Karl Schmidt-Rotluff, Pharisees (1912)

I have loved this little homosocial cabal of guys since the second I laid eyes on them. They are canny and coy. You see them every year at the annual conference of the Association of Jewish Studies over beer in a corner. But I’m not about to name names. Anti-Semitic? I don’t think so. German Expressionism was one of those art forms considered degenerate by the-you-know-whats. I like the unnatural color brought to law and its discourse; and the two figures at right in close communication, how their eyes meet, and then the guy on the right, how his eyes glance away from the group to look at the shaft of yellow that arcs over and through the group before shooting up directly to his left. The yellow line belongs to a different order of meaning infusing this little group of men and their law.

About zjb

Zachary Braiterman is Professor of Religion in the Department of Religion at Syracuse University. His specialization is modern Jewish thought and philosophical aesthetics. http://religion.syr.edu
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1 Response to Karl Schmidt-Rotluff, Pharisees (1912)

  1. Shaul Magid says:

    Hey, I resemble that remark!

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