Questioning Judaism and Art

By Sarah Quatrano
Washington University, St. Louis

Although I am an art student at Washington University in St. Louis, I am required to take courses in various departments. Last semester I thought I would challenge myself by taking a philosophy course in contemporary Jewish thought. It was a little intimidating at first, as I was probably the only one in the course that didn’t attend a Jewish day school for my entire life, and often couldn’t follow the discussions. As the final paper drew near, I totally panicked and made an appointment with my professor to get some guidance. To my surprise, he was incredibly interested in my point of view and how different it was compared to the rest of my peers. He encouraged me to think about art and my interests in conjunction with religion and the subject matter of the class.

Needless to say, he was extremely inspiring and I began to question how art impacted my life, and proceeded to compare it to Judaism. Two of my favorite modern artists are Shepard Fairey and Banksy, who can both be classified as graffiti artists. Shepard released an entire sticker campaign called OBEY in which he created many images and designs on stickers and began placing them in specific public areas. In a similar fashion, Banksy also reacts with public environments in order to send a message, usually of anti-establishment or anti-war. He stencils very striking images of policemen, rats, children, soldiers, and many other topics in order to make his statement known to everyone who passes by.

Both of these artists modify and impinge on public spaces in order to cause people to stop and question why those images are there. In turn, people begin to stop, evaluate and question other aspects of society. I began to think about Judaism and our traditions in combination with this idea of questioning society. Then it hit me: these philosophers we had been reading about, like Mordecai Kaplan and Baruch Spinoza have been doing the same type of questioning of their society, which was comprised mainly of Judaism. They struggled with the same questions I was beginning to have. Why do we need tradition? What if I don’t believe in the tradition? What is too little tradition for a way of life to not be considered Jewish anymore? Is upholding tradition more important than adaptation, or vice versa?

After extensive reading and research into the matter, I came to the conclusion that in the end, it is not a question of whether tradition or survival is more important; it is the fact that tradition is the means of surviving as a people. It just has to be applied to our current lifestyle and surroundings in the appropriate way. The common traditions that the Jews of America share are what cause us to question and discuss with one another, which in turn strengthens these traditions because we keep questioning their validity and relevance. Street artists like Shepard Fairey and Banksy are, in a way, asking these same questions and challenging tradition of our society as a whole. People often look down on graffiti as a form of art, but in reality it is extreme and progressive art like this that keeps our culture in check, allowing our minds to be constantly questioning and discussing issues of our society in an open format.

Sarah Quatrano is a senior majoring in communication design at Washington University in St. Louis. She hopes to become a designer/freelance illustrator when she graduates in 2010.

[Posted 10/17/09]