Jewish Collectors Shun Pro-Palestinian Artists as Art Basel Miami Begins

By Lieba Nesis

Miami Art Basel held from Friday December 8-Sunday December 10th is preparing for its biggest year yet with over 100,000 attendees, at least 10 fairs and 277 galleries showing. However, 2023 is different from all others as Artnet News reported artist’s personal beliefs on Israel are impacting the contemporary art market with an edgy ambivalence never before seen. According to collector and advisor Ralph DeLuca for the first time ever the question everyone is bracing for is where the artist stands on the Palestinian-Israel issue. Ukrainian American writer Katya Kazakina was one of the first to rebuke museums who didn’t denounce Hamas-spearheading an awareness that has Jewish collectors replacing concerns about prices, museums and exhibitions of artists with whether their Instagram calls for a “ceasefire” or decries “genocide in Gaza.” According to Katya’s Artnet News article art advisor Candace Worth echoed that “Jewish collectors don’t want to look at art on their wall by artists voicing anti-Israel and anti-Semitic viewpoints” with some choosing to forgo Miami Art Basel in its entirety.

The art world has banded together during the Trump era, Ukraine war, and BLM despite trifling disparities in viewpoint. This is different-patrons are no longer at one with their artists if perspectives diverge. The old adage that anti-Israel does not equate to anti-semitism is no longer holding water as Jewish collectors are bidding adieu to those on the other side. “There is no contemporary art market without the Jewish support” according to advisor DeLuca who noted for “the first time in 15 years of collecting I’ve never seen the art world so divided.” Highlighting this rupture was the incendiary Artforum letter published October 19th less than two weeks after the Hamas massacre from the art community to cultural organizations signed by renowned artists Peter Doig, Nan Goldin, Barbara Kruger, Joan Jonas, and Kara Walker which read, ‘’we demand that the institutional silence around the ongoing humanitarian crisis that 2.3 million Palestinians are facing in the occupied and besieged Gaza Strip be broken immediately.” Calling out Israel for its “escalating genocide” and “violence, oppression and occupation,” without mentioning the more than 1,200 innocent Israelis slaughtered and the rape, burning and dismemberment of women and children. The outcry was immediate as the normally stoic art community forced magazine owner Jay Penske to fire editor-in-chief of Artforum David Velasco a week later who signed the damning document along with 8,000 artists, academics and cultural workers. Following Velasco’s firing four Artforum editors resigned while other employees signed a letter demanding he be reinstated. Bed Bath and Beyond heir Martin Eisenberg contacted four artists whose works he owns to object to their signatures on the anti-Israel letter.

Many of the largest collectors are Israel supporters including Jose Mugrabi a Syrian Israeli businessman who in 2022 received an honorary doctorate from Hebrew University for funding the Albert Einstein museum which publicizes Einstein’s writings and documents. The Mugrabis, the most influential art family in the world, are known to take positions that sway the market and you can bet they will be making their Pro-Israel proclivities loud and clear at Art Basel. As will Jewish art collectors Leon Black, Bill Ackman, Bruce Kovner, Ronald and Leonard Lauder, Jerry Speyer, Aby Rosen, the Rothschild family, and Steve Cohen. Miami Art Basel staple Jeffrey Deitch one of the largest and most influential contemporary art dealers and a close friend of the Mugrabis is undeniably on the right side of things as he will reject any pro-Palestinian artworks.

The art world has been proactive in its response as London’s Lisson Gallery postponed an exhibition by Ai Weiwei following a tweet where he criticized US aid to Israel; Saarland Museum in Germany canceled a solo exhibition by artist Candice Breitz after she called for a ceasefire despite her condemnation of Hamas. Paradoxically, Germany has called off a number of exhibitions for pro-Palestine statements including Palestinian artist Emily Jacir whose planned Berlin talk was canceled; German photography biennial organized by artist Shahidul Alam was canceled because he accused Israel of genocide: and a collection curated by Anais Duplan who called for Palestinian liberation was similarly omitted. The history of the Holocaust looms large for Germany and there is zero tolerance for Israel hating. As Art Basel Miami gets under way there will be more queries made then ever before as artists and their politics are no longer viewed in a mutually exclusive vacuum.