Alum News: Maya Balakirsky Katz's New Book Looks at Role of Jewish Artists in Golden Age of Soviet animation
In her most recent book, Drawing the Iron Curtain: Jews and the Golden Age of Soviet Animation, Maya Balakirsky Katz (Ph.D. History of Art, 2003) unveils a rich world of artistic creativity that was able to thrive during the height of Soviet rule in Russia.
From the press release:
"Art historian Maya Balakirsky Katz reveals how the state-run animation studio Soyuzmultfilm brought together Jewish creative personnel from every corner of the Soviet Union and served as an unlikely haven for dissidents who were banned from working in other industries. Surveying a wide range of Soviet animation produced between 1919 and 1989, from cutting-edge art films like Tale of Tales to cartoons featuring “Soviet Mickey Mouse” Cheburashka, she finds that these works played a key role in articulating a cosmopolitan sensibility and a multicultural vision for the Soviet Union. Furthermore, she considers how Jewish filmmakers used animation to depict distinctive elements of their heritage and ethnic identity, whether producing films about the Holocaust or using fellow Jews as models for character drawings."
Maya Balakirsky Katz is a professor and chair of the art history department at Touro College in New York City. She received her Ph.D. from Bryn Mawr College in 2003. Her dissertation, "Visual Representation of Emile Zola, 1866-1902: A Case Study in Public Image and Media Spin in Late Nineteenth-Century France," was directed by Professor Steven Z. Levine.