Posted 10:58 pm Saturday, March 01, 2008
Jewish Art Exhibit Rare Opportunity
By PATRICK BUTLER
Religion Editor
A rare and "not-often-seen point of view" will be exhibited by more than 20 Jewish women artists at the Women's Museum of Dallas through April 27. The juried show will present aspects of Jewish culture, history, philosophy, theology and social commitment, said Haley Curry with the museum.
Religion Editor
A rare and "not-often-seen point of view" will be exhibited by more than 20 Jewish women artists at the Women's Museum of Dallas through April 27. The juried show will present aspects of Jewish culture, history, philosophy, theology and social commitment, said Haley Curry with the museum.
"This is the Women's Museum first juried show, and the exhibit represents a wide array of different media from Jewish women from across the nation," Ms. Curry said. "Sculpture, photography, painting and mixed media were called for and judged. The result is a rare and not-often-seen point of view, looking through the eyes of a Jewish woman to the world."
Joan Davidow, who is not on the staff of the museum, was the exhibits juror.
"Her main parameter were artists who 'had it all,' those with depth, vision, ability and displayed a 'whole package' mentality," said Ms. Curry.
Fine-art photographer Susan Hightower Loeb of New Orleans is among the exhibitors. Originally a traditional painter classically trained to work from direct observation, she felt something lacking.
"I became dissatisfied, believing there must be something more to say," said Ms. Loeb. I became increasingly aware of social concerns in my city. Feeling a need to wed my art with my feelings about these issues, I took photographs as a way of recording my ideas."
Manipulating and enlarging the photographs, she used them to create references for her painting.
"This wondrous journey has led me, through my camera's eye, to capture the gesture, the moment, the balance, form and geometry of the visual image. My photography chronicles what touches my heart. It is my silent voice."
Painter Susan Post said, "My goal is to make paintings in which just the right overripe pink might be either inviting or repulsive, or a thin dark line might tie together the surface of painting or cut right through it, but either way, in such a way that the painting would be unimaginable any other way."
Sculptor Ruth Aizuss Migdal of Chicago said she was born to "illiterate Jewish immigrants" in 1932. Her figures have been "headless and always fragmented," she said.
"I was often asked why, and could not answer," she said. During a year of study at Migdal Torah, she had a realization.
"To complete a figure is to make an idol. Somewhere in my unconscious, I knew that I should not - and could not - do that, and I never did."
Since 1990, she has worked in bronze, using the lost method.
"My work is my passion," she said.
Admission to the museum covers the permanent collections as well as "In The Beginning" said Ms. Curry. Free audio tours of the permanent collections are available.
Admission to the museum covers the permanent collections as well as "In The Beginning" said Ms. Curry. Free audio tours of the permanent collections are available.
