Gannit Ankori (Hebrew: גנית אנקורי) is an Israeli art historian. She is Professor of Fine Arts and chair in Israeli Art at the Department of Fine Arts atBrandeis University. She was previously chair of the Department of Art History atHebrew University inJerusalem.[1]
Ankori specializes in gender studies,Palestinian art, and the art of theJewish diaspora.[2]
Ankori is regarded as a "champion" of Palestinian art and has devoted two decades of her career to the study of Palestinian art which she views as a continuous artistic tradition before and after theNakba[2] of 1948.
Her sister is the actress Gilat Ankori.
According toAdila Laïdi-Hanieh, Ankori's 2005 bookPalestinian Art caused controversy within Palestinian art circles, including the League of Palestinian Artists, and international Arab media due to what they say was unreferenced material from research published byKamal Boullata, a Palestinian artist and art historian, since 1989.[3]
In the Fall 2007 issue ofArt Journal,Joseph Massad, Professor of Modern Arab Politics and Intellectual History atColumbia University, published "Permission to paint: Palestinian art and the colonial encounter," a review of Ankori's bookPalestinian Art,Kamal Boullata'sIstihdar al-Makan (استحضار المكان), andSamia Halaby'sLiberation Art of Palestine. In his review, Massad also accused Ankori of illegitimately appropriating the work ofKamal Boullata, a Palestinian artist and art historian, a charge which Ankori viewed as defamatory. Ankori threatened to sue fordefamation in English courts. Critics of the practice of suing for defamation in English courts, where "libel defendants nearly always lose" call it 'libel tourism'.[4]
TheCollege Art Association of America (CAA), which publishesArt Journal, agreed to issue an apology to Ankori, to pay her $75,000, and to send a letter to its institutional subscribers, stating that the Massad review "contained factual errors and certain unfounded assertions" in order to avoid the libel suit.[5][6][7] Massad acknowledged "minor errors", but not libel, and accused the CAA of cowardice.[6] CAA executive director Linda Downs toldThe Forward that, while "there were mistakes" in the review, the journal agreed to pay only because it could not afford to fight out the case.[4]
In 2021, Ankori was appointed the Henry and Lois Foster Director and Chief Curator of the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University.
She has published extensively in the fields of Mexican, Palestinian, and Israeli art, as well as feminist cultural studies. Her articles have been printed in Hebrew, Arabic, French, German, and English.
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