Rediscovering feminism in Israeli art

New aspects of Pamela Levy’s early work

תקציר

The paper studies the work of Pamela Levy (b. 1949), with an emphasis on the 1970s. I argue that, during this period, she drew upon the American feminist art tradition. Having no counterpart in Israel, where feminist consciousness and its cultural identity politics were to surface significantly only in the 1980s, Levy’s feminist art could not have been understood, contextualized and appreciated properly in its time. I further argue that Levy, who immigrated to Israel from the U.S. in 1976, presents a new attitude to “provinciality. ’’ She sees it not as a dull imitation of the “center, ” but rather as representative of a province that is aware of itself and of its sources and culture, and that produces art with its own language and resources, while keeping in touch with what is happening elsewhere. Pamela Levy knew about the feminist art movement in the U.S. and borrowed ideas and elements from that movement, but she also continued to incorporate Israeli elements into her oeuvre, such as local textiles and figures typical of the Middle East.