Biro-Bidjan. Exhibition of Works of Art Presented by American Artists to the State Museum of Biro-Bidjan.

(SOVIET UNION).

New York

1936

Illustrated.

Catalogue of the exhibition organized under the auspices of ICOR - the North American Association for Jewish Colonization in the Soviet Union, in which a group of American artists donated works of art to be placed in the State Museum of Birobidzhan, U.S.S.R. It totaled 203 works by 119 artists and was exhibited at the John Reed Club, New York City before being transported to the Soviet Union with the ultimate destination being the Jewish Autonomous Oblast situated in the Russian Far East. (In fact it was never delivered after arriving in Moscow). “I doubt whether freedom-loving Americans could find a more beautiful and more humane way of expressing their gratitude to the Soviet system by what it has done by way of liberating the oppressed nationalities in general, the Jews in particular, than this collection of paintings [and] sculptures…presented by American artists to Birobidjan.” (Introduction). See A. Weinstein, The John Reed Club Gift to Birobidzhan, in: M. Heyd (ed.) Complex Identities: Jewish Consciousness and Modern Art (2001) pp. 142-61.