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Jewish Art and Artists

What is "Jewish Art"?
Why are there so few Jewish artists?
Was painting and drawing forbidden?
 

Frank Vigon has been a headteacher of an inner-city school and a highly successful and highly popular Media Arts High School. 
He lectures extensively on a variety of topics to adult audiences including Politics, History, Education, Art History, Literature, Cultural Studies and Judaism. 
He was responsible for coordinating and managing the campaign to restore the grave of the Jewish Pre-Raphaelite painter Simon Solomon and is currently lecturing and fund-raising to restore the grave of the twentieth century Avant Garde artist Mark Gertler. 
Frank himself is a highly-skilled copyist of well-known works of art in particular: Picasso, Matisse, Egon Schiele and Miro.

Why were there so few Jewish works of art until the nineteenth century?  Did the Rabbis expressly forbid us to paint and draw? Was that prohibition only on shabbat or was it forever?

Should we be more interested if an artist just happens to be Jewish or should we hope that an artist who is Jewish born will express their evolving Judaism in terms that reflect their formative cultural background?

Modigliani and Pissarro just happen to be Jewish, but Simeon Solomon and Mark Gertler used their experience of a Jewish ethos as part of their earliest work.