSES AND POLITICS IN ISRAELI NATION-BUILDING", Engelstad, F. (Ed.) Comparative Studies of Culture and Power (Comparative Social Research, Vol. 21), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 87-109. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0195-6310(03)21004-8