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.
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.
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.
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.
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 through February...
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.
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.
Visual Moment | The Daring Madame D’Ora
Recalling a past that was so different from wartime and its terrors, she wrote: “I was only familiar with one of them, the one perfumed with luxury and flowered with orchids.”
Visual Moment | Grand Dame of American Art
In many ways, Edith Halpert embodied the spirit of American pragmatism, which is how she explained herself: “I either had to stagnate, which was a thing I dreaded, or go ahead, and the only way to go ahead was to do something beyond what I was doing.”
Book Review | Steely Veneer, Private Struggle
I met Susan Sontag only once; it was after a dramatic reading of a translation of Witold Gombrowicz’s Trans-Atlantyk, which I went to hear with a group of friends in 1994.
Visual Moment | When the Wild Things Sang
Going back to his early line drawings, you can see that Sendak liked to populate the world with Sendaks.
Book Review | Dear Zealots: Letters from a Divided Land by Amos Oz
Dear Zealots: Letters from a Divided Land
by Amos Oz
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
2018, 138 pp, $15.31
Amos Oz’s modest new book of nonfiction is a container for some...