Gannit Ankori

{{short description|Israeli art historian|bot=PearBOT 5}} '''Gannit Ankori''' ([[Hebrew]]: גנית אנקורי) is an Israeli art historian. She is Professor of Fine Arts and chair in Israeli Art<ref>{{cite web |title=First Ever Chair in Israeli Art Named |url=https://www.brandeis.edu/magazine/2011/spring/arts-and-culture/chair.html |website=Brandeis Magazine |publisher=Brandeis University |access-date=2026-03-09 |language=en}}</ref> at the Department of Fine Arts at [[Brandeis University]]. In June 2020, she was appointed interim Director and Chief Curator of the [[Rose Art Museum]] at Brandeis University,<ref>{{cite web |title=Croquer steps down as head of Rose Art museum; Gannit Ankori named interim |url=https://www.brandeis.edu/now/2020/june/rose-croquer-ankori.html |website=BrandeisNOW |publisher=Brandeis University |access-date=2026-03-09 |language=en | date=June 4, 2020}}</ref> and in December 2020 she was confirmed in these positions.<ref>{{cite web |title=Gannit Ankori named director and chief curator of the Rose Art Museum |url=https://www.brandeis.edu/now/2020/december/rose-director-ankori.html |website=BrandeisNOW |publisher=Brandesi University |access-date=2026-03-09 |language=en |date=Dec 15, 2020}}</ref>

She was previously chair of the Department of Art History at [[Hebrew University]] in [[Jerusalem]].<ref name="Howard2008"/>

Ankori specializes in gender studies, [[Palestinian art]], and the art of the [[Jewish diaspora]].<ref name="GoldbergForward"/> 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 the [[Nakba]]<ref name="GoldbergForward"/> of 1948. She has also written books and curated an exhibition on the artwork of Mexican artist [[Frida Kahlo]].

Her sister is the actress Gilat Ankori.{{citation needed|date=February 2026}}

== ''Palestinian Art'' controversy == According to [[Adila Laïdi-Hanieh]], Ankori's 2005 book ''Palestinian Art'' caused controversy within Palestinian art circles, including the League of Palestinian Artists, and international Arab media due to what they say was unreferenced use of material from research published by [[Kamal Boullata]], a Palestinian artist and art historian, since 1989.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Laïïdi-Hanieh |first=Adila |date=2007-07-01 |title=In the Mirror of the Occupier: Palestinian Art through Israeli Eyes |url=https://doi.org/10.1525/jps.2007.36.4.65 |journal=Journal of Palestine Studies |volume=36 |issue=4 |pages=65–72 |doi=10.1525/jps.2007.36.4.65 |issn=0377-919X|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

In the Fall 2007 issue of [[Art Journal (College Art Association journal)|''Art Journal'']], [[Joseph Massad]], Professor of Modern Arab Politics and Intellectual History at [[Columbia University|Columbia University]], published "Permission to paint: Palestinian art and the colonial encounter", a review of Ankori's book ''Palestinian Art,'' [[Kamal Boullata|Kamal Boullata's]] ''Istihdar al-Makan'' ({{Lang|ar|استحضار المكان}}), and [[Samia Halaby|Samia Halaby's]] ''Liberation Art of Palestine.'' In his review, Massad also accused Ankori of illegitimately appropriating the work of [[Kamal Boullata]], a Palestinian artist and art historian, a charge which Ankori viewed as defamatory. Ankori threatened to sue for [[English defamation law|defamation in English courts]]. Critics of the practice of suing for defamation in English courts, where "libel defendants nearly always lose" call it '[[libel tourism]]'.<ref name="GoldbergForward">{{Cite web |last=Goldberg |first=J. J. |date=July 10, 2008 |title=Neutrals, Caught in the Crossfire |url=https://forward.com/opinion/13747/neutrals-caught-in-the-crossfire-02167/ |access-date=28 May 2024 |website=The Forward}}</ref>

The [[College Art Association]] of America (CAA), which publishes ''Art 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.<ref name="Howard2008">{{cite web |last=Howard |first=Jennifer |date=18 June 2008 |title=Scholarly Association Settles 'Libel Tourism' Case |url=http://chronicle.com/daily/2008/06/3426n.htm |via=The Chronicle of Higher Education}}</ref><ref name="HowardChronicle">{{cite web |date=22 June 2008 |title=Art Association Paid $75,000 to Avoid Libel Lawsuit |url=http://chronicle.com/news/article/4719/art-association-paid-75000-to-avoid-libel-lawsuit |via=The Chronicle of Higher Education}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Perelman |first=Marc |date=June 20, 2008 |title=Art Journal Pays Israeli Scholar $75K After Libel Lawsuit Threat |url=https://forward.com/news/breaking-news/13627/art-journal-pays-israeli-scholar-75k-after-libel-02064/ |website=The Forward}}</ref> Massad acknowledged "minor errors", but not libel, and accused the CAA of cowardice.<ref name="HowardChronicle" /> CAA executive director Linda Downs told ''[[The 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.<ref name="GoldbergForward"/>

==Publications== ===Books=== {{lacking ISBN|date=February 2026}} Ankori 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. *{{cite book |last1=Ankori |first1=Gannit |title=Palestinian art |date=2006 |publisher=Reaktion |location=London |isbn=978-1861892591}} *{{cite book |last1=Kahlo |first1=Frida |last2=Dexter |first2=Emma |last3=Barson |first3=Tanya |last4=Ankori |first4=Gannit |title=Frida Kahlo |date=2005 |publisher=Tate Publishing |location=London |isbn=1854375865}} *{{cite book |last1=Ankori |first1=Gannit |title=Imaging her selves: Frida Kahlo's poetics of identity and fragmentation |date=2002 |publisher=Greenwood Press |location=Westport, Conn |isbn=978-0313315657}} * ''The Fractured Self: Identity and Fragmentation in the Art of Frida Kahlo,'' 1994{{citation needed|date=February 2026}}

===Articles=== * "[[Yocheved Weinfeld]]'s portraits of the self", Gannit Ankori, (''Woman's Art Journal'', vol. 10 no.2, 1989)

==References== {{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ankori, Gannit}} [[Category:Israeli art historians]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:Academic staff of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem]] [[Category:Brandeis University faculty]] [[Category:Year of birth missing (living people)]] [[Category:Women art historians]] [[Category:21st-century Israeli women writers]] [[Category:20th-century Israeli women writers]] [[Category:Israeli women academics]] [[Category:21st-century Israeli non-fiction writers]]