SF ART GALLERY BANS "ZIONISM"

Painter Presses His Cause on Canvas (NYSun)
PALO ALTO, Calif. — An Israeli-American artist contends that a San Francisco gallery that displayed his paintings dropped plans to publish a catalog of his work after he proposed that the cover title of the collection refer to Zionism.

The artist, Alan Kaufman, said several of his Jewish-themed paintings were rotated on-and-off the walls at the Himmelberger Gallery near Union Square beginning in July. Some of Mr. Kaufman's works bear the names of figures from the Hebrew Bible, while others listed in a contract with the gallery have titles such as "Anti-Semitism," "Battle for Israel," and "Flight of Israel's Foes." One canvas is named after an Israeli city near the Gaza Strip, Sderot, and depicts a figure crouched under a Jewish star as missiles fly overhead.

Mr. Kaufman said he and the gallery's owner, David Himmelberger, were working closely on a catalog of the art as well as plans to exhibit it at other sites, when Mr. Himmelberger expressed discomfort with using the word "Zionist" in the catalog's title and with essays that included references to Zionism.

An attorney for Mr. Himmelberger, Edward Sarti, described the gallery's choice not to go forward with the catalog as "a business decision."

Mr. Kaufman said the disagreement erupted on October 8 at a meeting with Mr. Himmelberger to discuss the layout and contents of the 24-page catalog. "He had a printout of the catalog with ‘Visionary Expressionism: A Zionist Art' in front of him. He pointed to the word, ‘Zionism,' and said, ‘I can't do that," Mr. Kaufman told The New York Sun. "I said, ‘What exactly is the problem? You know what my paintings are about.'"

"He said, ‘I don't stand for that. … We don't want to advocate any kind of platform here,'" Mr. Kaufman said. The artist said it was not the content of his art, but the labeling of it as Zionist that seemed to be the sticking point. "None of the paintings at the gallery have the actual word ‘Zionism' in it. I think it was the appearance of the actual word Zionism in the title and all the essays that shocked him. He gave me the impression that, ‘Oh my God, we have a Zionist in the house.'"