Raphael Soyer and the Jewish American Immigrant Experience

Samantha Baskind, Ph.D. discusses artist Raphael Soyer (1899-1987), a close friend of Chaim Gross. Soyer, whose Russian-Jewish family settled in Manhattan in 1912, was devoted to painting people in their everyday urban lives. He came to be known especially for his representations of city workers and the down-and-out, and for his portraits of himself and his friends. Soyer was greatly influenced by his religio-cultural identity and by the Jewish American immigrant experience. This talk examines the painter’s art and life in the rich context of religious, cultural, political, and social conditions in twentieth-century America.