Tag Archives: jewish museum

Arts and Culture

Modern Art Monday Presents: Robert Indiana, Purim: The Four Facets of Esther

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Purim: Four Facets of Esther
Photo By Gail

Robert Indiana (1928 – 2018) was closely associated with the hard-edged painting and Pop Art movements. Using the formal vocabulary of advertisements, his work often explores the power of words and numbers. In Purim: The Four Facets of Esther II (1967), he represents Stars of David and elements of the Biblical story of Esther, who was Queen of Persia in the fifth century BCE. Esther saved her fellow Jews from destruction, the feat to which Indiana refers in the fourth panel.

The Jewish Museum (where this photo was taken) commissioned this print in an edition of ninety for its annual Purim fundraising ball in 1967.

Design and Innovation

Eye On Design: Furniture By Marc Camille Chaimowicz

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Room By Marc Camille Chaimowicz
All Photos By Gail

Marc Camille Chaimowicz (b. 1947) is a London-based, cross-disciplinary contemporary artist whose works challenge the categorical divisions between art and design. His recent career retrospect at the Jewish Museum (which was the artist’s first solo museum exhibition in the United States) transformed the entire second floor of the former Warburg family mansion from an exhibit showcase into a series of fantasy tableaus pristinely curated with unique and whimsical home furnishings and décor. This room was my favorite. Let’s take a closer look at the pieces that make up this dream-like living room set.

Give and Take Sofa and Rope Vase

Blue Velvet Give and Take Sofa and Pink Glazed Ceramic Rope Vase.

Maquette for Give and Take Sofa

Maquette for Give and Take Sofa

Stainless Steel Magazine Rack

Stainless Steel Magazine Rack with Diamonds Cut Outs

Pink Rope Vase

Rope Vase

Photographed as Part of the Exhibit, Your Place or Mine, at the Jewish Museum.

Room 2

Items Shown Left to Right : One Meter Lamp (2016), Glazed Ceramic Rope Vase (2014) Give and Take Velvet Sofa (1994) Stainless Steel Magazine Rack (2014)

Design and Innovation

Eye On Design: Book Covers By Elaine Lustig Cohen

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Trio of Book Covers
All Photos By Gail

Over six decades, Elaine Lustig Cohen (1927 – 2016) moved among diverse activities, including art, design, and rare-book dealing. She began her career as a graphic designer in the mid-1950s, extending the vocabulary of European Modernism — Constructivism, Dada, and the Bauhaus —  into an American context for publishers, architects and cultural Institutions.
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Arts and Culture

Modern Art Monday Presents: Marc Chagall, Cubist Landscape

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Cubist Landscape
Photo By Gail

This work, Cubist Landscape (1919) by Marc Chagall (1887 – 1985)  illustrates the artist’s relationship to the Suprematist avant-garde at the time. Its disjointed geometrical shapes and use of heterogenous materials to create texture originated in Cubo-Futurism. One of the steps leading to Suprematism according to Kazimir Malevich’s theory of art, this style privileged movement, fragmented forms and bold colors. In the composition, geometric forms overtake a figure carrying an umbrella in front of Vitebsk School — perhaps a stand-in for the artist, protecting himself from the Suprematist storm.
Continue reading Modern Art Monday Presents: Marc Chagall, Cubist Landscape →

Arts and Culture

Modern Art Monday Presents: Seder By Nicole Eisenman

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Seder
Photo By Gail

Nicole Eisenman (b. 1965) paints the human figure — including friends, and literary or historical figures — narrative scenes and allegories. She often touches on the topics of queer identity, feminism, and the complexities of family and friends. Her style is intimate and tender, yet infused with wry humor.  Seder (2010) presents a familiar holiday scene rendered with comic aplomb. The perspective of the viewer (and artist) is from the head of the table, the best vantage point to witness the tensions gathered around the traditional Passover ceremony; children and adults are both attentive and bored, with expressions ranging from grotesque and distorted to charming and affectionate.

Photographed in the Jewish Museum in Manhattan.