Shifra Goldman

American art historian

Shifra Goldman

Born	Shifra Meyerowitz (1926-07-18)July 18, 1926 New York City
Died	July 11, 2011(2011-07-11) (aged 84) Los Angeles, California
Nationality	American
Alma mater	University of California, Los Angeles; California State University, Los Angeles
Occupation	art historian
Spouse	John Garcia

Shifra Goldman (née Meyerowitz; July 18, 1926 – September 11, 2011) was an American art historian, feminist, and activist.^[1] She had a probing intellect and a sense of "brutal" honesty.^[2] She also had an "encyclopedic" knowledge of art history and a passion for Chicana/o art.^[3]

Life

Goldman grew up in New York City and moved to Los Angeles after World War II.^[2] Her parents, a trade unionist mother and a political activist father came from Poland and Russia and both exposed Goldman to art and politics at an early age.^[4]

Goldman went to the High School of Music and Art in New York. When her family moved to Los Angeles, Goldman enrolled at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).^[4] During her time there, she became involved in civil rights. She took part in the student boycott against barbers in Westwood who would not cut the hair of Black veterans.^[4] Goldman did not finish her degree at this time; instead she chose to dedicate herself to civil rights for Mexican-Americans.^[5] She lived in East Los Angeles, where she learned to speak Spanish and in 1952 married John Garcia.^[5]

Her marriage to Garcia lasted a short time and later she had another brief marriage.^[5] For some time, Goldman worked in a factory^[5] and then as a bookkeeper to support herself and her son, Eric Garcia.^[4] During this time, she continued to be a civil rights activist and was subpoenaed to appear at the panel of the House Un-American Activities Committee where she did not answer any of their questions.^[5]

In the 1960s she returned to UCLA to complete her B.A. in art.^[4] Goldman received a M.A. in art history from California State University, Los Angeles (1966)and returned to UCLA to get her PhD in art history in 1977.^[4] When Goldman chose her doctoral topic for her PhD, she had to wait several years for a faculty member to approve her choice of modern Mexican Art.^[4]

She taught at Santa Ana College, until 1992.^[5]

She helped save the "America Tropical" mural, by David Alfaro Siqueiros.^[6]

Goldman had an impressive collection of archival material relating to art and artists which she donated to the California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives at UC Santa Barbara.^[5]

She died in Los Angeles from Alzheimer's disease.^[5]

Works

Mexican muralism: its social-educative roles in Latin America and the United States, Institute of Latin American Studies, University of Texas, Austin, 1980
Contemporary Mexican Painting in a Time of Change 1981; University of New Mexico Press, 1995, ISBN 978-0-8263-1562-5
Dimensions of the Americas: Art and Social Change in Latin America and the United States. University of Chicago Press. 1994. ISBN 978-0-226-30124-2.
Shifra M. Goldman, Tomás Ybarra-Frausto (eds) Arte Chicano: a comprehensive annotated bibliography of Chicano art, 1965-1981, Chicano Studies Library Publications Unit, University of California, 1985, ISBN 978-0-918520-09-8

Quotes

"I was never in the mainstream, never in all my life. I was born on the margins, lived on the margins, and have always sympathized with the margins. They make a lot more sense to me than the mainstream."^[4]

References

^ "Shifra Goldman, key advocate for Latino art, dead at 85". The Los Angeles Times. September 13, 2011.
^ ^a ^b Guzman-Lopez, Adolfo (20 September 2011). "RIP: Shifra Goldman, 85, Longtime Champion of Chicano, Latin American Art". KCET. Retrieved 18 March 2015.
^ Vallen, Mark (13 September 2011). "¡Shifra Goldman - Presente!". Art for a Change. Retrieved 18 March 2015.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Gallegos, Kathy (20 September 2011). "Shifra Goldman: Obituary" (PDF). KCET. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 18 March 2015.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Woo, Elaine (19 September 2011). "Shifra Goldman dies at 85; champion of modern Mexican art". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on July 8, 2012. Retrieved 18 March 2015.
^ "SHIFRA GOLDMAN | 5 Painting the Walls | Departures". KCET. 7 November 2011. Retrieved 2011-12-20.

External links

Shifra Goldman Papers at the California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives, Special Collections, University of California, Santa Barbara
Shifra Goldman Interview (1983 video from the Califas: Chicano Art and Culture in California Collection)
http://www.artnexus.com/Notice_View.aspx?DocumentID=23591
http://www.malcs.org/2011/09/belated-obituary-shifra-goldman-1926-2011/
https://web.archive.org/web/20111024025552/http://blogs.laweekly.com/stylecouncil/2011/10/shifra_goldman_celebrated_as_t.php
http://www.scpr.org/news/2011/09/13/28800/well-known-latino-art-scholar-shifra-goldman-85-di/
http://www.kcet.org/updaily/socal_focus/commentary/movie-miento/rip-shifra-goldman-85-longtime-champion-of-chicano-latin-american-art.html