In the mid-nineteen seventies, a few years after the Yeshiva University Museum opened, Hebrew calligraphy was on the way to becoming a serious art-form, ceramic artists and metalworkers were designing and creating modern ceremonial Judaica objects, and a small handful of fiber artists had begun to fashion Judaic textiles such as Ark curtains and Torah mantles in a contemporary idiom. It was the beginning of a genuine awakening of the creative spirit among talented Jews from all walks of life, both in America and in Israel, who responded to the emergent call for more intimate and inspired forms of Jewish expression.
Many of these early creators were women—some, already experienced artists, who had been commissioned to create “something Jewish” for the first time, and were drawn to traditional Jewish sources in search of motifs and themes. This aspect of Jewish thought is expressed well by Adin Steinsaltz as follows:
“Modern Western thought is characterized by an extensive use of abstract concepts that exist and operate within a more general abstract system. Jewish thought, on the other hand, has, with very few exceptions, done without them… It is, of course, quite impossible to manipulate complex and abstract ideas without concepts, and Jewish sources do employ them. The concepts used, however, are not abstract but rather like metaphor or a visual representation. In other words, Jewish thought uses pictorial or imagery concepts instead of abstract concepts.”
Adin Steinsaltz, “The Imagery Concept in Jewish Thought,” The Strife of the Spirit, (Aronson,1988), p.63.
The growing area of advanced post high school Judaic studies for women also emerged in the last quarter of the 20th century. Drisha opened in New York City in 1979; Nishmat opened in Israel in 1990; Ma’ayan opened in Boston in 1992. In this new and accessible learning environment, female visual artists such as photographers, painters and printmakers drew on their Torah learning to create works of art that acted as visual midrash. Among these artists are three women who all have had their works exhibited in the Yeshiva University Museum, of which I am director.
The first of these artists is photographer and printmaker, Alice Aaronson Zlotnick. She and her husband Dov, Professor Emeritus of Rabbinic Literature at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, have recently made aliya, and she has relocated her studio to Jerusalem. Alice Zlotnick taught Mishnah at her synagogue, the Riverdale Jewish Center, for 25 years. Much of her inspiration comes from the Bible, the Talmud and the Midrash, as well as from her marriage of 52 years to a Talmud scholar.
In addition to many individual works, she has created two large series, both based on literary sources in the Talmud: the Jerusalem Series and the Genesis Series. The Jerusalem Series consists of nine works on paper, and incorporates a Talmudic expression found in Tractate Kiddushin 49b which conveys the reverence of the Rabbis for the beauty of Jerusalem. “Ten measures of beauty came down to earth; Jerusalem took nine, the rest of the world – one.”
I have chosen to reproduce here an image of Day One, from The Genesis Series, which the artist hand-printed in an edition of fifteen over seven years. The images of this series are three dimensional constructions, employing etching techniques, rolled surface color, embossing and torn paper, and often involving printing on both sides of the artwork. The format of all the pieces was inspired by a statement in the Mishnah in Tractate Avot: “The world was created with ten sayings.” Zlotnick makes the Hebrew text an integral part of the composition, as it “plays the role of Creator indicating what was created on each day.” Every time the Bible states, “And God said,” something new came into being. These words “vayomer Elokim” are a catalyst for Creation. This phrase actually appears in the text only nine times. Even though it does not appear before the words “In the beginning God created Heaven and Earth,” Zlotnick considers that it can be implied because of the verse in Tehillim (Psalms 33:6) which states: “With God’s speech, the Heavens were created” For Zlotnick, the Hebrew text (the word of God) becomes an integral part of her composition of Day One as it divides the light from the darkness.
The second of these artists is painter Janet Shafner, of New London, CT. With a B.A. in Art History from Barnard and a M.A in Studio Art with a concentration in printmaking from Connecticut College, she has an impressive and strong background in formal Art studies, and has been painting all her life. Here is how she explains her decision to concentrate on painting Jewish themes:
“In the late 1980’s, after years of painting still life, landscapes and portraits, I began to be interested in how Torah could be approached through art. As I read, I was struck by how the lives of our Biblical ancestors parallel our own. Everything they experienced, we still experience: sibling jealousy, unhappy marriages, barren women, sexual obsession, murder, rape, incest, but also tender, enduring love, and ecstatic encounters with the Divine. These multipaneled paintings allow me to juxtapose the ancient with the contemporary and bring the existential messages I find in the sacred writings into my own place and time.”
Shafner’s particular choice of multipaneled canvases for her paintings enables her to present the Biblical or Midrashic narrative in the top half of the piece, in a lunette (half moon) shaped panel, attached to a rectangular panel below, with her interpretative version. Thus, for example, in her painting of Honi The Circle Maker, she re-tells the story of Honi Hama’agal, who lived in the latter part of the first century BCE, drawing on the text in Ta’anit (Babylonian Talmud, 23a).
“He was renowned for his righteousness and for having an extraordinary power of prayer. During a time of great drought in the land of Israel, the people asked Honi to pray for rain. Honi prayed, but no rain came. Honi then drew a circle in the dust and stood within it and said: ‘Master of the Universe! I swear by Your great Name that I shall not move from here until You have mercy on Your children.’ A mere trickle of rain came down, so Honi turned once again to heaven. ‘It is not for this that I have prayed, but for rain to fill cisterns, ditches and caves.’ Immediately the rains came in great torrents, flooding the ground and overflowing the wells. The people ran to Honi crying for him to stop the floods of water. Honi answered them, ‘We may not pray on account of an excess of good. Despite this, bring me a bullock for a thanksgiving-offering.’ Honi laid his hands on the animal and said: ‘This people that you brought out of Egypt can take neither too much evil nor too much good. Please give them what they ask so they may be satisfied.’ God sent a wind that blew away the rains, and the people gathered mushrooms and truffles.
The extraordinary rain in the story of Honi has an even deeper meaning; it has been connected to the waters of the mist which we read about in the description of the sixth day of Creation. Rashi explains that the water that God used to mold the dirt for man’s creation came from no ordinary rain, but from a unique mist which ascended from the waters of the impenetrable deep. In the larger panel of this painting, torrents of rain water are suggested – rising upward from the earth. The two humble elements of water and dirt which God used to create man are also the framing elements of this narrative. Although Man is ultimately earth and water, he can reach up to Heaven to beseech God and to demand of Him compassion and mercy.”
The third artist, Chana Cromer, has been living with her family in Jerusalem since 1972, and is originally from Kansas City, Missouri. She studied art at the Bezalel Art Institute in Jerusalem, and textile design at the Philadelphia College of the Arts. Cromer also studied Biblical and Talmudic texts at Beth Midrash Ellul, and has taught art/text workshops and textile techniques at Pelech High School and Bruria and Orot Colleges as well as Bar Ilan University. Since 1989 she has worked in textile and surface design media, creating many textiles for synagogues. She also established the visual arts department at Ulpana L’Omanut (Torah Arts Academy), which served as a model for many other religious high schools that now teach art/text.
Cromer always begins her work with a close reading of the text. She records the associations, explores the visual imagery, and then researches the Biblical commentary.
Her fascination with the Joseph story began for two reasons. She had previously created works on the subject of Jacob’s struggle with the angel. She points out that Joseph’s story parallels his father’s. They were both dreamers as well as younger sons who were hated by their elder brothers. In their stories, they both grow through struggle. The second reason she was attracted to Joseph’s story is the centrality of fabric and clothing in the story.
Cromer received a grant from the Memorial Foundation of Jewish Culture to develop a series of mixed media works that would be a “re-weaving of the story of Joseph through the clothing and cloth that appear in it.” The piece shown here is entitled “Skin/Light” and the artist describes the piece as follows:
“There is a midrash that relates that the Coat of Many Colors was passed down from Joseph’s forefathers. I imagined that Adam’s coat would be made of fig leaves, like the coats he and Eve fashioned for themselves, as well as have the qualities of skin and light. God fashioned coats of skin—“or”—when Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden, “as thin and fine as a second skin, as fingernails.” A midrash says they were coats of “or” (skin, and/or light). Other commentaries speak of the special glow of light that came from Adam himself.”
The fabric chosen for this coat is a transparent metallic organza with a jacquard pattern of leaves. Onto this fabric are superimposed multiple silk screens of fig leaves using metallic pigments.
Over the years, Yeshiva University Museum has been a pioneer in displaying the works of emerging artists, as well as established ones. I am especially pleased that we are providing a forum for talented female artists to convey their personal encounters with traditional Jewish texts.