Vida Americana: Mexican Muralists Remake American Art, 1925–1945, an exhibition that opened at the Whitney Museum of American Art in February, 2020, proposed to remake art history by demonstrating the profound impact Mexican painters had on their counterparts in the United States, inspiring American artists “to use their art to protest economic, social, and racial injustices.” An unexamined part of this chapter of art history concerns the role of radical Jews, who constitute almost one half of the American artists whose work appears in the exhibition. Rooted in a distinct experience, as either immigrants or their American-born children, these Jewish artists had been making politically charged artworks well before the Mexican muralists’ arrival in the United States. Considering the role of left-wing Jews in this period of art-making would complicate the curatorial thesis of Vida Americana. Moreover, the exhibition’s lack of attention to Jews in creating and promoting this body of work raises questions about how the present cultural politics of race may have informed the analysis of this chapter of art history.

Vida Americana：墨西哥壁画家重塑美国艺术，1925-1945年于2020年2月在惠特尼美国艺术博物馆开幕，该展览旨在通过展示墨西哥画家对美国画家的深远影响，重塑艺术史，鼓舞美国艺术家“用他们的艺术品来抗议经济，社会和种族不公。” 艺术史这一章未经审查的部分与激进的犹太人的角色有关，激进的犹太人几乎构成了参加展览的美国艺术家的一半。这些犹太艺术家植根于作为移民或他们在美国出生的孩子的独特经历中，因此早在墨西哥壁画家到达美国之前就一直在制作具有政治色彩的艺术品。考虑到左翼犹太人在这一艺术创作阶段的作用，会使策展主题复杂化。Vida Americana。此外，该展览在创作和推广这一作品时缺乏对犹太人的关注，这引发了一个疑问，即当前的种族文化政治如何为艺术史这一章的分析提供信息。