Jewish Themes in Art
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A group show by three local artists examines Jewish themes from three distinct and very personal perspectives. Bertha Shenker is showing works from her series Ancestors. This project started with imagery of ossuaries and cave buriel sites dating back to 1 BCE Jerusalem, images which appear in some of the tin etchings, and in Chimney lll. It evolved into the modern era to focus on the Holocaust, and chimneys became a recurring theme and a specifically Jewish statement - a provocative and very unfortunate historical symbol of modern Jewish ancestry. Phil Kurtz, a professional chemist, has devoted much of the past 40 years to his art practice, of which half is focused on Jewish themes. The painting Shoferot (plural for Shofar in Hebrew), uses decoration as practiced by the Celtic Monks of the 8th, 9th and 10th centuries. TORAH is written in decorated Hebrew on the Shofar and is further illustrated with Torah parchment weaving its way throughout the picture. The large ram’s horn is reproduced, many times, in the surrounding decoration. Raphael Benisty uses bright colours and abstract forms to examine the theme of light in Judaism. And there was Light illustrates the separation of light from darkness at the first day of creation, and Hanukah is about how the light of good behavior is reflected back to us in blessings from above. Together, the works of these artists give us an intimate look at their unique relationships to Jewish art. |
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