The Seifter Menorah: Fingerprints From a Vanished World
As is often the case with material culture, the Seifter menorah tells a complex story.
16
Dec
07
Nov
Visual Moment | The World Inside Carl Moll’s ‘White Interior’
Looking into the calm of artist Carl Moll’s 1905 White Interior feels something like inhabiting the imaginative space at the periphery of a dollhouse.
28
Sep
Visual Moment | The Subversive Art of Philip Guston
Frances Brent discusses a new exhibit of Russian-Jewish painter Philip Guston’s sometimes controversial art.
20
Apr
A Gothic Rendering of a Hero of Judaism
Slightly more slender than life-size, Moses sits on an unadorned stone bench, supporting the tablets with his left hand and making the apparent sign of benediction with his right hand.
11
Apr
How a Collection of Japanese Netsuke Sheds Light on a Jewish Family’s Tumultuous History
I have a personal interest in the carved Japanese netsuke, or figurines, that are at the center of the New York Jewish Museum’s current show “The Hare with Amber Eyes,” on view through May 15.
17
Mar
Esther Before Ahasuerus by Artemesia Gentileschi
Gentileschi, recognized as the finest female artist of the 17th century, developed a reputation for depicting women, particularly figures from the Bible and classical mythology.
09
Sep
Visual Moment | The Compelling Odysseys of Looted Art
In the sumptuous catalogue for the New York Jewish Museum’s late summer exhibition, Afterlives: Recovering the Lost Stories of Looted Art, on view through January 9, 2022, a cropped image of French artist Pierre Bonnard’s color-diffused painting Still Life with Guelder Roses appears alongside an army photograph of the salt mine in Altaussee, Austria, where the Nazis secreted looted art and other treasures.
29
Jan
We Fight to Build A Free World: An Exhibition by Jonathan Horowitz
When you step into the Jewish Museum’s current show, “We Fight to Build a Free World, An Exhibition by Jonathan Horowitz,” on view thro...
18
Jan
Visual Moment | A Biblical Family Torn Asunder
Some works of art are perfect receptacles for the stresses and troubles of their times while they are graced with a wisdom that is fundamental and ongoing, making them perpetually relevant.
30
Sep
Book Review | The Other Side of Dementia
If you live long enough, you will notice a paradox of aging: Diminishment of memory can sometimes go hand in hand with a greater capacity for complexity and for the kind of revelation that can be seen only through shadow.