Iran and Japan Exhibit Calligraphy, “Anti-Mennonite” Art at EMU?
April 30th, 2008 by Menachem Wecker
Archive for April, 2008
Google (Religious) Artist Themes
April 30th, 2008 by Menachem Wecker
Like many of you probably were, I was nearly blinded by seeing Koons on Google today (right), as part of Google’s “Artist Themes.” According to Google, “Now you can put the work of world-class artists and innovators on your personalized Google homepage.”
A quick search revealed only one religious art theme so far, which comes from the blog Christianity Confesses, called “Names of God.” It already has 269 users, and is soliciting comments like “Having the name stand out more would be great and could you clear up the hebrew text? Also, could you put what the name means on the theme too? Thanks and GOD Bless for taking time to put this together!” and “Thanks for makeing this theme!! I love it!!! The Names could be bolder like maybe a brighter color. Other than that I LOVE IT!!!! Thank you!!!!and bless you!!”
The word Abir is one of the names of God (”the Abir of Jacob”), perhaps having something to do with strength, deriving from Genesis 49: 24.
If you design a religious Artist Theme or come across one, mention it in the comments and I will add it.
“A Siddur With Word Balloons”
April 23rd, 2008 by Menachem Wecker
My review of Howard Salmon’s illustrated prayer book is in The Jewish Press. Here’s the interview:
MW: What if anything do you think Orthodox folks can take away from your project?
HS: Well, the general structure of the Saturday morning service is the same, whether Orthodox or Reform (or any other variety of Judaism). When looking through the Artscroll catalog of books, there are many publications for children that utilize cartoons. The comic book siddur is my way of
sweetening the text with cartoons. If Matisyahu can reach out to Orthodox Jews with reggae music, then the Comic Book Siddur, hopefully, have a similar appeal to Jews, since both use the appeal of pop culture to introduce the torah to Jewish youth.
MW: How did you first conceive of the project? Do you actually use the Siddur at services? Why did you choose to do the Saturday morning prayers as opposed to others? (Are there other prayer books planned for later?)
HS: I never had a bar mitzvah as a child. Instead, at 44 years old, I had an “adult bar mitzvah” as part of a class at Temple Emanu-el in Tucson, Arizona. I was one of a class of seven. We divided our torah portion into seven pieces, and parceled out the various duties of the prayer service. As I was studying the prayers, I made myself a study guide in the form of a comic book. Basically, I drew superheroes in action poses in the margins of the prayers. I stapled it together as a chapbook, and showed it to the associate rabbi of Temple Emanu-el (Benjamin Sharff) who is actually a huge comic book fan. He loved it, and offered to write the intro and to edit it once I completed a serious copy. My fantasy for this book is for a kid to actually use this book in his bar mitzvah, but I realize that that is problematic. However, Rabbi Sharff has expressed concern about this (for obvious reasons), since since comics have not reached a level of holiness appropriate for the sanctuary. The best I can hope for now is that kids (or other interested people) can use the comic book siddur as a study aid.
Again, I chose the Saturday morning service because that was the service where I had my bar-mitzvah. I initially intended the book to me my own personal study aid, but then realized that there may be others out there who’d appreciate the work I’d created. To make a graphic novel version of the entire siddur is too huge a project for me. I just wanted to translate the material that I was studying for my bar mitzvah into comic book form; no more, no less.
As far as other prayer books goes, I’m not ready to consider that at the moment, but of course, it always remains a possibility!
MW: To what extent are you influenced by other Jewish comic book artists? Why do you think there have been so many?
HS: Other Jewish comic book artists have had a huge influence on me. I grew up wanting to draw comics for Marvel. As a kid, I studied the history of comics and realized that it’s largely a Jewish invention. Jack Kirby, Will Eisner, Harvey Kurtzman, and of course Art Spiegelman. Jerry Robinson (a longtime comic book artist/writer) wrote about the question of why there are so many Jews in comics, and his conclusion was that because there were a lot of Jews in New York, and those were the only art jobs that they could get, because comics didn’t have respect in the early days. They were view as trash, not as an art form. It took some visionaries, such as Will Eisner, William M. Gaines, and Stan Lee, (and so many more!) to change all of that.
Continue reading ‘“A Siddur With Word Balloons”’
Closing the Door on Eden
April 18th, 2008 by Menachem Wecker
Israeli artist Ra’anan Levy’s “Expulsion from Eden” (pictured) is one of his pieces on exhibit at the Janos Gat Gallery in New York in the show “Sinks and Spaces.”
ARTINFO posts a few more of the pieces as well, including one called “The Seducer.”
I wonder what the artist has to say about the Edenic reference…
LOC Posts Hitler Album, Berlin Bunker Gallery
April 18th, 2008 by Menachem Wecker
The Library of Congress Blog discusses the Library’s new release online of a images of “Hitler’s Private Gallery.” See the post here, and the gallery allegedly lives here, though I can’t figure out how to see the other images.
In other news, ARTINFO reports on a former Nazi bunker being converted to an art gallery.
One of my Paintings for a Change…
April 18th, 2008 by Menachem Wecker
This is one is 2001-2002, and it is the Old City of Jerusalem.
How to Recognize a Jewish Painter (RIP Joseph Solman)
April 18th, 2008 by Menachem Wecker
Here’s an exercise in reading from Michael Kimmelman’s great obituary in the NY Times, “Joseph Solman, Painter, Is Dead at 99.” The column never mentions that Solman was Jewish, but consider the following selections:
1. His studio was above the Second Avenue Deli in New York.
2. He formed “The Ten.”
3. He was born in 1909 in Vitebsk (think Chagall).
4. “His family fled the Cossacks and landed in Queens, where his father became a tailor.”
Wikipedia is usually good about these sorts of things, but there is no mention of his religion. In terms of the other usual suspects: the Forward assumes he was Jewish, as does Kimmelman in an earlier Times column.
Image: artnet.
For kicks, check out the interview after the jump, conducted by Avis Berman on the Smithsonian site, which provides the artist’s own comments on his faith:
Continue reading ‘How to Recognize a Jewish Painter (RIP Joseph Solman)’
A Great Interview with MOCRA’s Assistant Director
April 18th, 2008 by Menachem Wecker
Julie Randle of the South County Journal conducted a great interview with David Brinker, assistant director of the Saint Louis University’s Museum of Contemporary Religious Art (MOCRA). My only complaint is the two talked about everything but religious art…
Gardner Museum, Nidhi Tulli, Archie Rand, Qatar
April 18th, 2008 by Menachem Wecker
Continue reading ‘Gardner Museum, Nidhi Tulli, Archie Rand, Qatar’
Sarah Tricha: “In Islamic tradition, only God can create”
April 18th, 2008 by Menachem Wecker
Sarah Tricha blogs at Moroccan Design in “celebration of Moroccan culture and design.” She is a freelance web designer, and she is planning a book on “the origins and meanings of zillij.” Sarah spoke with Iconia about the Islamic components of Moroccan art.
MW: Let’s start with the question to what extent does Moroccan art overlap with Islamic art? Is much of it created by artists who see themselves as bound by Islamic law?
ST: First, Islam is central to all aspects of life in Morocco as well as Moroccan art and design. Traditional Moroccan art strictly follows Islamic guidelines that art should be non-representational. Some modern Moroccan artists have broken with that tradition, so know that what I write I am writing in reference to traditional Moroccan art/decor/ornamentation.
In generalizing about Moroccan artisans, I must specify that I am particularly speaking of pottery and tile artisans. There is a lot of folk wisdom and myth connected to producing pottery in Morocco. It is very much a part of their cultural and religious identity. This is elegantly highlighted in an interview with an artisan that was posted to YouTube, which you can watch on my website.
The traditional arts and crafts techniques and styles practiced in Morocco today are a result of Islam and the Islamic empire. The Arabs from Syria brought Islam to Morocco in the 7th century. Islam rapidly grew into a vast empire that united merchants from India and China all the way to Southern Spain. A lot of the worlds best artisanal practices, techniques, artists, and products made their way to Morocco through this vast network of merchants, pilgrims, nomads, and representatives of Islam.
Moroccan artisans in Fes, the cultural capital of Morocco, tightly guard the tradition of pottery making and only modify techniques when absolutely necessary. In the 1940s cooperatives were established to preserve the character and integrity of Moroccan crafts yet most potters continued to practice according to their own tradition.
Image: One of Sarah’s paintings, which you can see (and buy) on her site.
MW: What is zillij? What are some of the major institutions devoted to showing Moroccan art? Who are some of the folks writing on the topic?
ST: Zillij is one of the highest art forms in Morocco and it is a style that is uniquely practiced in Morocco. It involves cutting clay tiles into geometric pieces - each piece has a name - and assembling them into complex geometric patterns that have been learned through apprenticeships for centuries. The zillij mosaics have been of great interest to mathematicians because of their geometric complexity and artists, such as Matisse and Escher.
Zillij is used on floors, walls, and water fountains. It is generally applied to the interior of buildings such as mosques, formal living rooms, and other garden fountains. I wrote a bit about it at here. There is also an article about it here, which includes some interview with artisans. Zillij is meant to inspire meditative reflection on the perfection of God’s creation and the unity of all things. It is a highly valued art form, so even if the artists don’t make a lot of money on their craft, it is very expensive to do, they are respected in the community.
Moroccan art is very much tied to purpose. Zillij installations are part of larger structures that cannot be easily displayed in a museum. I don’t know of any major institution in the U.S. that is dedicated to showing Moroccan art. Moroccan design is covered in glossy picture books on interior design, but I don’t know of anyone who is writing about its underlying meaning. Keith Critchlow was a professor at the Royal College of Art and established the Visual Islamic and Traditional Arts (VITA) school in 1984. He wrote several books on Islamic patterns and the underlying geometry. His books included a lot of information on Moroccan patterns, but were not specifically about Morocco. I believe he is now retired.
Continue reading ‘Sarah Tricha: “In Islamic tradition, only God can create”’
Catherine McClung: “I pray before I paint that His hand would be with mine”
April 17th, 2008 by Menachem Wecker
A couple of weeks ago, I noticed an article in The Grand Rapids Press on wildlife painter Catherine McClung (see her website here), whose work is so realistic that some have accused her of passing photographs off as art. The article mentioned that McClung has created a “bird-themed ornament for the White House Christmas tree” and that she is a “woman of great faith who actively studies the Bible” and “struggles with success and compliments.” I posed a few questions to Catherine via email, and she was kind enough to reply.
MW: How, if at all, does you Bible study influence your work?
CM: I pray before I paint that His hand would be with mine.
MW: Have you created any religious works? Do you consider yourself a religious artist per se?
CM: I paint God’s beautiful creations. I have not illustrated any Biblical stories.
MW: What are some of the greatest rewards and challenges of being religious and an artist?
CM: Bible study and my faith has given me wisdom. Being able to use my God given talent is a joy. Painting is only part of what I do. Much time is spent running the business of being an artist. As you know it is a difficult way to make a living. Here the Golden Rule is important. I often see artists use hype to promote their work and it seems to work for them for awhile, but I have to avoid that. I like to encourage other artists along the way and not to see them as competitors. I earmark ten percent of all print editions for donations. Art and auctions have been a popular way for fund raising.
Continue reading ‘Catherine McClung: “I pray before I paint that His hand would be with mine”’
Why Does Mary Cover Her Hair in Christian Art?
April 16th, 2008 by Menachem Wecker
“Sensual Semites”
April 16th, 2008 by Menachem Wecker
My review of “JEWS & SEX,” edited by Nathan Abrams, is on Jbooks.com. Here’s the lede:
A judge, who gets an erection when a defendant accidentally exposes her arm, sprints home to have sex with his wife, lest he sinfully spill his seed on the ground. The judge’s wife, after demanding to learn her rival’s identity, tracks the woman down, beats her with an iron lock, and runs her out of town. A different man solicits sex from his daughter-in-law, whom he mistakes for a prostitute. He is also a judge, and when she later becomes pregnant he almost orders her execution for adultery until she reveals herself to him. A third man offers his two virgin daughters to appease rioters trying to kick his door in. Those same daughters later get him intoxicated and rape him while he sleeps.
These stories might sound like the sort one would expect to find in X-rated magazines, but they come from much holier sources. The first derives from the Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Ketubot 65a, while the other two can be found in Genesis chapters 38 and 19.
A “Sacrilegiously Speaking, Hot” Madonna
April 16th, 2008 by Menachem Wecker
Can Christians Be Idolators?
April 15th, 2008 by Menachem Wecker
The Tate’s Dangerous Ear of Corn
April 15th, 2008 by Menachem Wecker
Artdaily.org reports on Doris Salcedo’s installation at Tate Modern which has been flagged as dangerous and is being filled in. (HT: artforum.com)
Shibboleth (image from thebrandunion.com) “begins as a hairline crack at the west entrance to the Turbine Hall, and gradually widens and deepens as it runs 167 metres to the far end.” It uses wire mesh, “the most common means of control used to define borders and divisions.” The piece also has a biblical origin, Artdaily points out:
The word shibboleth commonly refers to a test of membership to or exclusion from a particular group or social class. Its meaning originates from an Old Testament story which describes the largest massacre recounted in The Bible. The Gileadites, having defeated the Ephraimites in battle, challenged any survivors to pronounce the word ‘shibboleth’. The Ephraimites were identified by their inability to form the discerning ‘sh’ sound and 42,000 were killed.
The thing to note here is that while שבלת (Shibboleth) is biblical, it also has its own meaning, which is ear of corn. See Job 24:24 for that usage (and Pslams 69:3 for its reference to flood waters). The test of membership derives from Judges 12:6.
As far as this being the largest massacre in the Bible, see 1 Samuel 6:19 for a massacre of “fifty thousand and threescore and ten men.”
“The biggest restriction isn’t really from Judaism itself but from the Orthodox Jewish community.”
April 15th, 2008 by Menachem Wecker
Leora Wenger is a Highland Park, NJ-based artist, who blogs at Here in HP. She designs, develops, and builds websites (sample here). Some of her paintings (including the self portrait below) can be seen here. Leora discusses religious symbolism in her work, which often reminds her of her mother, and some of the challenges of being a religious artist.
MW: Do you consider yourself a Jewish painter? Why or why not?
LW: Definitely. Being Jewish is part of me. Family is an important part of being Jewish. My subject matter often is my children, whom I watch grow and absorb the world around them. I am drawn into the natural world as well; my middle son’s bar-mitzvah parsha will be Breishit, Genesis, with all the wonders of creation. I garden and I paint and I photograph my garden. There’s a connection to my mother, z”l (may her memory be a blessing), in all this, as she painted and loved gardens. In the artwork upon which you chose to focus the Jewish subject matter may be more apparent. But I didn’t set out to do “Jewish” subject matter. They were exercises in learning some aspect of painting, and the Jewish subject matter arose subconsciously. As I work on the art, it becomes more conscious.
MW: You describe the Havdallah painting as “Rembrandtesque.” Is there something about Rembrandt’s style that is particularly useful for religious subjects?
LW: A tradition of visual arts in Jewish history is limited, unlike, say, poetry. You have mosaics from ancient synagogues, haggadahs with birds’ heads, but much was borrowed from the surrounding cultures. Rembrandt seems like a good style to emulate, as 1) he did many Biblical subjects, and some of his models were Jews of Holland; 2) the Dutch in general were the first to break away from the Church art and paint still lifes and home scenes, genre scenes; and 3) the lights and darks, chiaroscuro as it is called by artists, create an ambiance that can be quite powerful. In this particular painting, I was trying to break away from my usual colorful, impressionistic style. It’s good for an artist to choose purposely to break out of one’s style at times.
Mark Ravenhill: “Children should study the great Christian art of the past”
April 14th, 2008 by Menachem Wecker
The Guardian’s Mark Ravenhill feels “Christianity is a myth,” but that doesn’t stop him from wanting it around–for artistic reasons.
The former Methodist churchgoer who loved biblical stories “more than any other children’s literature,” since left the faith, but writes, “I’m sure the narrative, ritual and music of the church were an essential part of my education as a writer.”
He fears folks like Richard Dawkins might try to take this away:
Of course, we can’t help denying the beauty and resonance of the Sistine Chapel, Handel’s Messiah, Milton’s Paradise Lost or the York mystery plays. But we like to tell ourselves that their creators were covert humanists, who wanted to make art and had no choice other than to make it within the confines of a church that held all the power and money.
Yet, the “idea that all artists are essentially humanists is a comforting myth for an agnostic age. There is little evidence to support it.” This seems to me to be a very good analysis of a landscape in which the Church, albeit displaced from its monopoly of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, is still a very active player. The concluding line is the clincher: “We should celebrate the Christian legacy in western art and society - and stop the Dawkins army from denying us the possibility of drawing inspiration from faith to create the art of the future.”
Image: Dawkins meets Sistine Chapel.
Waging War Against Goya
April 14th, 2008 by Menachem Wecker
Although often wonderfully scandalous and provocative, new studies in provenance are sometimes like losing old friends. The newest victim is Goya’s “Colossus,” which is noticeably absent from the Prado’s “Goya In Times Of War,” reports the Independent (UK).
The exclusion of the work isn’t just an oversight. The Prado’s director said in an interview with ABC, “Our knowledge of Goya’s work has advanced greatly in recent years, and doubts over the attribution of El Coloso are widely accepted by the museum’s scientific team.”
What’s next, claiming Saturn Devouring His Son is really by Boucher? Oh how the mighty have fallen…
Image: WebMuseum.
The Pope’s Santa Claus Hat
April 14th, 2008 by Menachem Wecker
David Gibson’s RNS story on “Do the clothes make the pope — or the church?” argues “as important as Benedict’s words will be in introducing the pope to an American audience that knows little about him, it may be just as important to check out what he’s wearing.” Also:
With increasing regularity, Benedict has been reintroducing elaborate lace garments and monarchical regalia that have not been seen around Rome in decades, even centuries …
On Good Friday he donned a “fiddleback” vestment dating to the Counter-Reformation era of the 16th century, and he has used a tall gilded papal throne not seen in years. And that’s not to mention the ermine-trimmed red velvet mozzetta, a shoulder cape, or the matching camauro, a Santa Claus- like cap that art students will recognize from Renaissance portraiture.
As Robert Mickens, the Rome correspondent for The Tablet of London, put it, the pope’s aides have “been busy raiding the liturgi cal storage rooms and the Vatican museums in an attempt to return the papal liturgies to their pre-Vatican II splendor” — a reference to the Second Vatican Council of the 1960s that ushered in reforms simplifying many church rites and scal ing back grandiose vesture.
Lahore’s Basant Festival Canceled
April 14th, 2008 by Menachem Wecker
Image: Boston Herald.
Pakistan’s annual Basant festival (think Kabul’s version, as in Kite Runner) has been canceled with officials citing security concerns, AP reports (HT: Lahore Nama).
“How can we ignore the deaths of innocent people to celebrate anything?” says Sohail Janjua of the city government. More to the point:
The sport was banned in recent years in Pakistan after several people were accidentally killed by low-flying kite strings coated with glass. But the ban is difficult to enforce, and was relaxed each year to allow people to celebrate Basant.
Kite-flying duels involving betting are popular during the festival. Some fliers reinforce strings with wire or ground glass to give them an advantage in the congested sky. When strings cross, competitors try to cut loose opponents’ kite.
It’s interesting how artistic depictions romanticize the festival. I never realized how dangerous it was.
Christian Cartoons
April 13th, 2008 by Menachem Wecker
From nakedpastor and Church Times via Think Christian:
“Who Cares What Mozart Looked Like?”
April 13th, 2008 by Menachem Wecker
“Play explores Pakistani culture”
April 12th, 2008 by Menachem Wecker
My review of “Kite on the Wind: A Tale of Pakistan” at the Kennedy Center is in Arab American News.
(Image: l-r) Saskia de Vries as Maryam, Nathaniel P. Claridad as Pate, Fatima Quander as Dadi, James Konicek as String Seller, Muhsina Khan as Nabila, Tony Nam as Karamay. Photo credit: Carol Pratt. Courtesy of the Kennedy Center.
A Very Expensive Islamic Key
April 11th, 2008 by Menachem Wecker
A key (left) which unlocks “one of the most venerated and highly honoured buildings in the world” sold for 18 times its estimated price, going to an anonymous buyer for £9,204,500 at Sotheby’s biannual Arts of the Islamic World Sale.
“Willy Loman’s Jewish Roots”
April 10th, 2008 by Menachem Wecker
My article on the current Arena Stage production of “Death of a Salesman” is in the Forward.
Rick Foucheux as Willy Loman, with Nancy Robinette in back as his wife Linda in “Death of a Salesman” at Arena Stage.
“Is It Kosher To Laugh At Swastikas?”
April 10th, 2008 by Menachem Wecker
Well, is it? Have a look at my latest Jewish Press column, which reviews “We Have Ways of Making You Laugh: 120 Funny Swastika Cartoons” by Sam Gross.
Papal Bobble Head, Saving the Middle East through Archaeology
April 9th, 2008 by Menachem Wecker
Elephant Painters
April 9th, 2008 by Menachem Wecker
AP reports on elephants, chimpanzees, kangaroos, ocelots, red pandas, a rhinoceros, and a Komodo dragon who paint and whose works sell for hundreds or even thousands.
The Jewish angle here is Komar’s and Melamid’s Asian Elephant Art and Conservation Project (and here).
Sexual References in the Passover Haggadah?
April 9th, 2008 by Menachem Wecker
My article “Chasing the Passover Bunny,” in which I explore illustrations of hares in the Passover Haggadah, is in this week’s Forward. The image is from the First Cincinnati Haggadah in the collection of the Hebrew union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Klau Library, Cincinnati. It was written in Southern Germany ca. 1490 by Meir Jaffe ha-sofer.