British artist’s work is centrepiece of Balfour centenary exhibition in Jerusalem

THE JEWISH NEWS

LONDON---British artist’s painting is to be the centrepiece of an event dedicated to the Balfour Declaration at this year’s Jerusalem Biennale for Contemporary Jewish Art. ‘Balfour Accomplished’ by Beverley-Jane Stewart, a large-scale oil on canvass, will be on display at Jerusalem’s Machtarot Museum (the Underground Prisoners Museum), for six weeks from October 1, 2017. Stewart, who is recognised for her exploration of the relationship between Jewish and British culture, said ‘Balfour Accomplished’ included imagery “from the past and present” and that she was “honoured” to feature in such a prestigious Israeli event. [More]

Israeli artist Shy Abady explores the failure of modern Judaism

HAARETZ
By Shaul Setter

Shy Abady's 'The Pretty Jewess (After Synagoga)' Avi Amsalem

TEL AVIV---An exhibition of portraits that features lesser known or errant offspring in Jewish history positions the ‘Arab Jew’ as the necessary extreme of the dynasty. The exhibition of portraits by Shy Abady (Jerusalem-born, 1965) enters the Schechter Gallery and transforms it, precisely because it is not “unorthodox” or progressive in the usual sense. On the contrary, this exhibition, “The Restless,” is fraught with a pungent sense of looking back, reexamination, turbulence and complication. On the face of it, the show follows the regular contour lines of Conservative Judaism. It consists of 10 portraits of Jewish women and men from different eras of Jewish history: from Abinadav, the son of King Saul, to Felix Mendelssohn, Hans Herzl (Theodor’s son) and Hannah Arendt, down to the artist’s mother and grandfather. [More]

Hebrew University launches world’s largest Jewish art index

THE JEWISH PRESS
By JNi.Media - August 10, 2017

Great (Hagdola) Synagogue in Djerba, Tunisia, Early 18th Century

The Center for Jewish Art at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem launched the world’s largest online database of Jewish art on August 10 at the World Congress of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem. The Bezalel Narkiss Index of Jewish Art is a collection of digitized images and information about Jewish artifacts from all over the world. The online collection includes more than 260,000 images of objects and artifacts from 700 museums, synagogues and private collections in 41 different countries, as well as architectural drawings of 1,500 synagogues and Jewish ritual buildings from antiquity to the modern day. [More]

Archie Rand's colossal painting project gets museum debut and first appearance outside of New York City

ARTDAILY

Archie Rand, To Love Converts. (Deuteronomy 10:19), part of The 613, 2001–06, serial painting composed of 613 panels, acrylic on canvas, 20 x 16 in. each. Courtesy of the artist. Photo by Mary Faith O’Neill. The 613 by Archie Rand. On view July 20–October 22, 2017 at The Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco.

SAN FRANCISCO---Starting in 2001, Archie Rand (b. 1949), a painter and muralist from Brooklyn, New York, spent five years creating The 613, a monumental installation of 613 twenty by sixteen-inch canvas paintings (plus one additional title painting) arranged in a huge grid comprising 1700 square feet. The massive work reflects on the 613 requirements (mitzvot in Hebrew) for a Jewish person to live a righteous life, as synthesized from various sources in the Hebrew Bible—all rendered in a style described by Peter Steinfels of The New York Times as, “comics and pulp fiction book jackets, a dash of Mad Magazine, a spoonful of Tales from the Crypt, some grotesques, some superheroes, always action, emotion, drama.” [More]

In Jerusalem, rabbis are designing a new hi-tech temple to build on Temple Mount

THE TELEGRAPH
By Jake Wallis Simons

A model of the proposed Third Temple on display at the Temple Institute

JERUSALEM---Rabbi Chaim Richman shows me into a darkened room, strokes his beard and pulls out his smartphone. There, resplendent in brilliant gold – and rather smaller than I expected – lies the Ark of the Covenant. Welcome to the Temple Institute exhibition, in the heart of the Old City of Jerusalem. This is not a museum, insists Rabbi Richman, 54, the international director of the organisation. Apart from the Ark of the Covenant, every artefact on display has been painstakingly created in accordance with Biblical instructions and is intended for actual service in a “third Jewish temple", which will be built as soon as possible. Razed by the Romans, one wall of the courtyard that surrounded the temple – the Western Wall – remains and has become a focus of Jewish prayer. [More]

Archie Rand's ‘The 613’ paintings at San Francisco’s Contemporary Jewish Museum

JEWISH WEEKLY
By Robert Nagler Miller

“Not to Test the Prophet,” from Archie Rand’s “The 613” series

SAN FRANSICO---Completed in 2008, [Archie Rand's] 613 20-by-16-inch canvas paintings have never been exhibited in a museum or gallery — until now. Beginning on Thursday, July 20, the works will be on display at San Francisco’s Contemporary Jewish Museum, where visitors will have a chance to express pleasure, confusion, annoyance, consternation, revulsion, excitement and myriad other emotions that the painter’s bold, colorful, lurid, humorous, anti-literal and completely irreverent images evoke. Talking recently about his career and the 613 project, Rand spoke of the need to develop a “visual language” within Judaism, where traditions, practices and culture have subsisted primarily on “a textual system” of written codes and interpretations. [More]

Marc Chagall, the Jewish religious artist

BLOG.OUP.COM
By MAYA BALAKIRSKY KATZ

White Crucifixion (1938) oil on canvas by Marc Chagall. Courtesy Art Institute of Chicago

One hundred thirty years after the birth of Moishe Shagall, as he was known in his small Hasidic neighborhood on the outskirts of Vitebsk, and thirty-two years after the death of Marc Chagall, as he came to be known in the modern art world, we are starting to understand his vision. Somewhere in between his life dates, Chagall became the world’s preeminent Jewish artist at a time when the Russian Jewish intelligentsia fanatically directed itself towards universalism. It is interesting, then, that Chagall’s radical religious vision has been subsumed under his cultural one in debates over his national identity, whether Jewish, French, or American. [More]

Controversial art museum in Jerusalem battles to survive

THE FORWARD
By Simone Somekh

The exhibition serves as a bridge of two worlds, one religious and the other secular that are so close and yet so apart from each other.

JERUSALEM---Located on the very edge of West Jerusalem, Museum On The Seam has been committed to presenting thought-provoking art about Israel’s complex socio-political reality since opening in 1999. Soon, the small museum with lofty aims may be forced to shutter its doors — the museum’s main backers have announced they will stop funding the institution. The museum will close down by the end of 2017 if the search for new funds fails. In the meanwhile, a temporary exhibition entitled “Thou Shalt Not,” which features works of both religious and secular Jewish artists, is on display. The aim is to spark new conversations on one of the most incendiary divides of the Israeli society across the religious/secular divide. [More]

‘Portrait of a Bride’ tells the story of a market in Jewish art

RELIGION NEWS SERVICE
By David Van Biema

“Portrait of a Young Jewish Bride” by Isidor Kaufmann circa 1905. Photo courtesy Kestenbaum & Company

NEW YORK (RNS) She is serene and dignified (perhaps even a little bored). Her eyes are slate blue and her lips bee-stung. She wears the marriage finery of early 20th-century Orthodox Judaism: a fur-trimmed cape, satin bib and a tiara boasting 300 small pearls. And 112 years after first being painted, her image still commands the room — as the premiere offering at Kestenbaum and Company, an auction house in Manhattan devoted solely to a full spectrum of Judaica. Her estimated price: $200,000 to $300,000. There is the art market and then there is the market for explicitly Jewish art. One is big and rich and over-observed. The other is little-known and intense, and as riddled with irony as Jewish history. [More]

NYC's Jewish Art Salon rockets to Teaneck

JEWISH STANDARDS
By Joanna Palmer

Joel Silverstein, "Ten Commandments - A Question." Inspired by an 1,800 year old Jewish mural, this shows Jerusalem, Moses and Aaron, drowning Egyptians, the flooding red sea and Wonder woman, mixing figurative art with pop references.

Jews and art. Art and Jews. It’s one of those weird relationships. Many Jews seem to be drawn to art. But it can be a troubled relationship nonetheless. Jewish law has prescriptions against figurative art that kept many Jews away from it for a very long time. Other questions that hover over any discussion of Jewish art also are the very basic ones: What is Jewish art? What is a Jewish artist? Do you have to be Jewish to make Jewish art? Can a Jewish artist make non-Jewish art? How about a-Jewish art? The Jewish Art Salon holds a salon to raise money toward its exhibit, “Jerusalem Between Heaven and Earth” in the Jerusalem Biennale 2017 on Monday, June 26, at 7:30 p.m. in Teaneck; call (201) 837-6157 for more information [More]

Oregon Jewish Museum Reopens With Colossal New Vision

KUOW
By Editor

A detail from "Alephbet" by Grisha Bruskin.

PORTLAND---This weekend is the big reopening for the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education. Remember the space in Portland’s South Park Blocks, where the dearly departed Museum of Contemporary Craft once lived? The space is now the new home of OJMCHE. The move doubles the museum's auditorium capacity, expands the archives collection and Holocaust education programs dramatically, and sets the stage for a bigger conversation about Jewish life, identity and community. Grisha Bruskin’s “Alefbet” will be on view at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education through October. The museum’s grand opening is Sunday, June 11. [More]

Boundless: Altered Books in Contemporary Art at Hill-Stead Museum

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS

Carole P. Kunstadt, Sacred Poem XI, 2015, 24 karat gold leaf, paper, thread, gampi tissue, 7.5 x 8 x1.5in

FARMINGTON, CT---In celebration of the Sunken Garden Poetry Festival’s 25th Anniversary, the historic Libraries will be transformed into a contemporary sculpture gallery to showcase Boundless: Altered Books in Contemporary Art, guest-curated by Carole Kunstadt, a graduate of the Hartford Art School. Installed among the many rare first editions and early volumes in the Pope family’s personal library, it is an exhibition of altered books by three contemporary artists: Carole P. Kunstadt, Chris Perry and Erin Walrath. Kunstadt dissects, stitches, weaves and gilds book leaves savoring the aged qualities of the paper and text while reminding one of the personal associations to knowledge and history, and the passage and compression of time.

Hill-Stead Museum: "Boundless: Altered Books in Contemporary Art" (June 16 – September 4, 2017); 35 Mountain Road, Farmington, Connecticut; 860.677.4787: hillstead.org

Moses make-over by animator Nina Paley will have you grooving

NYC RELIGIONS
By Pauline Dolle

The Seder droned on. The too-oft-repeated stories have ceased to spark the interest that they once did. Then, you get a glimpse of Nina Paley’s unique animated re-telling of the story of Moses, Seder-Masochism. Wow! Cool story, you think. Paley matches the music and lyrics of contemporary songs to her Flash animation of the traditional Jewish story. You are immersed in the experience.Paley’s Moses is stripped of the high language of scripture and the burden of divine pontification. Consequently, he becomes to the audience a real person traveling through his story. The Bible becomes sheet music for lively Mosaic riffs of music and images. Paley’s first full-length film, Sita Sings the Blues, animated the Hindu story of the Ramayana. [More]

Private art exhibition of Asaf Amario's timeless intimate moments in black, white and gold

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS

Acrylic and oil painting gilded with gold leaf on panel. Part of the complete series of Mizmor L'Asaf.

LOS ANGELES----Asaf Amario, an Israeli native living in Los Angeles, is showcasing for the first time the complete series of Mizmor L'Asaf paintings in Malibu in a solo private viewing event on June 4, 2017, from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. "I grew up in Israel, and I find myself searching for those indescribable feelings I remember experiencing as a child; these paintings are my tool to capture them," Asaf Amario said. The series includes eighteen paintings, representing the Hebrew word Chai — meaning life. Placed in an unknown time and space, the images are depicted in black, white and gold. Incorporating realistic images with abstract elements highlights the rich yet modest feeling of enlightenment. [More]

Vatican, Jewish museums explore menorah in art and dark legend

CRUX
By Cindy Wooden

A journalist looks at a replica of the 1st-century Arch of Titus, showing Roman soldiers carrying the menorah, in an exhibition at the Vatican May 15. The replica is the central motif in a two-part exhibition on the menorah at the Vatican and at the Jewish Museum in Rome. (Credit: Paul Haring/CNS.)

ROME - The Vatican Museums and the Jewish Museum of Rome are exploring together the significance of the menorah, although they also give a nod to the centuries-old legend that the Vatican is hiding the golden menorah from the Temple of Jerusalem. A two-part exhibition, one at the Vatican and the other at the Jewish Museum of Rome, prominently features a replica of the 1st-century Arch of Titus, showing Roman soldiers carrying the menorah and other treasures into Rome. From a coin minted in the century before Christ’s birth to a 1987 Israeli comic book featuring a superhero with a menorah on his chest, the exhibit, “The Menorah: Worship, History and Myth,” documents the use of the seven-branched candelabra both as a religious item and a symbol of Jewish identity. The exhibit is scheduled to be open through July 23. [More]

Shavout and paper cutting, a forgotten Jewish folk art form

CANADIAN JEWISH NEWS
By Sara Horowitz

Jorge Jaramillo FLICKR

CANADA---When I first met the wonderful American Jewish poet Marge Piercy, she asked me about Shavuot and paper cutting. One way that Ashkenazi Jews beautified their homes for Shavuot was by creating and displaying paper cuttings. Called in Yiddish, shevuoslakh (or shavuosl) and royzalakh (or raizelach) – literally meaning little Shavuots and little roses – the paper cuttings were mounted on windows, so they would be visible both indoors and out. In Judaism, we call this hiddur mitzvah, the beautification of a commandment. [More]

Celebrate Weinberg Cherry collection of Judaica at the Museum

ARTDAILY

Tzedakah Box in Art Nouveau Style Denmark, Copenhagen, MB Mogens Ballin, 1901 Pewter H. 11.5 cm × L. 7 cm × W. 5.5 cm ROM 999.119.40.

TORONTO---The Royal Ontario Museum announced a new ROM Press publication featuring objects from the Dr. Fred Weinberg and Joy Cherry Weinberg Judaica Collection. The lavishly illustrated catalogue Judaica: The Dr. Fred Weinberg and Joy Cherry Weinberg Collection at the Royal Ontario Museum is written by ROM Curator Emeritus K. Corey Keeble. Presenting a compelling look into Jewish cultural life, the publication highlights important examples of European decorative arts, including ceramics, glass, metalwork, textiles, and works on paper, which are displayed in the Museum’s Dr. Fred Weinberg and Joy Cherry Weinberg Judaica Gallery. [More]

Jeweler Joel Arthur Rosenthal (JAR) creates his first piece of Judaica

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Vanessa Friedman

Joel Arthur Rosenthal’s menorah is shaped like the limb of a blooming almond tree, with pink enamel flowers and a central bud glowing with a pavé mix of white and gold diamonds, blue and violet sapphires, and pink rubies.

ROME, Italy---There are a number of things Joel Arthur Rosenthal, the reclusive Bronx-born, Paris-based “Fabergé of our times” more commonly known as JAR, who is also the only living jeweler to have a solo show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, will not do. ...Mr. Rosenthal appeared in Rome at the opening of the first joint exhibition of the Jewish Museum of Rome and the Vatican. Titled “Menorah: Worship, History, Legend,” it includes 130 objects from the first century through … well, Mr. Rosenthal, who created his first piece of Judaica as well as the only piece of commissioned original art for the exhibition. [More]

LA gallery welcomes Isreali photographer Adi Nes for fourth show

ART AGENDA

Adi Nes, Untitled (from "The Village"), 2008. Color photograph mounted on aluminum, ed. 4/10, 100 x 125 cm

LOS ANGELES---Praz-Delavallade is honored to present the first exhibition with the gallery on the west coast of the renowned Israeli photographer Adi Nes. For his fourth show at Praz-Delavallade, a selection of various series will be unveiled. Central themes in Adi Nes's photographs deal with the issues of Israeli identity and masculinity. His works wrestle with social and political questions revolving around gender, the center versus the periphery, Eastern versus Western cultures, ethnic issues, Judaism, local myths, militarism, humanism, and social justice. [More]

Austria's Jewish Museum explores the "Female Side of God"

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS

Rachel Kanter‘s “God’s Aspect” in the exhibition "The Female Side of God." Image courtesy of Jewish Art Salon

HOHENEMS, Austria---The possibility of a sexually—sometimes more, sometimes less—female-defined dimension of God flashes up in the Hebrew Bible, in extracanonical writings, and in rabbinic literature. The Jewish Museum Hohenems poses the question to the monotheistic religions: Is it possible to view the—according to Jewish, Christian, and Muslim tradition—“one and only God” as other than male? The exhibition scrutinizes ideas of the female as negative antithesis to the male, and presents Jewish and other women who have been and still keep searching for their own dimensions of the divine—also in their artistic examinations of traditional notions of God in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. "The Female Side of God" opened in April, and runs through October 8, 2017.