Skip to content Skip to sidebar Skip to footer

Contemporary Jewish Art

HomeWritingsContemporary Jewish Art
Paintings from Midrash by Brian Shapiro The midrashic world is a dangerous place to inhabit.  It plays fast and loose with our sacred texts to fathom their deeper meanings, solve vexing textual and conceptual problems and, finally, make sense of the holy words in contemporary…
Robert Kirschbaum: Small Paintings from The Akedah Series Our encounters with the Divine are precious moments of personal religiosity.  We believe that when we pray we are speaking directly to God and at that moment we are in the Divine presence.  And yet we are…
Response Art Series There is a short list of things that really matter: family, friends, country and faith top most.  For many Jews, our people and Israel occupy an almost sacred place in the order of commitment and passion.  Therefore when either the Jewish people…
Alan Falk’s Lessons Two of Alan Falk’s biblical paintings immediately assault us aesthetically and thematically. Isaac Blessing Jacob (2009) and The Cry of Esau (2010) document the famous stolen blessing of Genesis 27 and its consequences.  The ancient Isaac is clad in a white nightshirt,…
Drisha Arts Fellows Explore Shabbat Who would have guessed that a yeshiva would have an Arts Program?  If I had died and gone to heaven, surely the World to Come would look like this.  And yet on the Upper West Side of Manhattan the liberal…
The Art of Tanya Fredman Acts of Loving Kindness. This mitzvah is included next to Torah study in the precepts that have no limit, as well as the precepts that are rewarded in this World and in the World to Come. This is surely one…
Chagall and The Cross The oft-repeated quote by art critic Robert Hughes that Marc Chagall (1887-1985) was the “quintessential Jewish artist of the twentieth century” perhaps reveals more than the normally mordant writer intended.  Chagall’s role as celebrator of a dream-like vision of the Russian…
Moriah’s Illuminated Torah Avner Moriah, the well-known Israeli artist, has illuminated the Book of Genesis.  No small feat, he has conjured images for all the major narratives as well as alluding to other analogous stories throughout the Torah.  He sees the first book of Torah…
Kiefer’s Challenge The German artist Anselm Kiefer has once again taken New York by storm. Ensconced at the prestigious Gagosian Gallery, Next Year in Jerusalem, his latest New York show, has met with reviews ranging from the gushing to the grudgingly respectful.  To Roberta Smith,…
John Bradford: Painting the Biblical Narrative John Bradford has devoted the vast majority of his creative life to a visual exploration of the Hebrew Bible.  I have reviewed many of his exhibitions over the last ten years and his dedication to explicating the biblical narrative…
Paintings by Batya F. Kuncman The world is complicated.  Surely it seems that Divine justice is elusive.  God’s role is frequently masked and our human situation is terribly fragile. Yet according to artist Batya F. Kuncman our condition is “most promising.”  Her optimistic artwork is…
Paintings by Richard McBee at the JCC Manhattan God commands Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, Sarah’s only child.  Our forefather gets up early and obeys, not telling Sarah his wife of 47 years.  According to Rashi (Genesis 23:2) when she finds out about this,…

RichardMcBee.com© 2024. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.