derfnerjudaicamuseumandart

Unlisted: Underappreciated Women Artists from the Permanent Collection

On view in the Museum May 29–October 2, 2022
Click here to visit the ongoing online exhibition

This exhibition highlights seventeen mid- to late twentieth-century women artists selected from the permanent collection who worked in modernist styles, yet are not often exhibited today despite their significant skills, careers and accomplishments. The exhibition is on view in the Museum through October 2, 2022.

“Listed” is used to describe artists included in standard art reference books. The term is often used by third-tier auction houses and online auction websites to indicate that an artist is of a certain status and to bolster their legitimacy. “Unlisted,” the title of this exhibition, exposes the irony of the term and the arbitrariness of the art world. The impact is particularly significant for women who, in addition to attempting to establish reputations as professional artists, had to compete in a sexist, male-dominated art world. In some cases, forced to choose between traditional gender roles and a career, women artists gave up their artistic practice, further driving their names into obscurity.

Five of the artists in this exhibition are represented with prints that reflect their diverse approaches to the medium. These include a stark black-and-white etching by Lily Harmon (b. New Haven, Connecticut, 1913–d. New York, New York, 1998); a fragile, textured collatype by Gertrude Perrin (b. New York, New York, 1908–d. Boynton Beach, Florida, 1998); delicate images of water and sky by Shirley Roman (b. Brooklyn, New York, 1919–d. Madison, Wisconsin, 2010); and avant-garde works by Ruth Cyril (b. New York, New York, 1920–d. ?) and Terry Haass (b. Ceský Tešín, Czechoslovakia, now Czechia, 1923–d. Paris, France, 2016).

Roman primarily depicted seascapes, creating rich textures, patterns and colors in her etchings. Three prints in this exhibition display her technical skill at rendering color gradations and pattern, as evinced, for example, in the fine lines and delicate grays of Maelstrom (ca. early 1970s). Roman was a member of Graphic Eye Gallery, one of several artist cooperatives formed in the 1970s in the Port Washington area of Long Island that was comprised primarily of women.

Cyril and Haass were members of Atelier 17, the influential avant-garde printmaking studio founded in Paris in 1927 by Stanley William Hayter, which relocated to New York City temporarily during World War II. The workshop attracted many women artists since membership did not discriminate based on gender. Haass’s Meteors (ca. 1960s) and Cyril’s Moonlit Pond (1970) employ forcefully etched lines and areas of inked and uninked paper, which create strong, high contrast images. Haass, in particular, earned acclaim for her unusual techniques. Cyril had an active career in New York, participated in numerous group and solo shows and her work is held in major museums, yet her date of death remains unknown.

Émigré artists Margit Beck (b. Tokaj, Austro-Hungarian Empire, now Hungary, 1911–d. Great Neck, New York, 1997) and Yuli Blumberg (b. Kovno, Russian Empire, now Kaunas, Lithuania, 1894–d. New York, New York, 1964) both present Jewish subjects in an expressionistic style in their works included here, The Law Giver (ca. 1960) and Scholar in His Study (ca. 1948), respectively. Blumberg was an established artist prior to leaving Europe, having exhibited alongside such avant-garde Expressionists as Oskar Kokoschka (1886–1880) and Emile Nolde (1867–1956) before emigrating to the United States around 1924.

European artists Magdalena Rădulescu (b. Râmnicu Vâlcea, Romania, 1902–d. Paris, France, 1983) and Suzanne Rodillon (b. city unknown, France, 1916–d. probably Paris, France, 1988) had varying degrees of success. Rădulescu spent much of her career in Paris, but is virtually unknown outside of Romania where she is celebrated. Rodillon, on the other hand, found substantial success in her native country and had her first solo exhibition in 1957 at Galleria del Naviglio in Milan, Italy. Rodillon’s Bird (1958) was painted as her career was just taking off. However, in 1966, for reasons that remain unclear, Rodillon abruptly closed her studio and stopped painting. She died in obscurity in 1988.

Nadia Gould (b. Strasbourg, France, 1929–d. New York, New York, 2007), Lila Katzen (b. Brooklyn, New York, 1925–d. New York, New York, 1998), Edith Simonds (b. Queens, New York, 1901–d. Manhasset, New York, 1987), and Elsa Schachter (b. probably New York, New York, 1911 or 1912–d. Maplewood, New Jersey, 1971) are represented by abstract works that explore the emotive potential of color and composition.

Anne Tabachnick (b. Derby, Connecticut, 1927–d. New York, New York, 1995), Lee Hall (b. Lexington, North Carolina, 1934–d. Northampton, Massachusetts, 2017) and Mildred Mermin (b. New York, New York, 1907–d. Palm Beach, Florida, 1985) utilize color and form to evoke moods and associations in semi-abstract, stylized landscapes. Tabachnick’s Trees and Grass (ca. 1980s) suggests a scene in tension with the observable world and pure expression. In a review of Tabachnick’s last solo exhibition in 2015, Tim Keane of Hyperallergic wrote: “ . . . Tabachnick has long been one of the many New York School painters relegated to a minor role by art historians.”

Header image: Nadia Gould (b. Strasbourg, France, 1929–d. New York, New York, 2007), Playful Sunshine, ca. 1964, acrylic on board, 15 x 20 1/8 in. HHAR 1735.

This exhibition is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

F11: Digital Paintings for Full Screen

Going Live on April 11: A Virtual Exhibition at DerfnerOnline.org/F11

Derfner Judaica Museum + The Art Collection at Hebrew Home at Riverdale is pleased to announce its first virtual exhibition, F11: Digital Paintings for Full Screen, on view April 11–August 8, 2021. A virtual opening reception with the artists will be held on Zoom on Sunday, April 11, at 12 p.m. EST. This event is free and open to the public. Register at f11digitalpaintings.eventbrite.com. The exhibition will go live on April 11 at DerfnerOnline.org/f11.

“F11” refers to the function key that opens full screen viewing in most internet browsers. In the Covid-era when many art spaces are closed or open at limited capacity, online exhibitions have become ubiquitous. Such experiences include galleries that have been painstakingly photographed and recreated into 360-degree navigable spaces, fictional rendered environments where artwork has been “installed” virtually, social media as a curation space and websites that feature high-resolution images to showcase artworks that exist as physical objects. “F11” inverts these practices: It features digital paintings best exhibited in a purely virtual space where the optimal way of viewing the work is on-screen.

The 10 artists in this exhibition live and work in different places in the United States and internationally. They employ distinct digital strategies to create their works, which are linked by the exhibition’s conceptual framework, not thematically. The exhibition examines the significance of digital painting in this moment, especially when reliance on screens is more prevalent than ever before.

Carlos Torres Machado began exploring digital painting during the pandemic while working from home. Referring to his work as “extremes of rigorous geometry and lyrical abstraction,” his compositions explore the organization of social and technological information through pattern and complex color combinations. This is evident in his Data Centers series (2015–present), which began as large-scale polyptychs that Machado developed into digital paintings. Using Photoshop, he experimented with new structures and forms while maintaining the core color relationships that underpin his work.

Like many of the artists in the exhibition, Elaine Chao begins with a physical object to develop her digital compositions. She takes photographs of her acrylic paintings applied to cardboard and encased in gloss gel and then transfers them to Photoshop where she “excavates” layers of paint, enhancing particular sections of color and texture to create animated .gifs. The series Moving Image (2019), featured here, is a collection of animated paintings that explore complex color combinations and light through digital manipulation. Chao is the only artist represented by animated abstract paintings, engaging the core concept of the exhibition of digital works that are best exhibited on-screen.

Polina Protsenko also develops her digital abstractions with traditional media, beginning each work with mostly monochromatic color swatches she paints in watercolor on paper. Photographs of these images are transferred to the computer and collaged, rotated and manipulated in Photoshop, resulting in ethereal abstract works. Protsenko describes watercolor painting as “natural and fluid,” an art-making process that is partially out of her hands. Digital art, on the other hand, provides a tightly controlled format with which to explore purely formal concerns of color and composition. An interdisciplinary artist, this body of work is her first foray into digital painting, which she began during the pandemic.

Samhita Kamisetty’s richly colored digital paintings explore how physical spaces and the seemingly mundane objects within them can be emotionally transformative and acquire symbolic meanings. The private domestic interiors depicted in her paintings are based on her home in Bangalore, India, chosen for associations with comfort. Starting with an underdrawing in permanent marker on paper, Kamisetty digitally paints over the drawing in Photoshop and applies texture effects to create the final work. The flat compositions saturated with color and populated with elaborate patterns comprised of flowers, fruit, leaves and insects create a joyful, lively atmosphere.

The three works by Adam Blitz are part of his 2018 project Digital Apamea, an attempt to reconstruct the lost mosaic floor of a fourth-century synagogue at Apamea on Orontes in Syria. The digital works were constructed using such available sources as mosaic fragments, black and white photographs and comparisons with similar mosaic color schemes in Syria, Turkey and Italy. The artist refers to the resulting works as “fictions” since the available historical information is incomplete and he uses archaeological methods to complete them. For the final works, Blitz used a variety of tools in Photoshop to manipulate color, texture and shape.

Collin Pollard’s work centers around the relationship between the physical world and its depiction within the digital realm, particularly the vastness of digital space itself. During the pandemic, only a screen could provide a look into the outside world, which was otherwise impossible to reach physically. His paintings are derived from computer screenshots of glitches that appeared in YouTube travel videos he watched. They reflect on the stagnancy of the on-screen experience—the irony of being able to access the boundless space that digital technology has to offer while simultaneously being confined to a limited physical space. Pollard created these digital paintings by collaging high-resolution photographs of his own mark-making in acrylic paint or marker and screenshots of glitches, resulting in frenetic compositions with geometric shards of color.

Luise Eru also utilizes digital collage as part of his practice and has been using Photoshop exclusively since 2019. He incorporates found photographs enriched by layers of color, resulting in striking images that highlight the conditions of political chaos, poverty, marginalization and violence that Black people endure in his home country of Brazil. He describes his compositions as images of beauty that disrupt violence while retaining the aesthetic richness that Black culture and skin carry. His work is explicitly personal and lyrically emotional, reflecting on gender constructs of masculinity, childhood memories and familial traditions.

Donald Hargrove’s lush landscapes are rendered with painterly strokes, textures and subtle color gradations. Working from photographs, sketches executed both digitally and on paper, pure imagination or en plein air, Hargrove approaches digital art the same way as traditional painting, describing it as working with “pixels rather than paint.” He began exploring the medium for the first time during the pandemic after a long period of inactivity, describing working in a digital format as “reviving my own creativity but also my identity as an artist.”

Annie Lee is represented by a series of three abstract digital paintings entitled Smudges and Dust (2020) that ruminate on the unorthodox experience of earning a practical art degree online and the reliance upon screens to replace the physical classroom experience. Lee began exploring this concept by focusing on human marks left behind on the screens—smartphones, tablets, computers—that have become a necessity of every day life during the pandemic. Inspired by the dusty, grimy screen of her own laptop, the monochromatic blackness of these works is accented with impressions of fingerprint smudges. The paintings question where the boundary of digital and physical space lies and invite viewers to reflect on their own marks left behind on devices that are constantly swiped, touched and tapped when activating digital space.

Executed directly onto a tablet with a stylus, Stefanie Wolfson’s Plant Portraits series depicts plants that commonly appear in social media posts, particularly on Instagram, and are associated with a trendy design aesthetic popularized by social media influencers. The species depicted in Wolfson’s digital paintings represent some of the most overused plants that help the Instagrammer or Vlogger achieve a desired atmosphere to boost follower counts. Her project emphasizes the shallowness of social media’s fixation on keeping up with trends and reliance on superficial metrics of success. Wolfson’s portraits also touch on the damaging impact that over-consumption of these plants has on the environment.

Header image: Collin Pollard (b. San Jose, California, 1994; lives and works in San Jose), Sandstorm, 2021, digitally manipulated computer screenshot collaged with abstracted pixels in Photoshop, 6000 x 7200 pixels. Courtesy the artist.

This exhibition is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Impressions of Eastern Europe: Prints from the Permanent Collection

On view February 23–May 10, 2020
Click here to read the exhibition brochure online

Ilya Schor (b. Złoczów, Galicia, Austro-Hungarian Empire, now Zolochiv, Ukraine, 1904–d. New York, 1961), Jewish Wedding, 1950s, wood engraving with hand coloring, 8 15/16 x 12 in. (22.7 x 30.5 cm). Derfner Judaica Museum + The Art Collection, Gift of Estelle Reingold, HHAR 6354. © Mira Schor. Reproduced with Permission.

Derfner Judaica Museum + The Art Collection at Hebrew Home at Riverdale is pleased to announce its latest exhibition, Impressions of Eastern Europe: Prints from the Permanent Collection, on view in the Derfner Judaica Museum from February 23–May 10, 2020.

Rahel Szalit-Marcus (b. Kovno, Russian Empire, now Kaunas, Lithuania, 1894–d. Auschwitz, 1942), The child is pushed out of the cart barefoot. . . , from Fischke the Lame (Fischke der Krumme), 1922, lithograph, 9 1/2 x 7 1/4 in. (24.1 x 18.4 cm). Derfner Judaica Museum + The Art Collection, Gift of Sigmund R. Balka, 08.07.12.

The exhibition includes lithographs, etchings, engravings and woodcuts by 16 artists who were participants in some of the most significant art movements of the 20th century. They worked at a time of rapid change, including urbanization, secularization, industrial and technological innovation, and seismic political and cultural shifts. Their genre scenes, folk tale illustrations, portraits and character studies evoke nostalgia for a communal past, solemn awareness of the fragility of life and deep reverence for tradition.

Most of the artists included here were born in far reaches of the Austrian or Russian Empires and sought to make their careers in the major art capitals of Europe: Vienna, Munich, Berlin and Paris. Some found settled lives and success, such as Isidor Kaufmann (1853–1921), who was born in Arad, Hungary, then in the Austrian Empire (now in Romania), and studied art in Budapest and Vienna, where he maintained a studio. From a family seeking to escape anti-Semitism, violence and poverty, Bialystok-born Max Weber (1881–1961) found refuge in New York City as a child during the period of mass immigration to the US at the turn of the 20th century. A student of Henri Matisse in Paris, he helped to introduce Cubism to America.

Jakob Steinhardt (b. Zerkow, Germany, now Poland, 1887–d. Israel, 1968), Job 2, 1914, etching, 6 5/16 x 4 1/4 in. (16 x 10.8 cm). Derfner Judaica Museum + The Art Collection, Gift of Sylvia and Tom Rogers, 09.02.03.

Almost all of these artists experienced multiple migrations in their lifetimes. During the Holocaust, from 1933–1945, Jewish artists faced life-threatening circumstances, forced into exile, but not always finding safety. Rahel Szalit-Marcus (1894–1942), who spent her childhood in Lodz, Poland, and later died in Auschwitz, found success in 1920s Berlin illustrating Yiddish tales by Mendele Moykher-Sforim and Sholem Aleichem. Only one of the artists in this exhibition, Belorussian Anatoli Kaplan (1902–1980), who settled in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), remained in Russia, where he created rare works with Jewish subject matter, such as The Little Goat (1958–1961).

Several artists immigrated to Israel, including Jakob Steinhardt (1887–1968) and Albert Dov Sigal (1912–1970), one before and the other after the Holocaust, and another was born there, Emanuel Schary (1924–1994), though he immigrated to the US to pursue professional opportunities as an artist.

Anatoli Kaplan (b. Rogachev, Belorussia, Russian Empire, now Rohachow, Belarus, 1902–d. Leningrad, USSR, now Saint Petersburg, Russia, 1980), Verse 7: Came an Ox and Drank the Water, from The Little Goat, 1958–1961, lithograph, 14 x 10 1/2 in. (35.6 x 26.7 cm). Derfner Judaica Museum + The Art Collection, HHAR 1497.

Sigal’s series of prints of the Cyprus detention camp (1948) provides glimpses of daily life in the British-run internment camp where he was imprisoned with his family while trying to immigrate illegally to Palestine in late 1947 after surviving the War in Europe.

Stylistically, the prints in this exhibition reflect the influence of 19th-century art movements, including Naturalism and Realism and avant-garde experiments of the 20th century, such as Expressionism and Cubism. For some, naive or folk art-inspired modes of representation—for example, in the work of modern artists like Ilya Schor (1904–1961)—were well suited to convey the simplicity and piety of the Old World while masking the trauma of forced migration and genocide.

As Jews in 19th- and early 20th-century Europe moved away from traditional communities, Jewish artists became increasingly nostalgic. This was particularly true for artists who were removed geographically from their origins in Belorussia, Ukraine, Moldova, Hungary, Galicia, and other areas. Artists like Hermann Struck (1876–1944), who was born and lived in cosmopolitan Berlin, was especially drawn to the Ostjuden, traditional Yiddish-speaking Eastern European Jews, who were regarded as emblems of authenticity.

Friedrich (Bedřich) Feigl (b. Prague, Bohemia, now Czech Republic, 1884–d. London, 1965), Hear Israel, 1921, woodcut, 6 13/16 x 5 1/2 in. (17.3 x 14 cm). Derfner Judaica Museum + The Art Collection, U.239.

Struck was a master of various graphic techniques and taught other artists, including Steinhardt. During WWI, Struck served on the Eastern Front and became acquainted with the plight of Jews in Eastern Europe suffering anti-Semitism and pogroms, whom he then depicted in his prints. Steinhardt was a cofounder of Die Pathetiker, a German Expressionist artists’ group. One of his etchings, Job (1914), portrays the suffering of the biblical figure in an angular Expressionist style with an almost apocalyptic energy. Hear Israel (1921), a woodcut by the Prague-born avant-garde Czech printmaker and painter Friedrich (Bedřich) Feigl (1884–1965), has a similar intensity.

Throughout history, prints have been an effective means of disseminating art and ideas to a broad public. The present exhibition underscores the impact the movements and upheavals of the 20th century had on Jewish artists and the power of the print medium to communicate their experiences. At a time when mass migrations, detentions, deportations, displacements and ongoing humanitarian crises continue to occur on a global scale, such endeavors remain urgently relevant today.

This exhibition is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Additional exhibition support provided by

Impressions of Eastern Europe: Prints from the Permanent Collection

Impressions of Eastern Europe: Prints from the Permanent Collection

On view February 23–May 10, 2020
Text by Susan Chevlowe, Chief Curator and Museum Director

As participants in some of the most significant art movements of the twentieth century, the 16 artists in this exhibition worked at a time of rapid change, including urbanization, secularization, industrialization, technological innovation, and seismic political and cultural shifts. Their genre scenes, folk tale illustrations, portraits and character studies evoke nostalgia for a communal past, solemn awareness of the fragility of life and deep reverence for tradition. Their lithographs, etchings, engravings and woodcuts—mediums increasingly popular in the modern period—allowed the middle classes to inexpensively acquire works of art, particularly ones that would meaningfully connect them to a shared past.

Most of the artists included here were born in far reaches of the Austrian or Russian Empires and sought to make their careers in what were in their lifetimes the major art capitals of Europe: Vienna, Munich, Berlin and Paris. Some found settled lives and success, such as Isidor Kaufmann (1853–1921), who was born in Arad, Hungary, then in the Austrian Empire (now in Romania), and studied art in Budapest and Vienna, where he maintained his studio. During the Holocaust, from 1933 to 1945, Jewish artists faced arrest, deportation, internment and death. Some escaped with their lives and some survived through the War. Rahel Szalit-Marcus (1894–1942), however, perished in Auschwitz. She had spent her childhood in Lodz, Poland, then part of the Russian Empire, but was living in Berlin when Hitler came to power in 1933. She fled to Paris and was later deported.

Ilya Schor (b. Złoczów, Galicia, Austro-Hungarian Empire, now Zolochiv, Ukraine, 1904–d. New York, 1961), Jewish Wedding, 1950s, wood engraving with hand coloring, 8 15/16 x 12 in. (22.7 x 30.5 cm). Gift of Estelle Reingold, HHAR 6354. © Mira Schor. Reproduced with permission.

Two artists from families seeking to escape anti-Semitism, violence and poverty in the Russian Empire, Max Weber (1881–1961) and William Auerbach-Levy (1889–1964), found refuge in New York City as children during a period of mass immigration to the US. Only one of the artists in this exhibition, Anatoli Kaplan (1902–1980), who was born in Belorussia and settled in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), remained in Russia. Several others immigrated to Israel, including Jakob Steinhardt (1887–1968) and Albert Dov Sigal (1912–1970), one before and the other after the Holocaust, and another was born there, Emanuel Schary (1924–1994), though he immigrated to the US to pursue professional opportunities.

Max Weber (b. Bialystok, Russian Empire, now Poland, 1881–d. Great Neck, NY, 1961), Draped Head, 1928, lithograph, 3 5/16 x 2 9/16 in. (8.4 x 6.5 cm). Gift of Joanna V. Pomeranz, HHAR 6099.

Joseph Margulies (b. Vienna, 1896–d. New York, 1984), A Chassid, 1966, etching, 9 1/8 x 7 in. (23.2 x 17.8 cm). Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Robert L. Lewis, HHAR 5912.

Isidor Kaufmann (b. Arad, Hungary, Austrian Empire, now Romania, 1853–d. Vienna, 1921), The Jewish Bride, ca. 1920s, lithograph, 14 3/4 x 11 3/8 in. (37.5 x 28.9 cm). Gift of Ita Aber, 02.15.

As Jews in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Europe moved away from traditional communities, Jewish artists became increasingly nostalgic. This was particularly true for artists who were removed geographically from their origins in Belorussia, Ukraine, Moldova, Hungary, Galicia and other areas. Artists like Hermann Struck (1876–1944), who lived in cosmopolitan Berlin, and Kaufmann, who lived in Vienna, were especially drawn to the Ostjuden, traditional Yiddish-speaking Eastern European Jews, as emblematic of authenticity. Kaufmann was known for his finely painted renderings of traditional Jewish life. He traveled in Galicia, Poland and the Ukraine to observe village life first hand and became the foremost painter of the subject in the late-nineteenth and early twentieth-centuries. Painting in a highly realistic style, he idealized and elevated his subjects while paying close attention to the accuracy of clothing and props.

Tully Filmus (b. Ataki, Bessarabia, Russian Empire, now Otaci, Moldova, 1903–d. Fern Hill, MA, 1998), Chassidic Dance, 1964, lithograph, 19 3/4 x 25 5/8 in. (50.2 x 65.1 cm). HHAR 176.

Albert Dov Sigal (b. Kolozsvár, Hungary, Austro-Hungarian Empire, now Cluj-Napoca, Romania, 1912–d. New York, 1970), Cyprus Detention Camp, from Cyprus Camp, 1948, etching, 5 7/16 x 8 3/16 in. (13.8 x 20.8 cm). Gift of Rose Sigal Ibsen, HHAR 3374.

Struck was a master of various graphic techniques and taught other artists, including Steinhardt. During WWI Struck served on the Eastern Front and became aware of the plight of Jews in Eastern Europe suffering anti-Semitism and pogroms, whom he then depicted in his prints. Steinhardt was a cofounder of Die Pathetiker, a German Expressionist artists’ group. One of his etchings portrays the suffering of the biblical Job (1914) in an angular Expressionist style with an almost apocalyptic energy. Hear Israel, a woodcut by the Prague-born avant-garde printmaker and painter Bedřich Feigl (1884–1965), has a similar intensity. This particular print, along with etchings by Struck and Steinhardt and eight other artists, was featured in an album published in Berlin in 1921 for the twelfth World Zionist Congress held in Karlsbad. Draped Head (1928) is another work by an avant-garde artist, Weber, born in Bialystok, then in the Russian Empire, who was a student of Matisse in Paris and has been credited with bringing Cubism to America. Later in his life, Weber became interested in Hebrew mysticism and created figurative expressionist works in a style influenced by El Greco.

Friedrich (Bedřich) Feigl (b. Prague, Bohemia, now Czech Republic, 1884–d. London, 1965), Hear Israel, 1921, woodcut, 6 13/16 x 5 1/2 in. (17.3 x 14 cm). U.239.

Jakob Steinhardt (b. Zerkow, Germany, now Poland, 1887–d. Israel, 1968), Job 2, 1914, etching, 6 5/16 x 4 1/4 in. (16 x 10.8 cm). Gift of Sylvia and Tom Rogers, 09.02.03.

Rahel Szalit-Marcus (b. Kovno, Russian Empire, now Kaunas, Lithuania, 1894–d. Auschwitz, 1942),
The child is pushed out of the cart barefoot. . . , from Fischke the Lame, by Mendele Moykher-Sforim, 1922, lithograph, 9 1/2 x 7 1/4 in. (24.1 x 18.4 cm). Gift of Sigmund R. Balka, 08.07.12.

The career of Szalit-Marcus, who had been associated with the radical Novembergruppe in Berlin, flourished in the 1920s. Her illustrations to the Yiddish tales Fischke the Lame (1922) by Mendele Moykher-Sforim, which both celebrated and critiqued traditional Jewish village life at a moment when it was confronted with modernity, and Motl, Peysi the Cantor’s Son (1922) by Sholem Aleichem were published in Berlin. Kaplan was another artist who illustrated stories and folk tales, including the poem “One Kid” (“Had Gadya”) that is sung as part of the Passover seder, published in 1961. A member of the Union of Soviet Artists, which allowed him to work as an official artist under the Communist system, Kaplan remained in the USSR his entire life. He was known in the West, however, through the efforts of supporters in New York and at the Grosvenor Gallery in London, who worked to bring his art out from behind the Iron Curtain.Among the artists who came to the US as children around the turn of the century, Auerbach-Levy was a successful caricaturist, who also focused on Jewish types he found among the Eastern European immigrants on New York’s Lower East Side. Auerbach-Levy taught other immigrant and first-generation artists at the art school of the Educational Alliance settlement house. Joseph Margulies (1896–1984), who was born in Vienna and came to the US at a young age, was also interested in Jewish types, as in A Chassid (1966), an etching that uncompromisingly renders the deeply-lined face of his impoverished sitter in a manner that suggests authenticity and spiritual richness. The subject represents a surviving remnant of traditional life decimated by the Holocaust. Well into the first decades of the second half of the twentieth century, as distance in time and geography from their Jewish roots increased, interest in traditional Eastern European Jewish subject matter intensified. The appeal of such themes is evident, for example, in the popularization of romanticized depictions of religious study or dancing ecstatic Hasids, who represent the resilience and vitality of the Jewish spirit, as in the work of Tully Filmus (1903–1998).

Stylistically, the prints included here reflect broad influences, from nineteenth-century art movements such as Romanticism, Naturalism and Realism to avant-garde experiments of the twentieth century, including Expressionism and Cubism. For some, naive or folk art-inspired modes of representation—for example, in the work of modern artists like Ilya Schor (1904–1961)—were well suited to convey the simplicity and piety of the Old World while masking the trauma of forced migration and genocide. Schor himself was from a Hasidic family in Galicia and came from a folk tradition. He had studied art in Warsaw and lived in Paris before fleeing to the US via Marseille in late 1941. Artists like Simon Karczmar (1903–1982) created print portfolios that recollect traditional small-town Jewish life, such as Shtetl (ca. 1960).

Hermann Struck (b. Berlin, Germany, 1876–d. Haifa, Palestine, now Israel, 1944), Untitled (Figure Walking), n.d., etching, 5 3/4 x 4 1/4 in. (14.6 x 10.8). Ralph and Leuba Baum Collection, B.2.

Simon Karczmar (b. Warsaw, Poland, Russian Empire, now Poland, 1903–d. Safed, Israel, 1982), Simhas Torah, Dance of the Torah, from Shtetl, ca. 1960, lithograph, 8 15/16 x 7 1/2 in. (22.7 x 19 cm). Gift of Randolph and Herta Chester, HHAR 1294.

Other prints directly reference life during and in the wake of the Holocaust. A series of etchings by Sigal provides glimpses of daily life in a British-run internment camp in Cyprus where he was imprisoned with his family while trying to illegally immigrate from Europe to Palestine in 1947. A work from 1961, perhaps based on an earlier eyewitness account, by an artist who signed their work A. Fuchs (dates unknown), appears to depict a deportation. As late as the 1970s, Lithuanian-born School of Paris artist Arbit Blatas (1908–1999), who was able to flee to the US from occupied Paris, but whose mother perished in the Stutthof concentration camp, created a print to commemorate the massacre of Jews at Babi Yar in Kiev, Ukraine, in 1941.

Throughout history, prints have been an effective means of disseminating art and ideas to a broad public. The present exhibition underscores the impact the movements and upheavals of the twentieth century had on Jewish artists and the power of the print medium to communicate their experiences. Today when mass migrations, detentions, deportations, displacements and ongoing humanitarian crises continue to occur on a global scale, such endeavors remain urgently relevant.

Checklist of the Exhibition
All prints from the collection of Derfner Judaica Museum + The Art Collection.

William Auerbach-Levy (b. Brest-Litovsk, Belorussia, Russian Empire, now Belarus, 1889–d. Ossining, NY, 1964)
The Patriarch’s Prayer, 1914
Etching, 9 15/16 x 7 5/8 in. (25.2 x 19.4 cm)
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Robert L. Lewis, HHAR 5472

Arbit Blatas (b. Kovno, Russian Empire, now Kaunas, Lithuania, 1908–d. New York, 1999)
Babi Yar, ca. 1975
Lithograph, 15 3/4 x 19 in. (40 x 48.3 cm)
HHAR 3068

Friedrich (Bedřich) Feigl (b. Prague, Bohemia, now Czech Republic, 1884–d. London, 1965)
Hear Israel, 1921
Woodcut, 6 13/16 x 5 1/2 in. (17.3 x 14 cm)
U.239

Tully Filmus (b. Ataki, Bessarabia, Russian Empire, now Otaci, Moldova, 1903–d. Fern Hill, MA, 1998)
Chassidic Dance, 1964
Lithograph, 19 3/4 x 25 5/8 in. (50.2 x 65.1 cm)
HHAR 176

Fuchs (Place of birth and death and dates unknown)
Untitled, 1961
Lithograph, 15 x 20 in. (38.1 x 50.8 cm)
Gift of Jacob Reingold, HHAR 06.03

Anatoli Kaplan (b. Rogachev, Belorussia, Russian Empire, now Rohachow, Belarus, 1902–d. Leningrad, USSR, now Saint Petersburg, Russia, 1980)
Frontispiece, from The Little Goat, 1958–1961
Lithograph, 13 5/8 x 9 7/8 in. (34.6 x 25.1 cm)
HHAR 1503
Verse 7: Came an Ox and Drank the Water, from The Little Goat, 1958–1961
Lithograph
14 x 10 1/2 in. (35.6 x 26.7 cm)
HHAR 1497

Simon Karczmar (b. Warsaw, Poland, Russian Empire, now Poland, 1903–d. Safed, Israel, 1982)
Market, from Shtetl, ca. 1960
Lithograph, 7 1/2 x 11 in. (19 x 28 cm)
Gift of Randolph and Herta Chester, HHAR 1180
Hupa, Marriage, from Shtetl, ca. 1960
Lithograph, 11 3/8 x 7 13/16 in. (28.9 x 19.8 cm)
Gift of Randolph and Herta Chester, HHAR 1194
Mechadech de Levana, Prayer to the Moon, from Shtetl, ca. 1960
Lithograph, 7 3/4 x 11 1/16 in. (19.7 x 28.1 cm)
Gift of Randolph and Herta Chester, HHAR 1195
Simhas Torah, Dance of the Torah, from Shtetl, ca. 1960
Lithograph, 8 15/16 x 7 1/2 in. (22.7 x 19 cm)
Gift of Randolph and Herta Chester, HHAR 1294
The Musicians, from Shtetl, ca. 1960
Lithograph, 8 1/2 x 10 13/16 in. (21.6 x 27.5 cm)
Gift of Randolph and Herta Chester, HHAR 1301
In the Classroom, from Shtetl, ca. 1960
Lithograph, 7 3/8 x 11 1/4 (18.7 x 28.6 cm)
Gift of Randolph and Herta Chester, HHAR 1305

Isidor Kaufmann (b. Arad, Hungary, Austrian Empire, now Romania, 1853–d. Vienna, 1921)
The Jewish Bride, ca. 1920s
Lithograph, 14 3/4 x 11 3/8 in. (37.5 x 28.9 cm)
Gift of Ita Aber, 02.15
Friday Evening in Brody, ca. 1920s
Lithograph, 11 1/16 x 13 9/16 in. (28.1 x 34.4 cm)
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Robert L. Lewis, HHAR 5941

Joseph Margulies (b. Vienna, 1896–d. New York, 1984)
A Chassid, 1966
Etching, 9 1/8 x 7 in. (23.2 x 17.8 cm)
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Robert L. Lewis, HHAR 5912
The Seeker, 1949
Etching and aquatint, 11 7/8 x 8 3/4 in. (30.2 x 22.2 cm)
Gift of Ester Rosenstark, 05.13.02

Emanuel Schary (b. Haifa, Palestine, now Israel, 1924–d. Rock Hill, NY, 1994)
A Letter Home, n.d.
Lithograph, 10 1/2 x 8 9/16 in. (26.7 x 21.7 cm)
Gift of Rita and Marvin Grant, HHAR 2943

Ilya Schor (b. Złoczów, Galicia, Austro-Hungarian Empire, now Zolochiv, Ukraine, 1904–d. New York, 1961)
Jewish Wedding, 1950s
Wood engraving with hand coloring, 8 15/16 x 12 in. (22.7 x 30.5 cm)
Gift of Estelle Reingold, HHAR 6354

Albert Dov Sigal (b. Kolozsvár, Hungary, Austro-Hungarian Empire, now Cluj-Napoca, Romania, 1912–d. New York, 1970)
Cyprus Detention Camp, from Cyprus Camp, 1948
Etching, 5 7/16 x 8 3/16 in. (13.8 x 20.8 cm)
Gift of Rose Sigal Ibsen, HHAR 3374
View of the Camp, from Cyprus Camp, 1948
Etching, 7 1/4 x 9 7/16 in. (18.4 x 24 cm)
Gift of Rose Sigal Ibsen, HHAR 3375
Detainees in Cyprus, from Cyprus Camp, 1948
Etching, 8 3/8 x 5 5/16 in. (21.3 x 13.5 cm)
Gift of Rose Sigal Ibsen, HHAR 3377

Jakob Steinhardt (b. Zerkow, Germany, now Poland, 1887–d. Israel, 1968)
Job 2, 1914
Etching, 6 5/16 x 4 1/4 in. (16 x 10.8 cm)
Gift of Sylvia and Tom Rogers, 09.02.03
Old Couple at the Window, 1933
Woodcut, 13 3/4 x 10 1/8 in. (34.9 x 25.7 cm)
U.136
Untitled (Rabbi Blowing Shofar), n.d.
Woodcut, 10 x 8 in. (25.4 x 20.3 cm)
HHAR 2721
Untitled (Village Street), n.d.
Woodcut, 6 5/8 x 3 1/2 in. (16.8 x 8.9 cm)
U.238

Hermann Struck (b. Berlin, Germany, 1876–d. Haifa, Palestine, now Israel, 1944)
Untitled (Figure at Lectern), n.d.
Lithograph, 6 3/4 x 5 3/8 in. (17.1 x 13.7 cm)
Ralph and Leuba Baum Collection, B.1
Untitled (Figure Walking), n.d.
Etching, 5 3/4 x 4 1/4 in. (14.6 x 10.8 cm)
Ralph and Leuba Baum Collection, B.2
Patriarch II, ca. 1919
Etching, 5 5/8 x 4 3/4 in. (14.3 x 10.8 cm)
Ralph and Leuba Baum Collection, B.14
Patriarch III, 1935
Etching, 6 1/2 x 4 3/4 in. (16.5 x 12.1 cm)
Ralph and Leuba Baum Collection, B.13

Rahel Szalit-Marcus (b. Kovno, Russian Empire, now Kaunas, Lithuania, 1894–d. Auschwitz, 1942)
People and Scenes, frontispiece, from Motl, Peysi the Cantor’s Son, by Sholem Aleichem, 1922
Lithograph, 7 1/4 x 6 3/4 in. (18.4 x 17.1 cm)
Gift of Sigmund R. Balka, 09.01.06
Motl, Peysi the Cantor’s Son Sells Kvas, from Motl, Peysi the Cantor’s Son, by Sholem Aleichem, 1922
Lithograph, 8 1/4 x 6 in. (21 x 15.2 cm)
Gift of Sigmund R. Balka, 09.01.07
The Street Sneezes, from Motl, Peysi the Cantor’s Son, by Sholem Aleichem, 1922
Lithograph, 9 x 7 in. (22.9 x 17.8 cm)
Gift of Sigmund R. Balka, 09.01.11
Lunch in celebration of the guest. Chaje=Trajne, the tavern owner knows how to honor the new cousin, from Fischke the Lame, by Mendele Moykher-Sforim, 1922
Lithograph, 7 3/4 x 9 3/4 in. (19.7 x 22.9 cm)
Gift of Sigmund R. Balka, 08.07.08
Reb Alter spots the gang taking a rest in a grove. . . , from Fischke the Lame, by Mendele Moykher-Sforim, 1922
Lithograph, 7 3/8 x 9 3/4 in. (18.7 x 24.8)
Gift of Sigmund R. Balka, 08.07.10
The child is pushed out of the cart barefoot. . . , from Fischke the Lame, by Mendele Moykher-Sforim, 1922
Lithograph, 9 1/2 x 7 1/4 in. (24.1 x 18.4 cm)
Gift of Sigmund R. Balka, 08.07.12

Max Weber (b. Bialystok, Russian Empire, now Poland, 1881–d. Great Neck, NY, 1961)
Draped Head, 1928
Lithograph, 3 5/16 x 2 9/16 in. (8.4 x 6.5 cm)
Gift of Joanna V. Pomeranz, HHAR 6099

This text originally appeared in a printed brochure produced on the occasion of the exhibition Impressions of Eastern Europe: Prints from the Permanent Collection on view at the Derfner Judaica Museum from February 23–May 10, 2020.

About the Hebrew Home at Riverdale
As a member of the American Alliance of Museums, the Hebrew Home at Riverdale by RiverSpring Health is committed to publicly exhibiting its art collection throughout its 32-acre campus, including the Derfner Judaica Museum and a sculpture garden overlooking the Hudson River and Palisades. The Derfner Judaica Museum + The Art Collection provides educational and cultural programming for residents of the Hebrew Home, their families and the general public from throughout New York City, its surrounding suburbs and visitors from elsewhere. RiverSpring Health is a nonprofit, non-sectarian geriatric organization serving more than 18,000 older adults in greater New York through its resources and community service programs. Museum hours: Sunday–Thursday, 10:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m. Art Collection and grounds open daily, 10:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m.

Hebrew Home at Riverdale
5901 Palisade Avenue
Riverdale, New York 10471
Tel. 718.581.1596
RiverSpringHealth.org/art

This exhibition is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Additional exhibition support provided by

Leonard Freed: Israel Magazine 1967–1968

September 15, 2019–January 5, 2020
Click here to read the catalogue online

Leonard Freed, *Jerusalem, Israel*, 1967, gelatin silver print. Courtesy of the Estate of Leonard Freed.

Leonard Freed: Israel Magazine 1967–1968 includes 50 black and white photographs from Freed’s estate, many of which were reproduced in Israel Magazine, where Freed was the staff photographer. This is the first exhibition to examine this period of Freed’s work and the context in which these images were published.

Leonard Freed, *Tel Aviv, Israel*, 1968, gelatin silver print. Courtesy of the Estate of Leonard Freed.

Freed had been living in Amsterdam for a decade when war broke out between Israel and the neighboring states of Egypt, Jordan and Syria in June 1967. In response to this news, he made his way to Israel and over the next two years spent 15 months living in the country, covering the aftermath of what came to be known as the Six-Day War. In 1968, his wife, Brigitte, and young daughter, Elke Susannah, joined Freed and they settled in Tel Aviv where Brigitte at first borrowed Micha Bar Am’s darkroom to print Freed’s negatives as she often did throughout her husband’s career.

The first issue of Israel Magazine appeared in late 1967. Dozens of Freed’s images from 1967 and 1968, and a few from an earlier trip, his first, in 1962—mostly in black and white, but occasionally in color—appeared in all but three of the issues in the first volume. Freed’s photographs continued to be reproduced in later issues, which came out irregularly in the magazine’s early years, including the first issue of volume two in 1969. The latter was a special picture issue featuring 150 photographs, mostly by Freed and Bar Am. The magazine ceased publication in 1976.

Israel Magazine was conceived of in Amsterdam as a joint Israeli-American venture between the Philadelphia-based Israel Publishing Company and Spotlight Publications in Tel Aviv. The editor was Maurice Carr, a nephew of the Yiddish writer Isaac Bashevis Singer, also a contributor. In addition to covering economic, political and military matters, the magazine featured short stories, poetry, theatre, visual art and book reviews, and cartoons by Dosh.

Responding to an increased interest in Israel in the wake of the war, the magazine sought “to serve as an enduring bridge between Israel and [the] Diaspora” while being independent, eschewing propaganda and bringing to Jews and non-Jews “as vivid, as truthful an image of Israel as possible.” At the same time, the magazine supported the State of Israel and celebrated its diverse Jewish population, its strides in scientific research and contributions to developing countries, including its neighbors in Africa and Asia, and efforts on behalf of its own economy. It also encouraged secular and religious tourism.

Freed’s images of everyday life on the kibbutz, in Arab homes, among religious Jews, Christian communities and clergy, in refugee camps, in factories and on the streets of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv accompanied stories tied to a particular theme in each issue. Freed’s photographs of Israel were part of a larger humanistic project. They reflect his particular connection to Israel and to Jewish suffering, as well as his empathy for others whose experiences were different from his own. Some of Freed’s images from Israel Magazine were also exhibited in The Concerned Photographer, organized by Cornell Capa at the Riverside Museum in New York in 1967, which included Freed and five other photographers—Werner Bischof; Capa’s late brother, Robert; Andre Kértész; David Seymour; and Dan Weiner. They were also in another exhibition Capa organized at The Jewish Museum, New York, Israel: The Reality, in 1969, and later included by Freed in his book, Danse des fidèles (Dance of the Faithful), published in France in 1984.

About the photographer

Leonard Freed was born in 1929 in Brooklyn, New York, to Jewish immigrant parents from Minsk, now in Belarus. From 1948–52, he studied and worked as a graphic designer, before traveling through Europe and North Africa from 1952–1954. While in Paris in 1953 he began taking photographs and discovered the work of Henri Cartier-Bresson. He acquired his first Leica, the camera he would use for the rest of his life, second-hand in Cologne. After his return to New York in 1954, he documented Hasidic Jews in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. In 1956 and 1957 he traveled and photographed in Italy, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands, including the Jewish community in post-War Amsterdam, where he had recently settled.

In 1958, Freed married Brigitte Klück, whom he had met in Rome in 1956. Their daughter, Elke Susannah Freed, was born in 1959. Around this time Freed began to exhibit his photographs, including in a group exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. In 1961 he photographed Jewish communities in Germany and made his first trip to Israel the following year. In 1963 he photographed the historic March on Washington, beginning a long term project that focused on African Americans during the civil rights era. While based in the Netherlands, he continued to travel in Europe, the US, and Israel and then settled with his family in New York in 1970.

Freed became a member of the international photographers’ cooperative agency Magnum Photos in 1972. During the next several decades, until his death in 2006, his assignments brought him to countries in Europe and Africa, as well as to Israel, India, Iraq and Brazil. His work appeared in such publications as Fortune, Life, Look, The New York Times Magazine, Der Spiegel, Die Zeit, and Paris Match, among others. He also published 10 books of his photographs. Freed has exhibited widely and his photographs are in the permanent collections of the Jewish Museum, New York, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Museum of the City of New York, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, the Joods Historisch Museum, Amsterdam, the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, and the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

This exhibition is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Leonard Freed: Israel Magazine 1967–1968

Leonard Freed: Israel Magazine 1967–1968

On view September 15, 2019–January 5, 2020
Text by Susan Chevlowe, Chief Curator and Museum Director

Leonard Freed had been living in Amsterdam for a decade when war broke out between Israel and the neighboring states of Egypt, Jordan and Syria in June 1967. In response to this news, he made his way to Israel and over the next two years spent 15 months living in the country, working as a staff photographer for Israel Magazine covering the aftermath of what came to be known as the Six-Day War. In 1968, his wife, Brigitte, and young daughter, Elke Susannah, joined Freed and they settled in Tel Aviv where Brigitte at first borrowed Micha Bar-Am’s darkroom to print Freed’s negatives, as she often did throughout her husband’s career.

Israel Magazine was conceived of in Amsterdam as a joint Israeli-American venture. In the US, the Chairman of the Philadelphia-based publisher, Israel Publishing Company, was Beryl J. Wolk, whose family owned Goodway, Inc., an advertising and marketing firm. Vice President of IPC in the US and President of its Israeli partner in Tel Aviv, Spotlight Publications, was Dutch-born Hanoch Nenner, who had been the first mayor of Eilat. The editor was Maurice Carr, a nephew of the Yiddish writer Isaac Bashevis Singer, also a contributor. In addition to covering economic, political and military matters, the magazine featured short stories, poetry, theatre, visual art and book reviews, and cartoons by Dosh.

Responding to an increased interest in Israel in the wake of the war, the magazine sought “to serve as an enduring bridge between Israel and [the] Diaspora” while being independent, eschewing propaganda and bringing to Jews and non-Jews “as vivid, as truthful an image of Israel as possible.” At the same time, the magazine sought support for the State of Israel and celebrated its diverse Jewish population, its strides in scientific research and contributions to developing countries, including its neighbors in Africa and Asia, and its efforts on behalf of its own economy. It also encouraged secular and religious tourism.

Lag B’omer, Israel, 1967, gelatin silver print, 14 x 9 1/4 in. (35.6 x 23.5 cm)

Jerusalem, Israel, 1967, gelatin silver print, 6 1/2 x 9 11/16 in.
(16.5 x 24.6 cm)

Freed’s images of everyday life on the kibbutz, in Arab homes, among religious Jews, Christian communities and clergy, in refugee camps, in factories and on the streets of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv accompanied stories tied to a particular theme in each issue. With Israel having increased the area under its control by four times by the end of the war, according to the magazine, the focus of the premiere issue was logically on defense and was dedicated “to Israel’s war aim—peace.” According to Carr, the Six-Day War put Israel in a better negotiating position to achieve this end. The issue included articles by Moshe Dayan (“The Supreme Weapon”) and Brigadier General Chaim Herzog (“The New Israel”) with photographs by Freed.

Jerusalem, Israel, 1967, gelatin silver print, 10 x 6 1/2 in. (25.4 x 16.5 cm)

Herzog’s essay gave a strategic and economic assessment of the new territories Israel occupied and its relationship to the Arab population. As a result of the war, Israel had regained authority over the Old City, which was under Jordanian rule since 1948 and out of Jewish hands since it was conquered in 70 C.E. For the first time in 19 years Jews could now visit their holy site, the Western (or Wailing) Wall. Freed’s photograph of a young Arab boy with a serious expression sitting precariously on a wall in front of the Damascus Gate entrance to the Old City appeared opposite the opening page of Herzog’s article (above). At right a strong diagonal leads to the gate where many people have gathered along the way. Oddly, the photo was captioned, likely not by the photographer himself, “At the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem, an Arab child peddles Chinese wares,” though he appears to be selling canned fish.

Typically, Freed’s archival photographs have a city or country and date written on the back and they appear in publications with the location as the title. Freed has also included longer descriptions in publications accompanying exhibitions and in his own books. In Israel Magazine, the photograph of a Hasid surveying a ruined building (above) appeared in Herzog’s article with a caption that intentionally evoked Jewish history and religion: “The vanished frontier in Jerusalem—inspection of a miracle.” Compositionally, the image is typical for Freed who often foregrounded and monumentalized his subjects. It was also included in a group exhibition, The Concerned Photographer, that Cornell Capa organized at the Riverside Museum in New York in 1967, which featured Freed and five other photographers—Werner Bischof; Capa’s late brother, Robert; André Kertész; David Seymour; and Dan Weiner. Freed’s iconic images of African-Americans from the civil rights era, as well as others from Italy, France and Germany were represented in the exhibition. About a third Freed had taken in Israel in 1967.

In his book La danse des fidèles (Dance of the Faithful) published only in French in 1984 and dedicated to “the dead of my family murdered in the pogroms,” Freed stated that he had always wanted to write the texts for his photographs, and while they could stand on their own, he had used them “as a starting point, as a reference to an emotional experience which I was unable to capture as a photographer.” In his description in La danse des fidèles, Freed revealed some of the context in which he had photographed the Hasid, describing what else he had witnessed at that site but could not photograph: a 19-year-old Israeli soldier blown apart when clearing a mine in an area that was previously a no man’s land between Israel and Jordan, on the ”twenty-third day of the Six-Day War.”

Arab refugee woman on way toward Allenby Bridge to Jordan, 1967, gelatin silver print, 9 9/16 x 14 1/2 in. (22.9 x 36.8 cm)

Another image, of a Palestinian woman in traditional dress carrying her belongings on her head, also appeared in both The Concerned Photographer and Israel: The Reality (1969) (above). The latter, organized by Cornell Capa for The Jewish Museum in New York, was a broad historical exhibition with photographs dating back to the early part of the 20th century. In its accompanying publication, the image appeared with the caption “Arab Refugee Woman on Way to Allenby Bridge to Jordan/1967.” It appeared in The Concerned Photographer with the caption Israel, 1967, and with additional commentary by Freed: “All day they cross the River Jordan and the day after that and the day after that. I watched and thought of all the refugees I knew and of my wife.” Brigitte, who is not Jewish, was born in Germany and had been a refugee after World War II. It is a particularly resonant image today.

Jerusalem, Israel, 1967, gelatin silver print, 6 3/16 x 9 7/46 in. (15.7 x 24 cm)

Freed’s photographs showed many aspects of Palestinian life, from families living in Acre to the Old City, as well as in refugee camps in Gaza. A slight variant also appeared in Herzog’s article with the caption, “Israeli soldier distributes food to Arab children in the Gaza Strip.” Another article from 1968 on the challenges facing Palestinian families traveling between the Occupied Territories and Israel reproduced a photograph captioned, “Still uncertain of herself, the bargain bride from Gaza poses on a stool in her inlaws’ house.” A slight variant is included in the exhibition in the Jerusalem-themed second issue of volume one from 1968, another image of an Arab family at home in the Old City (above) accompanied an interview, titled “The Jewish Invasion” by Maurice Carr, with a moderate Arab, who reported that his home had been looted and who expressed regret that he had not emigrated to Jordan. The issue praised the speed at which East and West Jerusalem had been reunited under Mayor Teddy Kollek, but lamented that the hatred sown in a generation of young Arabs “will not be eliminated overnight.” While sympathetic to the plight of Palestinians, the editorial position of the magazine staunchly supported a unified Jerusalem.

Tel Aviv, Israel, 1968, gelatin silver print, 11 3/8 x 7 9/16 in. (28.9 x 19.2 cm)

A spotlight on religion in another issue in 1968 focused on the conflicts between religious and secular Jews in the State and included an article by a young Adin Steinsaltz, “What is a Jew?” Freed’s photos were spread throughout the issue, including an image of a modern secular couple in the reprint of a chapter from the former French Ambassador Jean Bourdeillette’s memoir, For Israel: “Tel Aviv looks like a big seaside resort . . . peaceful streets where one breathes in sea air together with an undefinable air of provincialism, comfort, bourgeois tranquility . . .” (above).

Freed’s photographs from Israel are part of his larger humanistic project. They reflect his particular connection to Israel and to Jewish suffering, his hopes for the future, as well as his empathy for others whose experiences were different from his own. Freed’s perspective was rooted in an understanding of his own family’s struggles as Jews in the modern world and the persecution they had experienced in Europe. His words and images convey those truths, and the enormity of that burden.

About the Photographer

Leonard Freed was born in 1929 in Brooklyn, New York, to Jewish immigrant parents from Minsk, now in Belarus. From 1948–52, he studied and worked as a graphic designer, before traveling in Europe and North Africa from 1952–1954. While in Paris in 1953 he began taking photographs and discovered the work of Henri Cartier-Bresson. He acquired his first Leica, the camera he would use for the rest of his life, second-hand in Cologne. After his return to New York in 1954, he documented Hasidic Jews in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. In 1956 and 1957 he traveled and photographed in Italy, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands, including the Jewish community in post-War Amsterdam, where he had recently settled.

In 1958, Freed married Brigitte Klück, whom he had met in Rome in 1956. Their daughter, Elke Susannah Freed, was born in 1959. Around this time Freed began to exhibit his photographs, including in a group exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. In 1961 he photographed Jewish communities in Germany and made his first trip to Israel the following year. In 1963 he photographed the historic March on Washington, beginning a long term project on African Americans. While based in the Netherlands, he continued to travel in Europe, the US, and Israel, and then settled with his family in New York in 1970.

Checklist of the Exhibition

All photographs in the exhibition are vintage gelatin silver prints or later prints signed by the artist, unless otherwise noted. Lent by Brigitte Freed. Courtesy of the Estate of Leonard Freed. Dimensions provided are image size, height x width.

Beersheba, Israel, 1962
8 1/2 x 12 5/8 in. (21.6 x 32 cm)
(Later print, unsigned, stamp)

Ein Gedi, Israel, 1962
12 3/4 x 8 1/2 in. (32.4 x 21.6 cm)

Jerusalem, Israel (Purim), 1962
8 6/16 x 12 5/8 in. (21.6 x 32.1 cm)

Sodom, Israel (Machine Shop, Dead Sea Works), 1962
7 1/2 x 11 7/16 in. (19 x 29 cm)

Arab refugee woman on way toward Allenby Bridge to Jordan, 1967
9 9/16 x 14 1/2 in. (22.9 x 36.8 cm)

Bnei Brak, Israel (Talmudic college), 1967
9 1/4 x 14 in. (23.5 x 35.6 cm)

Israel (Hafetz Haim kibbutz wedding), 1967
7 1/4 x 10 15/16 (18.4 x 27.8 cm)

Israel (Jewish couple in desert hills), 1967
8 1/2 x 12 5/8 in. (21.6 x 32 cm)
(Vintage print, unsigned, label)

Jerusalem, Israel (Arab family in their home in the Old City), 1967
6 3/16 x 9 7/16 in. (15.7 x 24 cm)

Jerusalem, Israel (Arab fish seller, Damascus Gate), 1967
10 x 6 1/2 in. (25.4 x 16.5 cm)

Jerusalem, Israel (Christians passing through the New City on the way to the Old City), 1967
6 1/2 x 9 11/16 in (16.5 x 24.6 cm)

Jerusalem, Israel (Dome of the Rock), 1967
11 3/8 x 7 1/2 in. (28.9 x 19 cm)

Jerusalem, Israel (laying tefillin at the Wailing Wall), 1967
14 1/8 x 9 3/8 in. (35.9 x 23.8 cm)

Jerusalem, Israel (looking toward Notre Dame de France), 1967
8 1/2 x 12 5/8 in. (21.6 x 32 cm)
(Later print, unsigned, label)

Jerusalem, Israel (Pillar of Absalom), 1967
6 1/2 x 9 3/4 in (16.5 x 24.8 cm)

Jerusalem, Israel (synagogue, Mea Shearim), 1967
7 x 10 1/2 in. (17.8 x 26.7 cm)

Jerusalem, Israel (Talmud students returning from the Old City), 1967
9 11/16 x 14 1/8 in. (24.6 x 35.9 cm)
(Vintage print, unsigned, label)

Jerusalem, Israel (two older women), 1967
9 3/4 x 6 11/16 in. (24.8 x 17 cm)
(Later print, unsigned, label)

Jerusalem, Israel (Wailing Wall after the Six-Day War), 1967
9 3/8 x 14 1/4 in. (23.8 x 36.2 cm)

Lag B’Omer, Israel (Lag B’omer pilgrimage to Meron and Safed), 1967
14 x 9 1/4 (35.6 x 23.5 cm)

Lag B’omer, Israel (rabbi’s tomb, Meron), 1967
12 5/8 x 8 1/2 in. (30.5 x 21.6 cm)
(Vintage print, unsigned, stamp)

Israel (older man smoking), 1967/1968
6 1/2 x 9 3/4 in (16.5 x 24.8 cm)
(Later print, unsigned, label only)

Jerusalem, Israel (water seller), 1967/1968
9 5/8 x 6 3/8 in.
(Later print, unsigned, label)

Acre, Israel (just married Arab girl with her inlaws’ family in their home), 1968
7 x 10 9/16 in. (17.8 x 26.8 cm)

Arab teacher with his family at home in a refugee camp near Hebron, 1968
11 3/8 x 7 1/2 in. (28.9 x 19 cm)

Ashdod, Israel (truck factory), 1968
11 7/16 x 7 9/16 in. (29 x 19.2 cm)

Beit Shemesh, Israel (textile factory), 1968
7 1/2 x 11 1/4 in (19 x 28.6 cm)

Bethlehem (an Armenian priest outside the Church of the Manger), 1968
7 5/8 x 11 3/8 in. (19.4 x 28.9 cm)

Galilee, Israel (children on a kibbutz), 1968
7 3/4 x 11 5/8 in. (19.7 x 29.5 cm)

Gaza, 1968
7 x 9 5/8 in. (17.8 x 24.4 cm)

Gaza (refugee camp), 1968
7 7/8 x 12 in. (20 x 30.5 cm)

Israel (an Arab Druze at home), 1968
7 5/8 x 11 3/8 in. (19.4 x 28.9 cm)

Israel (Arab family), 1968
7 5/8 x 11 1/2 in. (19.4 x 29.2 cm)

Israel (Bet Shean Valley, kibbutz spring festival), 1968
7 9/16 x 11 5/8 in (19.2 x 29.5)

Israel (border kibbutz, graveside), 1968
11 3/8 x 7 1/2 in. (28.9 x 19 cm)

Israel (fresh water spring on the Dead Sea near Qumran), 1968
11 7/16 x 7 9/16 in. (29 x 19.2 cm)

Israel (older man with walking stick), 1968
9 3/4 x 6 3/8 in. (24.8 x 16.2 cm)
(Later print, unsigned, label)

Jerusalem, Israel (International Economic Conference), 1968
10 x 13 11/16 in. (25.4 x 34.8 cm)

Jerusalem, Israel (Torah scribes), 1968
6 15/16 x 9 3/4 in. (17.6 x 24.8 cm)
(Later print, unsigned, label)

Kibbutz Sde Boker, Israel (the former prime minister David Ben Gurion), 1968
11 3/8 x 7 5/8 in. (28.9 x 19.4 cm)

Lag B’Omer, Israel (singing and dancing for the Lag B’omer festival in Meron), 1968
11 3/8 x 7 5/8 in. (28.9 x 19.4 cm)

Lod, Israel (aircraft factory), 1968
11 7/16 x 7 9/16 in (29 x 19.2 cm)

Occupied Golan Heights (a Druze at home in his kitchen), 1968
7 1/2 x 11 3/8 in (19 x 28.9 cm)

Occupied Golan Heights (Druze girl), 1968
12 3/4 x 8 5/8 in. (32.4 x 21.9 cm)

Ramallah, Occupied Territories (class of blind Arab children with their blind teacher), 1968
7 3/4 x 11 1/2 in. (19.7 x 29.2 cm)

Shore Near El Arish, Sinai Desert (remains of a soldier), 1967
8 1/2 x 5 5/8 in. (21.6 x 14.3 cm)

Tel Aviv, Israel (bathing suit factory), 1968
9 11/16 x 6 1/2 in. (24.6 x 16.5 cm)

Tel Aviv, Israel (couple on motor scooter), 1968
11 3/8 x 7 9/16 in. (28.9 x 19.2 cm)

Tel Aviv, Israel (modern couple), 1968
7 1/2 x 11 1/2 in. (19 x 29.2 cm)
(Vintage print, unsigned, stamp)

Tel Aviv, Israel (ulpan Hebrew language school for new immigrants), 1968
11 3/8 x 7 1/2 in. (28.9 x 19 cm)

This text originally appeared in the brochure produced on the occasion of the exhibition Leonard Freed: Israel Magazine 1967–1968 on view at the Derfner Judaica Museum from September 15, 2019–January 5, 2020.

About the Hebrew Home at Riverdale

As a member of the American Alliance of Museums, the Hebrew Home at Riverdale by RiverSpring Health is committed to publicly exhibiting its art collection throughout its 32-acre campus, including the Derfner Judaica Museum and a sculpture garden overlooking the Hudson River and Palisades. The Derfner Judaica Museum + The Art Collection provides educational and cultural programming for residents of the Hebrew Home, their families and the general public from throughout New York City, its surrounding suburbs and visitors from elsewhere. RiverSpring Health is a nonprofit, non-sectarian geriatric organization serving more than 18,000 older adults in greater New York through its resources and community service programs. Museum hours: Sunday–Thursday, 10:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m. Art Collection and grounds open daily, 10:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m.

Hebrew Home at Riverdale
5901 Palisade Avenue
Riverdale, New York 10471
Tel. 718.581.1596
RiverSpringHealth.org/art

This exhibition is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

From the Eastern Bloc to the Bronx: Early Acquisitions from The Art Collection

From the Eastern Bloc to the Bronx: Early Acquisitions from The Art Collection

On view May 5–August 25, 2019
Text by Emily O’Leary, Associate Curator

The Grosvenor Gallery in London promoted artists from Eastern Bloc countries at the height of the Cold War and came to play a central role in shaping the Hebrew Home Art Collection. Some of the first works that came into the collection were by artists included in solo and group exhibitions at the Gallery, which had been founded in 1960 by the American sociologist Eric Estorick (1913–1993). Prior to forming a permanent collection, in 1968 the Hebrew Home first exhibited works on loan from The Jewish Museum, New York, arranged by Jacob Reingold (1916–1999), who was then Executive Director of the Home. With a few key supporters, Reingold acquired work directly from Grosvenor Gallery beginning in 1975. At the time, Estorick was seeking care for his father, Morris Estorick (1890–1978), who was suffering from Alzheimer’s, which brought him into contact with the Hebrew Home. Morris resided at the Home for two years, from 1976 to 1978.

Today, Hebrew Home owns over 240 artworks made in the Eastern Bloc by 53 different artists that were acquired from Grosvenor Gallery. The paintings and works on paper in the present exhibition are by 35 of those artists and organized around nine key shows they participated in at the Gallery between 1961 and 1967. When these artists—who lived and worked in the Soviet Socialist Republics of Armenia and Russia and satellite states Hungary and Czechoslovakia (today the Czech Republic and Slovak Republic)—were shown at Grosvenor Gallery, art from “behind the Iron Curtain” was largely unseen by Western audiences. As artists in the Eastern Bloc, they worked under oppressive conditions resulting from limits set by the government about what kind of art was permitted. The only style officially allowed was Socialist Realism, a figurative approach to art that glorified Soviet ideals. The exhibitions Estorick mounted offered a rare glimpse for the West into how Eastern Bloc artists functioned within this restrictive environment.

Exhibitions at Grosvenor Gallery

Lithographs by Twenty-seven Soviet Artists (May 9–June 10, 1961)

Boris Ermolaev (Russian, 1903–1982), At School on the Eve of the School Year, 1961, lithograph, 17 x 23 inches, HHAR 1513

Lithographs by Twenty-seven Soviet Artists was the first exhibition of Eastern Bloc artists at Grosvenor Gallery in 1961. It featured Russian printmakers from the Leningrad Experimental Graphics Laboratory (LEGL), an official workshop that included master lithographers who used the medium to create intricate images with complex color palettes.

Membership in the Artists’ Union—the body that oversaw artistic activities throughout the Soviet Union and maintained the printmaking workshops—was required in order to work at LEGL. The LEGL artists’ subjects had to adhere to Soviet standards, as exemplified in both the overtly socialist message in Boris Ermolaev’s At School on the Eve of the School Year (1961), depicting peasant women and children on the collective farm, and the more decorative, Matissean still lifes of Alexander Vedernikov. In some cases, however, the subject fell into a more gray area, as was the case with Grigory Izrailevich’s ominous black and white owls, in such works as Time Flies (1960), which symbolize the fleeting nature of time.

Estorick recognized the quality and innovation in the work of the LEGL artists during a visit to the workshop in 1960 and the exhibition proved to be a successful venture for the Gallery. The London showing garnered enough commercial and critical success that it was remounted (with work by all but two of the original artists) in New York City later that same year. Subsequently, The Museum of Modern Art acquired prints by Ermolaev, Anatoli Kaplan, Gerta Nemenova, Alexander Shenderov and Vedernikov.

Anatoli Kaplan: The World of Sholem Aleichem and Other Scenes, Tales and Songs of Russian Provincial Life (November 22–December 31, 1961)

Anatoli Kaplan, Verse 6: Came the water and quenched the fire, from The Little Goat, 1958–1961, published 1961, lithograph, 24 3/16 x 18 7/16 inches, HHAR 1496

Anatoli Kaplan, Dedication Page, from The Little Goat, 1961, lithograph, 24 1/2 x 18 1/2 inches, HHAR 285

After Kaplan was first shown in the Gallery’s 1961 LEGL exhibition, Estorick mounted a solo show of 131 lithographs. He demonstrated a preference for Kaplan’s work well beyond that of the other artists, as suggested by LEGL artist Izrailevich’s comment that when Estorick visited the workshop he purchased more lithographs by Kaplan than anyone else (Kononikhin 62).

Throughout his life, Kaplan worked almost exclusively on Jewish themes. Between 1937–1941, he created Kasrilovka, a lithographic series that depicted scenes of nostalgic shtetl life. Named after the fictitious small town in Yiddish writer Sholem Aleichem’s stories, Kasrilovka was purportedly commissioned to encourage Russian Jews to resettle in the Jewish Autonomous Oblast (JAO), a far-flung region in eastern Russia that borders China. The JAO’s regional seat of government is the better known town, Birobidzhan.

Estorick also commissioned Kaplan to expand portfolios based on Aleichem stories, as well as The Little Goat (1958–1961), a series based on a song from the Passover liturgy. Dedication Page (1961), included in this exhibition, was added to the series and indicates that the edition was printed exclusively for Grosvenor Gallery.

Kaplan’s relationship with the Hebrew Home and Estorick was longer and steadier than any of the other artists. The Hebrew Home’s first acquisitions from the Gallery in 1975 were Kaplan’s lithographs and Solomon Gershov’s paintings. Both artists focused on Jewish subjects. Reingold greatly admired Kaplan’s work and supported his career into the 1980s, encouraging other Jewish institutions to acquire his prints. In a letter dated May 3, 1976, in the Hebrew Home Archives, Reingold wrote to Kaplan about arranging a solo exhibition of his work. Ten years later, a large solo show of Kaplan’s prints, drawings and ceramics was finally realized at the recently founded Judaica Museum.

Favorsky (July 10–August 17, 1962)

Vladimir Favorsky was a revered Russian artist known for his woodcut illustrations of Russian folktales and to literary works by Tolstoy, Pushkin, Dostoevsky and Shakespeare. Estorick mounted the artist’s first major solo exhibition in the West in 1962. Entitled simply Favorsky, it spanned 50 years of the artist’s career and featured loans from his personal collection that Estorick was able to arrange after first visiting Favorsky at his Moscow home in December 1961.

The exhibition included rare linocuts from the Samarkand suite, three of which represent Favorsky in the present exhibition and were created during the artist’s evacuation to the city of Samarkand in Soviet Uzbekistan between 1941 and 1943. The evacuation was an effort by the Soviet government to safeguard its most valued intelligentsia from the German advance during Operation Barbarossa by sending them to remote regions.

Favorsky took up linocut printmaking because it was difficult to practice woodblock printmaking due to the lack of available material. He had a student in Saint Petersburg send him linoleum as a replacement. Samarkand depicts the everyday lives of the Uzbek people—many of whom had to open their homes to evacuees—among their caravans and camels.

Despite the Grosvenor Gallery exhibition’s positive reception in the press at the time, Favorsky remains in relative obscurity among Western audiences today.

First Image: Paintings and Sculpture by Artists of the Gallery (November 22, 1963–January 4, 1964)

Richard Fremund (Czech, 1928–1969), Easter Landscape, 1963, oil on canvas, 35 x 45 1/2 inches, HHAR 1276

This exhibition of 15 artists was mounted in celebration of Grosvenor Gallery’s move to a larger space in 1963. Nine of the artists were from the United Kingdom and three from Italy. The remaining three were Eastern Bloc artists: the Czech painter Richard Fremund, represented here by two abstract townscape paintings, and Hungarians Gyula Konfár and Mihály Schéner, who subsequently had a two-person exhibition.

A trip to Paris where he saw firsthand such modern masters as Picasso, Matisse and Dufy in 1956 was pivotal to Fremund’s approach to art. He also developed an awareness of contemporary art beyond the Eastern Bloc through his close friend Jiří Siblík, a Czech art historian, who was able to travel abroad and owned books and prints by major international artists. Siblík’s home created a nexus for young Czech artists, including Fremund, who sought access to the contemporary Western art world (Chmelarová 7). Estorick exhibited several artists from within Fremund’s circle, all of whom used vivid colors, abstraction and simplified geometry in their paintings. It was such bold experimentation that marked Fremund as a dissident artist. He died tragically in a car accident in 1969.

Gyula Konfár, Mihály Schéner: Two Contemporary Hungarian Artists (March 3–24, 1964)

Mihály Schéner (Hungarian, 1923–2009), Self-Portrait at Work, 1964, oil on board, 27 3/4 x 39 1/2 inches, HHAR 2994

This exhibition of 52 paintings was the only one in which the Gallery featured Hungarian art exclusively, including Konfár’s White Cottages, Red Roofs (1964) and Schéner’s Self-Portrait at Work (1964). Both Konfár and Schéner worked in similar dark, expressionistic styles and, according to the Grosvenor show’s catalogue, enjoyed successful careers in their home country and exhibited internationally. Nonetheless, neither artist ever exceeded moderate successes within Hungary. Estorick framed the emotional quality of Konfár’s painting, evident in the typical impasto handling and brooding colors in his White Cottages, Red Roofs, within the context of his relationship to the late 19th-century Hungarian School and referred to him as “one of the most highly esteemed artists in Hungary.” The Hebrew Home owns three similar landscapes executed in this vein.

Schéner’s Self-Portrait at Work, a genre he utilized frequently, depicts an artist at work in a dark interior hunched over a palette and paintbrush. Executed only eight years after the short-lived Hungarian revolution of 1956 that was brutally quashed by the Soviet government, the painting may reflect deeper unrest given the oppressive atmosphere of Soviet-controlled Hungary. The self-portrait functions as a vehicle for introspection with heavy, dark colors that emphasize the artist’s solitude.

Aspects of Contemporary Soviet Art (June 8–28, 1964)

Mariam Aslamazian (Armenian, 1907–2006), Collective Farm Abundance, 1962, oil on canvas, 34 x 54 inches, HHAR 3009

There was no single style that dominated Aspects of Contemporary Soviet Art, a sprawling exhibition of 82 artists that offered Western audiences a rare opportunity to view new and recent art from the Eastern Bloc. In a 1963 New York Times article announcing the forthcoming exhibition, Estorick stated that he sought works from the Eastern Bloc because he thought they would be salable, and also capable of providing a bridge between the Soviet Union and the capitalist West.

Acknowledging what Estorick had accomplished in securing the Soviets’ permission to export the artworks to London, British art critic Nigel Gosling noted in The Observer: “The show is a milestone. For the first time in 40 years, Soviet paintings are exhibited for sale outside Russia.” At the same time, he criticized it, lamenting “. . . I prefer many Soviet propaganda paintings, big and brassy and bold, to many of the feeble canvasses shown here.”

Nine of the paintings in From the Soviet Bloc to the Bronx are executed in the Soviet Impressionist style, an approach to art that drew influence from French Impressionism while maintaining a socialist message. They depict well-known Russian landmarks and architecture, bucolic landscapes and farm scenes. Three paintings of Armenian subjects—landmarks with nationalist overtones and a still life depicting the bounty of collective farming—reflect the influence of modernist movements in Armenian art that began decades earlier. Four paintings—two landscapes and two still lifes—in muted colors are by artists who worked in what was later termed the Severe Style, a subdued, less propagandistic form of Socialist Realism.

Out of 99 oil paintings listed in the Aspects of Contemporary Soviet Art catalogue (works on paper were uncatalogued), Hebrew Home owns 16.

Vincent Hložník: Paintings and Graphics (April 13–May 8, 1965)

Vincent Hložník (Slovak, 1919–1997), Untitled, from Dreams, 1962, linocut, 23 5/8 x 16 3/8 inches, HHAR 1421

Vincent Hložník (Slovak, 1919–1997), Untitled, from Dreams, 1962, linocut, 23 5/8 x 16 3/8 inches, HHAR 1407

Vincent Hložník was a Slovak artist whom Estorick featured in a major solo exhibition of 96 works in 1965. The catalogue included a brief introduction by Slovak art historian and critic Rastislav Matuštík, who recognized Hložník’s “tragic vision” as having grown “out of a feeling of kinship with those who suffered and died in the Second World War.” The artist’s perceptions were shaped by the atrocities he witnessed while a student at the School of Applied Arts in Prague from 1937–1942, which coincided with the German invasion and occupation of the city beginning in 1939.

Hložník went on to a successful career as an artist and teacher in Czechoslovakia where he established the highly influential Department of Graphic Art and Illustration at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava (now in Slovakia), which he directed from 1952 to 1972. He also earned international recognition at the 1958 Venice Biennale when he received an award for printmaking given to an artist under 45 by the David E. Bright Foundation based in Los Angeles. The other Bright Foundation winners that year were Kenneth Armitage (1916–2002) of Great Britain for sculpture and Antoni Tàpies (1923–2012) of Spain for painting.

Although not considered an outright dissident artist, Hložník had a strong affinity for Surrealism, which he attributed to his introduction in 1940 to a group of young artists with whom he discussed the then-banned style. He described that experience as opening new artistic possibilities for him to explore the purely imaginative (Petránsky 138–135). His surrealistic series of linocuts, Dreams (1962)—a cycle of prints that cautions about the horrors of war—were shown in the 1965 Grosvenor exhibition.

Hložník left a lasting legacy passed on to generations of students and his humanistic approach remains an influence on Slovak graphic artists today. His work is on permanent view in galleries and museums in the Slovak Republic.

Oskar [sic] Rabin: Paintings, 1956-1965 (June 10–July 3, 1965)

Oscar Rabin (Russian, 1928–2018), Cats Under Crescent Moon, 1963, oil on canvas, 35 1/2 x 43 1/2 inches, HHAR 1076

Oscar Rabin, founder of the Nonconformist movement in Moscow in the 1970s and a major international artist today, had his first solo exhibition in the West at Grosvenor Gallery in 1965. The exhibition included Cats Under Crescent Moon (1963) and Bread and Factory (1964). Both paintings are typical of his style: expressionistic, industrial landscapes executed with heavy black outlines, punctuated by smokestacks and wires. Cats—an animal he recalled as being ubiquitous in the Moscow suburbs where he lived—were a frequent motif in his work and three appear in Cats Under Crescent Moon. Rabin described the cat’s shape as capable of resembling devils, railway levers or curling signatures.

The reception of Rabin’s exhibition in the London press was mixed. Art critic Terence Mullaly praised his work in The Daily Telegraph. Other reviewers simply labeled the paintings as uncontroversial. Nonetheless, Rabin faced backlash at home in Russia. In 1966, a scathing critique that appeared in Sovetskaya Kultura, the official newspaper published by the Soviet Ministry of Culture, gave Rabin’s paintings the epithet “neurotic” and attacked his willingness to exhibit at a Western venue.

Rabin’s activities continued to cause problems for the Soviet government. In 1974 he was an organizer of the infamous “bulldozer exhibition” held outside Moscow. In an incident that was reported internationally, dissident artists who were prohibited from participating in official galleries mounted an exhibition in an empty lot that was brutally shut down by the Soviet authorities with water cannons and bulldozers.

Rabin is the only artist in From the Eastern Bloc to the Bronx who resettled in the West. In 1978 while abroad in Paris, Rabin and his family were abruptly stripped of their Soviet citizenship, forcing them into exile. His citizenship was restored in 1990 but Rabin remained in Paris until his death in 2018.

The World of Sholem Aleichem, Kaplan lithographs, Gershov paintings (Opening date unknown–February 14, 1967)

Solomon Gershov (Russian, 1906–1989), Tevye, ca. 1963–1964, oil on canvas, 25 x 26 1/2 inches, HHAR 40

This exhibition was the last at the Gallery to focus on Eastern Bloc artists and was on view at the same time as works by South African artist Aileen Lipkin in 1967. It featured Kaplan’s lithographs illustrating the stories of the famous Yiddish writer and Gershov’s imaginary painted portraits of Tevye, the eponymous protagonist of Aleichem’s series of short stories Tevye the Milkman.

Gershov and Kaplan were the first artists the Hebrew Home acquired from Estorick in 1975. It’s likely that Reingold, himself an émigré from Russian Łódź (now Poland), who settled in the US in 1936, and Estorick, whose family fled Russia in 1905 to escape anti-Semitism, shared a desire to support Soviet Jewish artists. Gershov, who painted Jewish themes in an expressionistic style and was critical of Soviet policies regarding art, was arrested twice for his views, first in 1932 and then again in 1948. Both times, all of his work was destroyed. The Hebrew Home owns six paintings of Tevye by Gershov that were most likely influenced by his travels through Latvia in 1957 and 1960 when only a remnant of the pre-war Jewish population remained.

The Grosvenor Gallery’s focus on exhibitions of Eastern Bloc artists was concentrated in the period between 1961 and 1967, according to the Gallery’s available records, and coincided with an ambitious general program of a dozen or more exhibitions each year. During this same period, the Gallery organized at least 80 solo and group exhibitions featuring artists mostly from Western Europe. While he moved his focus away from Soviet Bloc artists after 1967, Estorick continued to include some in other broader, thematic group shows. Many works by Eastern Bloc artists remained in Gallery inventory beyond these critical early years and were thus available for the Hebrew Home to acquire in the 1970s. Although Estorick died in 1993, the Grosvenor Gallery remains active in London to this day.

Checklist of the Exhibition

Mariam Aslamazian (Armenian, 1907–2006)
Collective Farm Abundance, 1962
Oil on canvas, 34 x 54 inches
HHAR 3009

Alexander Dubinchik (Russian, 1922–1997)
A Warm Evening, ca. 1963
Oil on canvas, 20 x 31 1/2 inches
HHAR 1279

Boris Ermolaev (Russian, 1903–1982)
At School on the Eve of the School Year, 1961
Lithograph, 17 x 23 inches
HHAR 1513

Irina Fateeva (Russian, 1908–1981)
Galina Solovieva (Russian, 1908–1984)
Magic Carpet, ca. 1964
Gouache on paper, 16 1/2 x 12 inches
HHAR 1272

Vladimir Favorsky (Russian, 1886–1964)
Untitled, from Samarkand, 1942
Linocut, 13 3/8 x 17 1/4 inches
HHAR 1198

Arba, from Samarkand, 1942
Linocut, 11 x 13 1/2 inches
HHAR 1199

Talk About Gunpowder, from Samarkand, 1942
Linocut, 24 1/4 x 12 1/4 inches
HHAR 194

Moisey Feigen (Russian, 1904–2008)
Winter Landscape, ca. early 1960s
Oil on canvas, 35 1/2 x 47 inches
HHAR 1895

Richard Fremund (Czech, 1928–1969)
Blue Landscape, 1957
Oil on canvas, 36 x 45 1/2 inches
HHAR 125

Easter Landscape, 1963
Oil on canvas, 35 x 45 1/2 inches
HHAR 1276

Vladimir Gavrilov (Russian, 1923–1970)
Uglich, The Church of Iowan, 1963
Oil on canvas, 37 1/4 x 31 inches
HHAR 2009

Vladimir Gedikyan (Russian, b. 1928)
Tereshchenko, 1963
Tempera on paper, 22 x 27 inches
HHAR 655

Solomon Gershov (Russian, 1906–1989)
Tevye, ca. 1963–1964
Oil on canvas, 25 x 26 1/2 inches
HHAR 40

Grigoriev (Russian, dates unknown)
The Golden Cockerel, ca. 1960s
Gouache on paper, 22 1/2 x 29 inches
HHAR 665

Vincent Hložník (Slovak, 1919–1997)
Untitled, from Dreams, 1962
Linocut, 23 5/8 x 16 3/8 inches
HHAR 1407

Untitled, from Dreams, 1962
Linocut, 23 5/8 x 16 3/8 inches
HHAR 1421

Mikhail Ivanov (Russian, 1926–2000)
Sunny Morning, 1959
Oil on canvas, 23 x 26 1/2 inches
HHAR 1855

Grigory Izrailevich (Russian, 1924–1999)
Times Flies, 1960
Lithograph, 24 5/16 x 18 1/8 inches
HHAR 151

Anatoli Kaplan (Russian, 1902–1980)
On the Griboyedov Canal, from Leningrad, 1947
Lithograph, 18 3/4 x 14 1/8 inches
HHAR 1187

Kasrilovka (Religion is the opium of the people), 1939
Lithograph, 29 1/4 x 21 3/4 inches
HHAR 554

Cow in a Window, from Kasrilovka, 1941
Lithograph, 17 5/8 x 20 1/8 inches
HHAR 129

Verse 6: Came the water and quenched the fire, from The Little Goat, 1958–1961, published 1961
Lithograph, 24 3/16 x 18 7/16 inches
HHAR 1496

Dedication Page, from The Little Goat, 1961
Lithograph, 24 1/2 x 18 1/2 inches
HHAR 285

Gyula Konfár (Hungarian, 1933–2008)
White Cottages, Red Roofs, 1964
Oil on board, 27 1/4 x 29 1/4 inches
HHAR 1659

Pavel Kuznetsov (Russian, 1878–1968)
vening Landscape, 1956
Oil on canvas, 28 x 35 inches
HHAR 1167

Vera Matiukh (Russian, b. Germany, 1910–2003)
In the Train, 1960
Lithograph, 24 1/4 x 18 3/8 inches
HHAR 124

Alexey Morosov (Russian, 1896–1965)
After the Thaw, 1960
Oil on board, 19 1/2 x 28 inches
HHAR 1280

Gerta Nemenova (Russian, b. Germany, 1905–1986)
Korean Dancer, ca. 1960
Lithograph, 22 x 15 7/8 inches
HHAR 185

Anatoli Nikitch (Russian, 1918–1994)
Still Life with Plants, 1958
Oil on canvas, 18 x 33 inches
HHAR 132

Still Life, 1963
Oil on canvas, 41 x 23 1/2 inches
HHAR 2277

Pyotr Ossovsky (Russian, b. Ukraine, 1925–2015)
At the Railway Crossing, 1963
Oil on canvas, 27 1/2 x 45 inches
HHAR 1386

Albert Papikian (Armenian, 1926–1997)
Aragats, 1962
Oil on board, 49 x 55 1/2 inches
HHAR 42

Alexsei Pisarev (Russian, 1909–1970)
Uglich, 1960
Oil on board, 19 3/4 x 27 1/2 inches
HHAR 84

Uglich, ca. 1960
Oil on board, 19 1/4 x 27 1/4 inches
HHAR 85

Igor Popov (Russian, b. Ukraine, 1927–1999)
Kizhi, The Cathedral (Preobrazhensky Church), 1963
Gouache on board, 40 x 28 1/2 inches
HHAR 2016

Oscar Rabin (Russian, 1928–2018)
Cats Under Crescent Moon, 1963
Oil on canvas, 35 1/2 x 43 1/2 inches
HHAR 1076

Bread and Factory, 1964
Oil on canvas, 28 x 39 inches
HHAR 1075

Mihály Schéner (Hungarian, 1923–2009)
Self-Portrait at Work, 1964
Oil on board, 27 3/4 x 39 1/2 inches
HHAR 2994

Alexander Shenderov (Russian, 1897–1967)
Before The Mirror, ca. 1961
Lithograph, 25 x 15 inches
HHAR 187

Peter Shlikov (Russian, 1917–1920)
The Plain Before Mount Ararat, 1962
Oil on canvas, 23 1/2 x 29 1/2 inches
HHAR 1828

Mikhail Skouliari (Russian, 1905–1985)
Pink Tea Pot, 1960
Lithograph, 24 1/4 x 18 1/4 inches
HHAR 1518

Vladimir Sudakov (Russian, 1912–1994)
In the North, 1962
Lithograph, 18 x 24 inches
HHAR 586

Alexander Vedernikov (Russian, 1898–1975)
Still Life with Deer, 1956
Lithograph, 24 3/8 x 18 3/8 inches
HHAR 93

Alexandra Yakobson (Russian, 1903–1966)
The Snow Maiden (Snegurochka), 1960
Lithograph, 24 x 18 inches
HHAR 1321

Leonid Zakharov (Russian, 1928–1986)
Decoration Sketch for the Play ‘Echo of the Bryansk Forest,’ 1960
Oil on paper, 21 x 33 inches
HHAR 107

All works are from Derfner Judaica Museum + The Art Collection at Hebrew Home at Riverdale

Further reading:

Addison, Judith. “Rabin. London-Moscow.” In Oskar Rabin. Early Works on Paper. Online exh. cat. Accessed March 24, 2015. http://www.oskarrabin.com/rabinlondonmoscow/.

Anderson, Raymond H. “Symbolist Artist Scored in Soviet; Rabin Said to Aid the West with ‘65 London Show.” New York Times, June 15, 1966, 9.

Bown, Matthew Cullerne. “Painting in the non-Russian Republics.” In Art of the Soviets: Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in a One-party State, 1917-1992. Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 1993, 140–153.

Chmelarová, Marcela. Richard Fremund: krajiny z let 1959-1965. Exh. cat. Prague: Orlys Art Auctions, 2011.

Ehrenburg, Ilya, and Terence Mullaly. Anatoli Kaplan: The World of Sholem Aleichem and Other Scenes, Tales and Songs of Russian Provincial Life. Exh. cat. London: Grosvenor Gallery, 1961.

Estorick, Eric, and Jennifer Louis. Oskar Rabin: Paintings, 1956-1965. Exh. Cat. London: Grosvenor Gallery, 1965.

Estorick, Eric, and John Synge. First Image: Painting and Sculpture by Artists of the Gallery. Exh. cat. London: Grosvenor Gallery, 1963.

Estorick, Eric, and Terence Mullaly. Favorsky. Exh. cat. London: Grosvenor Gallery, 1962.

Estorick, Eric. Aspects of Contemporary Soviet Art: Paintings, Drawings and Watercolours. Exh. cat. London: Grosvenor Gallery, 1964.

Gershov, Solomon, and Lev Mochalov. Solomon Gershov. St. Petersburg: P.R.P. LLC, 2004.

Grosvenor Gallery. Gyula Konfár, Mihály Schéner: Two Contemporary Hungarian Artists, Exh. cat., London, 1964.

Gruson, Sydney. “Russia Offers Art for London Sale.” New York Times, May 6, 1963, 31.

Kononikhin, Nikolay. “Leningrad Experimental Laboratory: Selected Portraits.” In Leningrad Lithography: Meeting Place. Exh. cat. Saint Petersburg: Anna Akhmatova Museum in the Fountain House, 2017, 46–82.

Matuštík, Radislav. Vincent Hložník: Paintings and Graphics. Exh. cat. London: Grosvenor Gallery, 1965.

Mullaly, Terence. Lithographs by Twenty-Seven Soviet Artists. Exh. cat. London: Grosvenor Gallery, 1961.

Petránsky, Ľudovít. Vincent Hložník. Bratislava: Tatran, 1997.

Stock, M.F. “Leningrad Experimental Graphics Laboratory and Cultural Diplomacy in the 1960’s.” In Leningrad Lithography: Meeting Place. Exh. cat. Saint Petersburg: Anna Akhmatova Museum in the Fountain House, 2017, 31–36.

Wren, Christopher S. “Russians Disrupt Modern Art Show with Bulldozers.” New York Times, September 16, 1974, C17.

This text originally appeared in the brochure produced on the occasion of the exhibition From the Eastern Bloc to the Bronx: Early Acquisitions from The Art Collection on view at the Derfner Judaica Museum and Jacob Reingold Pavilion from May 5–August 25, 2019.

About the Hebrew Home at Riverdale

Hebrew Home at Riverdale
5901 Palisade Avenue
Riverdale, New York 10471
Tel. 718.581.1596
www.hebrewhome.org/art

This exhibition is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Featured image: Oscar Rabin (Russian, 1928–2018), Cats Under Crescent Moon, 1963, oil on canvas, 35 ½ x 43 ½ inches, HHAR 1076

From the Eastern Bloc to the Bronx: Early Acquisitions from The Art Collection

On view May 5–August 25, 2019
Click to read the catalogue online here

Oscar Rabin (Russian, 1928–2018), *Cats Under Crescent Moon*, 1963, oil on canvas, 35 ½ x 43 ½ inches, Derfner Judaica Museum + The Art Collection, HHAR 1076

Derfner Judaica Museum + The Art Collection at Hebrew Home at Riverdale is pleased to announce its latest exhibition, From the Eastern Bloc to the Bronx: Early Acquisitions from The Art Collection, on view in the Derfner Judaica Museum from May 5–August 25, 2019.

The exhibition is part of the Derfner Judaica Museum’s 10th Anniversary celebration, which will include several events and activities throughout the summer.

From the Eastern Bloc to the Bronx tells the fascinating story of how the Grosvenor Gallery in London promoted artists from Eastern Bloc countries and came to play a central role in shaping the Hebrew Home Art Collection. Some of the first works acquired for The Art Collection were by artists who were included in solo and group exhibitions at the Gallery, which was founded in 1960 by the American sociologist Eric Estorick (1913–1993). Estorick was instrumental in efforts by the Hebrew Home’s former executive director Jacob Reingold (1916–1999), with the support of a few key donors, to establish The Art Collection in the 1970s. His gallery created a niche for the exhibition of Eastern Bloc artists in the 1960s when art from “behind the Iron Curtain” was largely unseen and unknown by Western audiences. Living and working during the height of the Cold War in the Soviet Socialist Republics of Armenia and Russia and satellite states Hungary and Czechoslovakia (today the Czech Republic and Slovak Republic), most of these artists were rarely, if ever, exhibited in the West.

Mariam Aslamazian (Armenian, 1907–2006), *Collective Farm Abundance*, 1962, oil on canvas, 34 x 54 inches, Derfner Judaica Museum + The Art Collection, HHAR 3009

This exhibition features works by 35 artists who participated in nine key exhibitions that took place at Grosvenor Gallery between 1961–1967, before the Hebrew Home began to acquire the artwork about a decade later. Today, some of these artists have well established reputations internationally or in their home countries, or both. For example, Soviet dissident artist Oscar Rabin (1928–2018), founder of the Nonconformist movement and exiled to Paris in 1978, has been the subject of several major exhibitions and a documentary film; eminent Slovak artist Vincent Hložník (1919–1997), founder of the highly influential Department of Graphic Art and Illustration at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava, will have a major retrospective at the Danubiana Meulensteen Art Museum, Bratislava, Slovak Republic, in 2020; and the work of Mariam Aslamazian (1907–2006) is on permanent view at a museum in Gyumri, Armenia, dedicated to the artist and her sister.

Grosvenor Gallery’s initial exhibition of Eastern Bloc artists, entitled Lithographs by Twenty-seven Soviet Artists, took place in 1961, and proved to be Estorick’s first success in obtaining permission to export Soviet artwork to the West. The exhibition featured Russian printmakers from the Leningrad Experimental Graphics Laboratory (LEGL), a workshop that included master lithographers who used the medium to create intricate images with complex color palettes. Prints by ten artists from that show, Boris Ermolaev (1903–1982), Grigory Izrailevich (1924–1999), Anatoli Kaplan (1902–1980), Vera Matiukh (1910–2003), Gerta Nemenova (1905–1986), Alexander Shenderov (1897–1967), Mikhail Skouliari (1905–1985), Vladimir Sudakov (1912–1994), Alexander Vedernikov (1898–1975) and Alexandra Yakobson (1903–1966), are among the works later acquired for The Art Collection that are on view in the present exhibition. The London exhibition garnered enough commercial and critical success that it was remounted (with work by all but two of the original artists) in New York City later that same year. Subsequently, The Museum of Modern Art in New York acquired prints by five of the artists, including Ermolaev, Kaplan, Nemenova, Shenderov and Vedernikov.

Anatoli Kaplan (Russian, 1902–1980), *Dedication Page*, from *The Little Goat*, 1961, lithograph, 24 1/2 x 18 1/2 inches, Derfner Judaica Museum + The Art Collection, HHAR 285

Following the LEGL exhibition, Estorick mounted a large solo show of Kaplan at the end of 1961 entitled Anatoli Kaplan: The World of Sholem Aleichem and Other Scenes, Tales and Songs of Russian Provincial Life, which included 131 prints. Kaplan worked almost exclusively on Jewish themes and was widely collected both privately and by museums, including The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., and The Museum of Modern Art, New York, in the 1960s. He was of particular interest to Estorick, who expanded some of his print editions exclusively for Grosvenor Gallery, including The Little Goat (1958–1961), a song from the Passover liturgy. Two of The Little Goat prints and three of his other lithographs are on view in the current exhibition. Six portfolios of different print series by Kaplan along with four paintings by the Russian Jewish painter Solomon Gershov (1906–1989), who appeared in a two-person exhibition with Kaplan in 1967, were the first works acquired by Hebrew Home from Grosvenor Gallery in 1975. These selections likely reflected Estorick’s and Reingold’s shared interest in promoting Jewish artists working under oppressive conditions.

The Gallery held a major retrospective of the master Russian printmaker Vladimir Favorsky (1886–1964) in 1962. Titled Favorsky, it included linocut prints from the artist’s Samarkand series (1942–1944) realized during the artist’s evacuation to Uzbekistan during World War II, among other works from his long career. Three of these rare prints on view depict scenes from everyday life of the Uzbek people among their caravans and camels.

Richard Fremund (Czech, 1928–1969), *Easter Landscape (Velikonocni Krajina)*, 1963, oil on canvas, 35 x 45 1/2 inches, Derfner Judaica Museum + The Art Collection, HHAR 1276

The Gallery celebrated its move to a larger space in 1963 with the group show, First Image: Painting and Sculpture by Artists of the Gallery, which included Czech artist Richard Fremund (1928–1969), who is represented in the current exhibition by two abstract townscape paintings, Easter Landscape (1963) and Blue Landscape (1957). Today, Fremund is frequently shown in galleries in the Czech Republic and his paintings held in private collections. Also included in First Image were Hungarian artists Gyula Konfár (1933–2008) and Mihály Schéner (1923–2009), who went on to have a two-person exhibition the following year. Gyula Konfár, Mihály Schéner: Two Contemporary Hungarian Artists, mounted in 1964, featured 52 paintings. Two works from that show were later acquired for The Art Collection and are included in the present exhibition: Konfár’s White Cottages, Red Roofs and Schéner’s

Mihály Schéner (Hungarian, 1923–2009), *Self-Portrait at Work*, 1964, oil on board, 27 3/4 x 39 1/2 inches, Derfner Judaica Museum + The Art Collection, HHAR 2994

Self-Portrait at Work, both from 1964, which share a dark, expressionistic style.

One of Estorick’s most important exhibitions was Aspects of Contemporary Soviet Art, mounted in 1964, which featured paintings and works on paper. Estorick managed a cultural coup by obtaining permission to export paintings and drawings from the Soviet Union, a task with far greater obstacles than exporting lithographs as he had in 1961. As British art critic Nigel Gosling wrote for The Observer in 1964: “The show is a milestone. For the first time in 40 years Soviet paintings are exhibited for sale outside Russia.” The Hebrew Home owns 19 of the paintings that were included in Aspects of Contemporary Soviet Art, with selected works on view by Aslamazian, Alexander Dubinchik (1922–1997), Irina Fateeva (1908–1981), Moisey Feigen (1904–2008), Vladimir Gavrilov (1923–1970), Vladimir Gedikyan (b. 1928), Grigoriev (dates unknown), Mikhail Ivanov (1926–2000), Pavel Kuznetsov (1878–1968), Alexey Morosov (1896–1965), Anatoli Nikitch (1918–1994), Pyotr Ossovsky (1925–2015), Albert Papikian (1926–1997), Alexsei Pisarev (1909–1970), Igor Popov (1927–1999), Peter Shlikov (1917–1920), Galina Solovieva (1908-1984) and Leonid Zakharov (1928–1986).

Vincent Hložník (Slovak, 1919–1997), *Untitled*, from *Dreams*, 1962, linocut, 23 5/8 x 16 3/8 inches, Derfner Judaica Museum + The Art Collection, HHAR 1407

Turning to Czechoslovak art, Vincent Hložník was a major solo show comprising paintings and graphics mounted in 1965. Hložník is represented in this exhibition by two linocuts from the series Dreams (1962), a cycle of surrealistic prints that caution about the horrors of war. While a student in Prague, he was present when the Germans occupied the city in 1939 and was dramatically impacted by the atrocities he witnessed. Hložník left a lasting legacy through his students and his humanistic approach to art continues to influence generations of Slovak graphic artists today. His work is on permanent view in galleries and museums in the Slovak Republic.

Rabin, founder of the Nonconformist movement in Moscow in the 1970s and a major international artist today, had his first solo exhibition in the West at Grosvenor Gallery in 1965. The two paintings that represent him in this exhibition, Cats Under Crescent Moon (1963) and Bread and Factory (1964), were included in the original Grosvenor show. Rabin was an organizer of the infamous “bulldozer exhibition” held outside Moscow in 1974. In an incident that became widely reported internationally, dissident artists who were prohibited from participating in official galleries mounted an exhibition in an empty lot that was brutally shut down by the Soviet authorities with water cannons and bulldozers. Exiled four years later and prevented from returning from a visit to Paris, where he remained until his death in 2018, Rabin and his family were abruptly stripped of their Soviet citizenship. His work is widely collected and held in both private and public collections, including the Zimmerli Art Museum, New Brunswick, New Jersey, The Centre Pompidou, Paris, and The Kolodzei Collection, Highland Park, New Jersey, among others.

Solomon Gershov (Russian, 1906–1989), *Tevye*, ca. 1963–1964, oil on canvas, 25 x 26 1/2 inches, HHAR 40

One of the last exhibitions focused exclusively on Soviet Bloc artists, The World of Sholem Aleichem: Kaplan lithographs, Gershov paintings, was presented in 1967. It featured Kaplan’s portfolios alongside Gershov’s paintings. Gershov painted in an expressionistic style, often on Jewish themes, and was critical of Soviet art policies. He suffered harsh consequences for his views and was arrested twice, once in 1932 and again in 1948, and sent to the Gulag after having his work destroyed. He is represented by the painting Tevye (ca. 1963–64), an imaginary portrait of the protagonist of Aleichem’s series of short stories, Tevye the Milkman.

This exhibition highlights rare artworks in the Hebrew Home’s Art Collection, which has attracted researchers, curators and dignitaries from around the world, and also provides a fascinating glimpse into the modern art being created during the Cold War in the Eastern Bloc and how it was brought to the West’s attention by Eric Estorick. The Grosvenor Gallery’s focus on exhibitions of Eastern Bloc artists was concentrated in the period 1961–1967, according to the Gallery’s available records, and coincided with an ambitious general program of a dozen or more exhibitions each year. During this same period, the Gallery organized at least 80 or more exhibitions by other artists, mostly from Western Europe, in solo and group exhibitions. While he moved his focus away from Soviet Bloc artists after 1967, Estorick continued to include some of these artists in other broader, thematic group shows. Many works by Eastern Bloc artists remained in Gallery inventory beyond these critical years in the early to mid-1960s and were thus available for the Hebrew Home to acquire in the 1970s. Although Estorick died in 1993, the Grosvenor Gallery remains active in London to this day.

This exhibition is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Erosion: Works by Leonard Ursachi

Read the catalogue on Issuu

Erosion: Works by Leonard Ursachi
On view July 15, 2018–January 6, 2019

What a Wonderful World, 2018, carved Styrofoam covered with Styrocrete, pigments, non-toxic tar paint and 23-karat gold leaf, mounted on painted steel base, 108 inches high x 48 inches diameter

Introduction

Emily O’Leary, Associate Curator
In 2008, the Hebrew Home acquired Leonard Ursachi’s work Hiding Place, an outdoor sculpture created for the New York City Parks in 2007 that was temporarily installed in Prospect Park in Brooklyn. The eight-foot-tall sculpture is formed from woven willow branches and contains three windows fitted with mirrors. Its meaning is a constant source of curiosity for visitors, as is What a Wonderful World (2018), the large-scale outdoor sculpture carved in the form of an egg-shaped globe that was created for this exhibition. When offered an explanation about the sculptures, visitors often walk away with more questions than they first had. Posing questions, rather than offering answers, is central to Ursachi’s oeuvre.
Form and its function—both literal and reimagined—is essential to Ursachi’s work. Hiding Place is part of the Bunkers series. In Ursachi’s native Romania, bunkers were so common in the Communist period that they were nearly innocuous. These bunkers functioned as beacons of the militancy and fear that permeated life under the brutal dictatorship of Nicolae Ceausescu. Since 1998, Ursachi has been creating his own bunkers in various materials and sizes, often with recessed windows that echo the bunker embrasures from which soldiers would shoot. His bunkers are psychologically ambivalent, evoking feelings of fear and refuge simultaneously. Ursachi explores what he terms the “bunker ideology” by re-inventing the form according to his own artistic vision, yet the result is never didactic. He has done the same with egg-shaped globes in the What a Wonderful World series, utilizing the egg form to delve into the complexity of a severely damaged, but possibly reparable, world.
Both the egg and bunker forms contain the tension of contradictory ideas. Ursachi investigates these ideas by creating many iterations of the same object and by using diverse materials. The What a Wonderful World maquettes included in this exhibition, for example, are rendered in aluminum, concrete, acrylic resin, marble, Hydrostone, and Styrofoam, with Ursachi using such techniques as casting, carving, and incising to achieve different surface effects. The egg and bunker forms are also sometimes combined, as in the case of two maquettes that contain windows, and another that references a window shape with a rectangular recess. The repetition involved in making these objects isn’t an attempt to reach a final truth, but to ceaselessly ponder questions that have no definitive answers. The outdoor sculpture is also rendered in varied materials. After carving the egg-shaped globe from Styrofoam and covering it in pigmented Styrocrete, Ursachi applied layers of non-toxic tar paint and 23-karat gold leaf to the oceans and created an incised relief of a world map. The “wonderful world,” with its oceans of oil and gold, and its bruised continents, is a reference to wealth-driven disregard for the environment and destruction of culture.
Although Ursachi’s work addresses major socio-political issues, by using these forms—whether an egg or a bunker—the personal is placed at the core of their meaning. What a Wonderful World isn’t an outright protest piece, but an interpretation of the world and its critical issues as Ursachi sees them. The way in which the individual viewer engages with this damaged world is at the heart of the What a Wonderful World series, addressing questions which are ever-present in Ursachi’s work: the meaning of home, shifting definitions and impact of borders, personal and cultural history, and identity.
Also included in the exhibition is the installation Rise and Shine (2010), a multi-media piece that documents the disappearance of the Romanian island of Ada Kaleh, a popular vacation destination in Communist Romania before it was submerged in the Danube River in 1970 for a hydroelectric dam. A seven-foot-long aquarium-like tank sits on a rusted oval base and contains a resin relief of the island’s topography inside. Water is pumped into the tank periodically until the island is submerged, and then it slowly drains. This process is repeated over and over on a timed cycle, an event that continues indefinitely whether anyone is present to bear witness or not.
Ursachi’s work raises some bleak though necessary questions, but there is also room for hope: the potential of finding a nest-home in Hiding Place; an opportunity to literally Rise and Shine and realize that intervention is needed to combat unchecked power and prevent endless cycles of destruction; and an egg-shaped Wonderful World that could hatch with new life instead of breaking.

What a Wonderful World, 2017, tree branches, steel and bamboo armature, pigmented cement mixture, stainless steel mirrors, 96 inches high x 66 inches diameter. Exhibited in Tribeca Park, Manhattan by New York City Parks in 2017/2018.

Land of the Lost

Howard Halle
Throughout history, there have been any number and variety of disasters that have lodged themselves in the collective consciousness. But few have had as mythic a hold on the imagination as the fate of those cities and settlements that have slipped under the waves in their entirety. Atlantis is the most obvious, if fictional, example.
For such calamities, there’s no recession of the waters or chance for rebuilding, only consignment to an abyssal grave. They represent not only destroyed lives and property, but also an abrupt break with time and place, a catastrophe so immense that it can only be comprehended as legend. And yet, in the short term, there are people who can attest to the reality of these drowned cities. One such witness is Leonard Ursachi, who has made his brush with an Atlantean cataclysm the focal point of his installation Rise and Shine.
In his native Romania, Ursachi, whose sculptures often dwell upon themes of trauma and loss, visited Ada Kaleh, a small island in the Danube between Romania and Yugoslavia. In the 1970s, Romania’s dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu, submerged Ada Kaleh to build a hydroelectric dam; its inhabitants were displaced.
Ada Kaleh’s community comprised mostly Muslims whose ancestors had settled there during the Ottoman Empire. To Ursachi, everything on Ada-Kaleh—streets, homes, markets—seemed slightly miniaturized, to suit the island’s scale. The island’s submersion coincided with Ceausescu’s “centralization” program, when family homes were razed and replaced with monolithic apartment blocks, and vast swaths of the population were relocated from the countryside into cities, where they could be more easily controlled. Ursachi’s own home, built by his father and grandfather, was bulldozed with two weeks’ notice.
In his first attempt to escape Romania, Ursachi boarded a boat to the narrow point in the Danube where Ada Kaleh had stood, intending to swim to Yugoslavia, through which he would run to Italy. Instead, he landed in a Romanian jail. He eventually escaped and received political asylum in France.
In 2010, Ursachi re-envisioned Ada Kaleh as Rise and Shine. Inside a long, aquarium-like container set on a rusted steel base, he lay a translucent, aqua resin model of the island, lit from below. Ada Kaleh alternately drowns and surfaces, as water rises and falls in fifteen-minute cycles. When it is emergent, water gurgles from under it, rising until it is submerged. Then the water recedes, until the final drops disappear. In seconds, the cycle restarts. Crystalline and ghostly, Ada Kaleh appears both present and not, much as its remains under the Danube are, in fact. But Ursachi hasn’t fashioned an exacting replica here, as many of its features are indistinct—more like topographical elements than buildings. Are we looking at Ada Kaleh as it exists today, eroded and buried underneath the river? Or are we seeing it through the mind’s eye, a recollection of the site as opposed to an image of it? The dreamlike quality of the accompanying drawings, with their fragmentary snatches of village life, re-enforces the ambiguity of the sculpture’s mise en scène, though both the renderings and the sculpture display the distinctive shape of a minaret that once rose from the town’s mosque, a structure that speaks to Ada Kaleh’s patrimony, and, perhaps, to the seeds of its destruction.
Among the issues it evokes, Rise and Shine suggests that the island suffered a kind of de facto ethnic cleansing. More pertinently, the episode illustrates the capricious nature of dictatorial power. (A point that seems acutely relevant now.)
Rise and Shine is a strangely upbeat title, which seems to be at odds with the story it tells. It isn’t unusual for Ursachi to confer buoyant names on works that are dark in tone and appearance, so it’s easy to assume that he is trafficking in irony. But in fact, the sentiment behind Rise and Shine reflects a genuine, if cockeyed, optimism that underscores all of the artist’s work: a belief that by mining the tragedies of the past, you restore hope for the future. In that respect, Rise and Shine isn’t a title but a command—a call, as it were, for Ada Kaleh to stir itself from its watery sleep and come back to life, if only for a moment: an impossible feat, of course, except in art or memory.

What a Wonderful World

What a Wonderful World, 2018, acrylic on mixed natural fiber paper, 30 1/4 x 20 1/4 inches

What a Wonderful World, 2018, pigment and charcoal on rice paper, 22 x 15 1/4 inches

In addition to examining the impact of borders on individuals and societies, Ursachi’s art has long addressed human impact on nature, as evidenced in his recent What a Wonderful World series.
Central to Erosion is a new outdoor sculpture, Ursachi’s latest iteration of What a Wonderful World, created expressly for the exhibition. This large, ovoid “globe” touches on the inevitable nexus between politics, money, and the environment. The expanses of 23-karat gold leaf that the artist applied to the roughly textured, “tarred” oceans may evoke profit-driven disregard for the impact of environmental choices. The continents, loosely rendered in grey cement, appear vast and devoid of life—signifiers of depleted natural resources. Still, Ursachi’s vision implies hope: the sculpture’s egg shape may portend the enduring, if fragile, potential for life.
Inside the Museum is a complementary display of drawings and small-scale sculptures in a variety of materials, including gold, urethane resin, Styrofoam, concrete, cast aluminum and marble. For Ursachi, each material lends its unique character to contemplation of the theme.

Rise and Shine

Rise and Shine, 2010, acrylic container, water, light, pumps, rusted steel base and cast resin, 60 x 72 x 24 inches

Ursachi’s Rise and Shine is an oval “aquarium” that contains a seven-foot-long, translucent acrylic model of an island and rests on a rusted steel base. The island, lit from below, is alternately drowned and resuscitated as water repeatedly rises and falls. Its form is based on the island Ada Kaleh, submerged by Romania’s dictator, Ceausescu, decades ago for a hydro-electric project. Says Ursachi, “In contrast to the Communist grayness that muffled the rest of Romania, Ada Kaleh was an explosion of color and noise, and home to a Muslim community that had settled there during the Ottoman Empire. I visited Ada Kaleh as a child and, after it had disappeared, I returned to that area of the Danube River to attempt—unsuccessfully—to escape Romania by swimming to Yugoslavia.”

Rise and Shine, 2018, pigment and charcoal on rice paper, 28 x 36 inches

Rise and Shine, 2018, pigment and charcoal on rice paper, 27 ½ x 37 ½ inches

Rise and Shine addresses myriad issues—loss of home, erasure of culture, the social and environment impact of energy choices—while evoking the mythic deluge from Atlantis to Noah’s Ark and beyond, and channeling international ghosts.

“In contrast to the Communist grayness that muffled the rest of Romania, Ada Kaleh was an explosion of color and noise, and home to an active Muslim community that had settled there during the Ottoman Empire.”
—Leonard Ursachi

The artist (left) and his brother, Calin, on a family vacation to Ada Kaleh, 1968

Photograph by Jonathan Levine

About the Artist

Leonard Ursachi is a Romanian-born artist. He grew up under a dictatorship, from which he defected, and spent years border-hopping before settling in New York. Says Ursachi, “My work reflects our contemporary world of porous borders, vulnerable shelters, and mutating identities. I’m interested in the impact of boundaries on societies and individuals, and how those boundaries can be transgressed.”
Bunkers dotted the Romanian landscape of the artist’s youth, many of which were erected under Communism, when it was illegal to leave the country. The true intention of these small, Cold War bunkers squatting just inside Romania’s borders was not combat use, but to promote fear of the Other. Many of Ursachi’s sculptures are in the form of bunkers, or contain recesses that reference the embrasures in bunkers from which soldiers shoot. But Ursachi’s bunkers—human scale, woven of willow or covered in feathers—allude not to war, but to a longing for refuge from a bunker mentality that knows no borders.
A core issue in Ursachi’s art is our relationship with natural and built environments; a recurring leitmotif is human impact on nature. Water is an important element—physical or metaphoric—in much of his work. The oil-slick oceans in What a Wonderful World, the island drowning and resurfacing in Rise and Shine, and the “embrasures” in several of the sculptures in Erosion, are manifestations of the artist’s essential passions and concerns.

About Howard Halle

Howard Halle is an artist and writer who lives in Brooklyn. Since 1995, he has been the chief art critic for Time Out New York magazine, and Editor-at-Large there since 2005.

Checklist of the Exhibition

What a Wonderful World, 2018, carved Styrofoam covered with Styrocrete, pigments, non-toxic tar paint and 23-karat gold leaf, mounted on painted steel base, 108 inches high x 48 inches diameter
What a Wonderful World, 2018, pigmented acrylic resin and 23-karat gold leaf mounted on steel base, 16 1/2 inches high x 8 3/8 inches diameter
What a Wonderful World, 2018, pigmented acrylic resin and 23-karat gold leaf mounted on steel base, 18 inches high x 8 3/8 inches diameter
What a Wonderful World, 2017, aluminum with stainless steel mirrors mounted on marble base, 13 1/2 inches high x 8 1/4 inches diameter
What a Wonderful World, 2015, marble mounted on steel base, 21 inches high x 9 1/2 inches diameter
What a Wonderful World, 2015, Hydrostone and gold paint mounted on steel base, 17 1/4 inches high x 8 5/8 inches diameter
What a Wonderful World, 2015, concrete, Styrofoam and mirrors mounted on steel base, 62 1/2 inches high x 19 3/8 inches diameter
What a Wonderful World, 2018, pigment and charcoal on rice paper, 20 1/2 x 15 1/2 inches
What a Wonderful World, 2018, pigment and charcoal on rice paper, 23 1/2 x 17 1/8 inches
What a Wonderful World, 2015, pastel, pigment and charcoal on rice paper, 23 1/2 x 29 1/2 inches
What a Wonderful World, 2017, pigment, charcoal and gold paint on rice paper, 23 3/4 x 19 3/4 inches
What a Wonderful World, 2018, pigment and charcoal on rice paper, 22 x 15 1/4 inches
What a Wonderful World, 2018, acrylic on mixed natural fiber paper, 30 1/4 x 20 1/4 inches
Rise and Shine, 2010, acrylic container, water, light, pumps, rusted steel base and cast resin, 60 x 72 x 24 inches
Rise and Shine, 2018, pigment and charcoal on rice paper, 27 1/2 x 37 1/2 inches
Rise and Shine, 2018, pigment and charcoal on rice paper, 28 x 36 inches
Rise and Shine, 2010, pigment and charcoal on rice paper, 18 x 22 1/4 inches
Rise and Shine, 2010, cast resin mounted on wood base, 24 1/2 x 8 x 3 1/4 inches

This text originally appeared in the catalogue published on the occasion of the exhibition Erosion: Works by Leonard Ursachi on view at the Derfner Judaica Museum from July 15, 2018–January 6, 2019.
Images © 2018 Leonard Ursachi | Ursachi.com
ISBN: 978-0-692-17378-7

About the Hebrew Home at Riverdale

Hebrew Home at Riverdale
5901 Palisade Avenue
Riverdale, New York 10471
Tel. 718.581.1596
RiverSpringHealth.org/art

This exhibition is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Erosion: Works by Leonard Ursachi

On view July 15–January 6, 2019 in the Derfner Judaica Museum
Read the exhibition catalogue online

Leonard Ursachi, What a Wonderful World, 2018, carved Styrofoam covered with Styrocrete, pigments, non-toxic tar paint and 23-karat gold leaf, mounted on painted steel base, 9 feet high (with base) x 4 feet diameter. Courtesy of the artist.

In this exhibition featuring an outdoor sculpture, installation work, and related maquettes and drawings, Leonard Ursachi addresses themes of environmental and social crises caused by manmade events and reflects on how the destruction of natural resources is intimately interconnected with the effacement of human history and culture.

Central to the show will be a new outdoor sculpture created for the exhibition—an iteration of Ursachi’s What a Wonderful World series. The large-scale work is on view in the sculpture garden on the Hebrew Home’s majestic 32-acre property overlooking the Hudson River and Palisades. Carved in Styrofoam and covered in Styrocrete, pigments, non-toxic tar paint and 23-karat gold leaf, What a Wonderful World (2018) touches on the inextricable link between profitability and the destruction of the environment. The expanses of 23-karat gold leaf applied to the roughly textured, “tarred” oceans reference a global, often wealth-driven disregard for the impact of environmental choices. The continents, on the other hand, appear vast and devoid of life, signifying a stripping away of natural resources. Still, Ursachi’s vision implies hope: the sculpture’s egg shape may be read as the enduring, if fragile, potential for life. Inside the Museum will be a complementary display of drawings as well as maquettes in a variety of materials, including 23-karat gold, cast urethane resin, Styrofoam, concrete, cast aluminum and marble.

Also included in the exhibition is Ursachi’s installation Rise and Shine (2010), a multi-media work that addresses the disappearance of the Romanian island of Ada Kaleh, which was submerged in the Danube River in 1970 by Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu in order to build a hydroelectric plant.

Leonard Ursachi, What a Wonderful World, 2018, pigment, charcoal on rice paper, 20 ½ x 15 ½ inches. Courtesy of the artist.

Inside an aquarium-like receptacle, a model of the island cast from translucent urethane resin is lit from below, alternately drowned and resuscitated as water continuously rises and falls. Ursachi based the island’s form on Ada Kaleh, the rich history of which dates back at least four centuries, having been annexed at various times by the Habsburgs, Serbs and Ottomans. Under Communist Romania, Ada Kaleh was home to a vibrant Muslim community and such historic structures as the Ada Kaleh mosque (built in 1903 on the site of a former monastery), catacombs and bazaar. The island was a popular vacation destination during the Communist period, when Romania’s heavily-guarded and insular borders prevented its own citizens from leaving the country. Ursachi visited Ada Kaleh with his family in 1968, returning with the only souvenir available at the time—an officially stamped, government-issued postcard. A reproduction of this postcard and a photograph of the artist and his brother visiting Ada Kaleh as children are on view with Rise and Shine.

Rise and Shine addresses the disastrous effect such industrial projects have on human culture, displacing entire populations and literally washing away layers of history. The rise and fall of the water, which submerges and reveals the resin island, both engages environmental themes and reflects the unchecked destruction that can occur under tyranny. Ceaușescu’s rule was one of the most brutal in the Eastern Bloc, with his secret police force routinely torturing and imprisoning suspected dissenters and political enemies. Ursachi was arrested for attempting to escape Romania by swimming across the Danube—near the spot where Ada Kaleh once stood—to reach Yugoslavia in 1978. His second attempt to defect, in 1980, was successful, and he was granted political asylum in France where he spent five years. He came to the United States via Canada and settled in New York in 1987.

Leonard Ursachi, *Rise and Shine*, 2010, acrylic container, water, light, pumps, rusted steel base, cast resin, 60 x 72 x 24 inches. Courtesy of the artist.

According to Ursachi: “In contrast to the Communist grayness that muffled the rest of Romania, Ada Kaleh was an explosion of color and noise, and home to an active Muslim community that had settled there during the Ottoman Empire.”

This exhibition is mounted in conjunction with Wave Hill’s Ecological Consciousness: Artist as Instigator—a kind of laboratory setting for showcasing artist-led projects addressing ecological issues across New York City. A special collaborative program between Wave Hill and Derfner Judaica Museum entitled Neighbors Engaging the Environment will take place on August 5, 2018, between 1:30–4 p.m. Wave Hill Senior Curator Jennifer McGregor will give an informal tour of Wave Hill’s exhibition and Emily O’Leary, Associate Curator, will guide visitors through Erosion: Works by Leonard Ursachi. Shuttle service will depart from Wave Hill. The tour is included with general admission to the garden’s grounds. For more information, call 718.549.3200.

The artist (left) and his brother, Calin, on a family vacation to Ada Kaleh, 1968. Courtesy of the artist.

About the Artist
Leonard Ursachi is a Romanian-born artist. He grew up under a dictatorship from which he defected and spent years border-hopping before settling in New York. His work reflects our contemporary world of porous borders, vulnerable shelters, and mutating identities. His sculptures and installations use architectural references as tropes for systems that enclose and exclude, protect and reject. Ursachi’s work is often site-specific, with the physical, historical and cultural aspects of the site informing the artist’s concept and use of materials.

About Hebrew Home at Riverdale
As a member of the American Alliance of Museums, the Hebrew Home at Riverdale by RiverSpring Health is committed to publicly exhibiting its art collection throughout its 32-acre campus, including the Derfner Judaica Museum and a sculpture garden overlooking the Hudson River and Palisades. The Derfner Judaica Museum + The Art Collection provides educational and cultural programming for residents of the Hebrew Home, their families and the general public from throughout New York City, its surrounding suburbs and visitors from elsewhere. RiverSpring Health is a nonprofit, non-sectarian geriatric organization serving more than 18,000 older adults in greater New York through its resources and community service programs. Museum hours: Sunday–Thursday, 10:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m. Art Collection and grounds open daily, 10:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m. Call 718.581.1596 for holiday hours and to schedule group tours.

This exhibition is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

About the photographer

Introduction

Land of the Lost

What a Wonderful World

Rise and Shine

About the Artist

About Howard Halle

Checklist of the Exhibition

About the Hebrew Home at Riverdale

On view July 15–January 6, 2019 in the Derfner Judaica Museum Read the exhibition catalogue online

On view July 15–January 6, 2019 in the Derfner Judaica Museum
Read the exhibition catalogue online