The Jewish Museum Announces Exhibits And Events For Fall And Winter
By: Gabrielle Sierra Oct. 20, 2010
NEW EXHIBITION- HOUDINI: ART AND MAGIC October 29, 2010 through March 27, 2011
Born Ehrich Weiss in Budapest, Hungary, Harry Houdini (1874-1926), the renowned magician and escape artist, was the son of a rabbi who immigrated with his family to Wisconsin in 1878. Houdini was one of the 20th century's most famous performers. His gripping theatrical presentations and heart-stopping outdoor spectacles attracted unprecedented crowds, and his talent for self-promotion and provocation captured headlines on both sides of the Atlantic. The Jewish Museum will present the first major art museum exhibition to examine Houdini's life, legend, and enduring cultural influence. Through 163 objects, including 26 recent works of art inspired by Houdini, exhibition visitors will be able to explore the career and legacy of the celebrated entertainer while considering his lasting impact on contemporary art and culture. Works in a variety of media by such artists as Matthew Barney, Jane Hammond, Vik Muniz, and Raymond Pettibon will be on view along with historic photographs; dramatic Art Nouveau-era posters and broadsides; theater ephemera; and archival and silent films. Magic apparatus - rarely exhibited together - handcuffs, shackles, straitjacket, a milk can and a packing trunk will be showcased in the context of their original presentation. A recreation of the famous Water Torture Cell (much of the original was destroyed in a fire in 1995) will also be on view. Two of Houdini's private diaries, never before shown in a public exhibition, will be displayed. Visitors will learn about his evolution from a fledging circus performer in the 1890s, to a stage magician at the turn-of-the 20th century, to a daring escape artist in the early 1900s, and a world-famous celebrity who commanded a mass audience. Following its New York City showing, Houdini: Art and Magic will travel to Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles, CA (April 28 - September 4, 2011); Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, CA (September 30, 2011 - January 16, 2012); and Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Madison, WI (February 11 - May 13, 2012).Monday, October 25, 10 am - 1 pm
Remarks at 11 am
NEW INSTALLATION
November 21, 2010 through January 30, 2011Daniel Libeskind, an international figure in architecture and urban design, is creating a stunning installation featuring a selection of 40 Hanukkah lamps from the Museum's renowned collection. Libeskind's installation embodies his signature style: bold geometric forms, complex sight lines, and dynamic and often destabilizing interior spaces. The central focus of the installation is the Line of Fire, a jagged structure in brilliant red that diagonally bisects the gallery and serves as a pedestal for the Hanukkah lamps. The Line of Fire, a recurring feature in Libeskind's work, symbolizes the continuity of Jewish existence through sudden changes in circumstances, some of them catastrophic. In this installation, it also represents the flames of the lamps kindled on the holiday, and the spiritual and regenerative power of fire. The selection of Hanukkah lamps on view will exemplify the diversity of the Museum's collection, from an 18th century work made from the helmet shield of a Hessian soldier who fought in the American Revolution to Karim Rashid's 2004 Menoramorph, made from neon green silicon.
Tuesday, November 16, 10 am - 1 pm CONTINUING EXHIBITIONSFISH FORMS: LAMPS BY FRANK GEHRY
Through October 31, 2010The Jewish Museum is presenting a selection of colorful, luminous lamps designed by internationally renowned architect Frank Gehry in Fish Forms: Lamps by Frank Gehry. This exhibition also explores the significance of fish imagery in Gehry's work. The lamps are displayed in near darkness to create a gallery of glowing sculptural fish lit from within. In 1983, Gehry was asked by the Formica Corporation to make something with a new laminate product called ColorCore. When he broke a piece, the resulting shards reminded him of fish scales and gave him the idea for the fish lamps. Gehry made a prototype and then turned to New City Editions, a studio located next door to his, to fabricate the lamps, each of which he designed and approved. About thirty lamps were created between 1984 and 1986. To construct the lamps a wood model of the fish shape was made and a wire armature was stretched over it. The wire was cut to remove the wood and resoldered, and then shards of ColorCore were glued to the armature. Some lamps incorporated larger shards of ColorCore to form a base that concealed light bulbs. Around 1990, a version of the fish lamp was made using pieces of thin plate glass. This exhibition brings together eight of Frank Gehry's fish lamps, including a glass lamp in the collection of The Jewish Museum. An accompanying slide show provides an overview of how the fish form has changed from iconic symbol to transformative object in Gehry's ongoing architectural practice.
SHIFTING THE GAZE: PAINTING AND FEMINISM
Through January 30, 2011 Feminist challenges to creative and institutional limits have been widely influential in art since the 1960s, with the emergence of the women's art movement in the United States. Shifting the Gaze: Painting and Feminism is an exhibition exploring the impact of feminism on contemporary painting. Taking the visitor through a half-century of painting, the exhibition focuses on art at the crossroads of societal shift and individual expression. Shifting the Gaze places feminist art in a larger context exploring its roots in Abstract Expressionism, Pop and Minimalism, and extending to the present, when feminist impulses remain vital in recent works targeting the representation of women in popular culture. The exhibition, with over 30 paintings and several sculptures and decorative objects, is largely drawn from The Jewish Museum's collection and also includes select loans. Works by 27 artists such as Judy Chicago, Louise Fishman, Leon Golub, Eva Hesse, Deborah Kass, Lee Krasner, Louise Nevelson, Elaine Reichek, Miriam Schapiro, Joan Snyder, Nancy Spero, and Hannah Wilke, among others, are arranged thematically. Seven works in Shifting the Gaze have been acquired over the last three years.
MEDIA CENTER EXHIBITIONSHULIE: FILM AND STILLS BY ELISABETH SUBRIN
Through January 30, 2011Shulie (1997) is a shot-by-shot remake of a little-known documentary about '60s feminist Shulamith Firestone. Author of the treatise The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution, Firestone as a student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1967 when four male directors selected her as a subject for a film about the so-called Now Generation. Shot in the style of direct cinema, the original Shulie featured Firestone discussing religion, the limitations of motherhood, as well as racial and class issues in the workplace. Thirty years later, Elisabeth Subrin recreated Shulie using actors in many of the original locations. The resulting film is a nostalgic and somewhat cynical reflection on the legacy of second-wave feminism. Subrin writes, "in the compulsion to remake, to produce a fake document, to repeat a specific experience I never actually had, what I have offered up is the performance of a resonant, repetitive, emotional trauma that has yet to be healed." Shulie also features four new digital color photographs of enlarged film stills from Shulie, two of which are being shown for the first time. These photographs allow the viewer to focus on thematic details of the protagonist's activities (commuting to work, creating art), as well as on formal details including 16mm film grain and video scanlines. Similar to the way Subrin's film inhabits the area between reality and fantasy, her highly mediated printing methods involve a complex layering of analog and digital techniques. Shulie is presented in conjunction with the exhibition, Shifting the Gaze: Painting and Feminism. Elisabeth Subrin will present a special gallery talk at The Jewish Museum on Monday, November 8 at 1 pm. This artist's gallery talk is free with Museum admission. Reservations are not required.
CHILDREN'S EXHIBITIONARCHAEOLOGY ZONE: DISCOVERING TREASURES FROM PLAYGROUNDS TO PALACESIn Archaeology Zone: Discovering Treasures from Playgrounds to Palaces, an engaging and thoroughly interactive experience, children become archaeologists as they search for clues about ancient and modern objects. Visitors can discover what happens after archaeologists unearth artifacts and bring them back to their labs for in-depth analysis. Children ages 3 through 10 magnify, sketch and weigh objects from the past and the present, piece together clay fragments, interpret symbols, and dress in costumes. By examining these artifacts and imagining how people used these objects in their daily lives, children learn how forms have changed and evolved over time, and how these objects relate to their own lives.
MEDIA CENTERTHE BARBARA AND E. ROBERT GOODKIND MEDIA CENTERThe Barbara and E. Robert Goodkind Media Center features an exhibition space dedicated to video art and new media, and houses a digital library of 100 radio and television programs from The Jewish Museum's National Jewish Archive of Broadcasting (NJAB). Selections include such comedy favorites as "How to Be a Jewish Son," a panel discussion from a 1970 David Susskind Show featuring Mel Brooks; a 1947 radio drama entitled "Operation Nightmare" starring John Garfield and Al Jolson, produced by the United Jewish Appeal to call attention to displaced persons in postwar Europe; contemporary television documentaries on black-Jewish relations, Latino Jews, and klezmer music; interviews with artists such as Marc Chagall, Jacques Lipchitz, Larry Rivers, George Segal and Ben Shahn; and Manischewitz wine commercials produced between 1963 and 1981 featuring Sammy Davis, Jr. and Peter Lawford.
Episodes of such classic and contemporary television series such as Bridget Loves Bernie, Northern Exposure, The O.C., Seventh Heaven and Sports Night, as well as clips from The Colbert Report, feature interpretations of Jewish life-cycle events and holidays. A selection of musical performances includes a Hanukkah-themed video from the Latino-Jewish urban band Hip Hop Hoodios, an appearance by the Hasidic reggae star Matisyahu on The Late Show with David Letterman, a radio broadcast of liturgy composed by modern Zionist composer Marc Lavry, and a documentary on contemporary music featuring Frank London of The Klezmatics, Debbie Friedman, and Pharaoh's Daughter.
PERMANENT EXHIBITIONCULTURE AND CONTINUITY: THE JEWISH JOURNEYThree major sculptural installations related to Hanukkah will be on view in the contemporary gallery of Culture and Continuity: The Jewish Journey from November 21, 2010 to January 30, 2011. Alice Aycock's Greased Lightning (1984) is a motorized kinetic sculpture featuring an oversized moving dreidel, the small, inscribed top that children play with during the holiday. Miracle (2004) by Lynn Godley is a playful and monumental Hanukkah lamp that uses multiple lights to evoke the cumulative effect of progressively lighting the candles over 8 nights. Matthew McCaslin's Bring the Light (2000) fashions metal electrical conduit, light switches and porcelain light fixtures into an innovative and decidedly nontraditional Hanukkah lamp. In addition, a selection from Eleanor Antin's video Vilna Nights, a photograph by Mike Mandel entitled Robot Lights the Chanukah Candles, and works on paper by Larry Rivers and Marc Alan Jacobs will be included. These works are presented in conjunction with the new exhibition, A Hanukkah Project: Daniel Libeskind's Line of Fire.
A new acquisition, Portrait of Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, 1842, by 19th century German artist Moritz Daniel Oppenheim, has been added to the "Modernity" section of Culture and Continuity. The subject of this portrait was the sister of famous composer Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, a talented composer and musician in her own right. Fanny Hensel was the wife of a fellow painter, Wilhelm Hensel, whom Oppenheim met in Rome with the Nazarenes. Oppenheim, widely recognized as a portraitist, is known as the first Jewish artist to have benefited from the Emancipation, when new civil rights permitted Jews entry into academies of art for the first time in Europe. Extensively patronized by the Frankfurt branch of the Rothschild family, Oppenheim characterized himself (immodestly) as "a painter to the Rothschilds and the Rothschild of painters."
Comprised of close to 800 works, this vibrant, two-floor exhibition examines the Jewish experience as it has evolved from antiquity to the present over 4,000 years. Visitors to the 4th floor see the Ancient World galleries, featuring archaeological objects representing Jewish life in Israel and the Mediterranean region from 1200 BCE to 640 CE, and a dazzling installation of selections from the Museum's renowned collection of Hanukkah lamps. On the 3rd floor alone close to 400 works from the 16th century to the present are on view in this dramatic and evocative experience.
Other highlights of Culture and Continuity include: a pair of silver Torah finials from Breslau, Germany (1792-93) reunited at The Jewish Museum after sixty years of separation; paintings by such artists as Marc Chagall, Max Weber, Moritz Daniel Oppenheim, Isidor Kaufmann, Morris Louis, and Ken Aptekar; prints by El Lissitzky; sculpture by Elie Nadelman, and George Segal's monumental sculpture, The Holocaust, 1982. A display of 38 Torah ornaments allows the viewer to compare artistic styles from different parts of the world. It features lavishly decorated Torah crowns, pointers, finials and shields from Afghanistan, Algeria, Austria, England, France, Germany, Holland, Hungary, Ottoman Empire (Greece and Turkey), Georgia (of the former Soviet Union), Morocco, Israel, Italy, early 20th century Palestine, Persia, Poland, Russia, Tunisia, the United States, and Yemen.
A suite of classic post-World War II works originally designed by renowned architect Philip Johnson and the prominent Abstract Expressionist sculptor Ibram Lassaw for Congregation Kneses Tifereth Israel in Port Chester, New York, is also on view in Culture and Continuity. Included are sections of a large wall sculpture/bimah screen, the eternal lamp, the Torah ark, and two of the four bimah chairs.
Television excerpts from the Museum's National Jewish Archive of Broadcasting are also included. The entire exhibition is accompanied by a series of thematic, random access audio guides using MP3 technology, including a Director's Highlights Tour with The Jewish Museum's Director Joan Rosenbaum and WNYC Radio's Brian Lehrer.
PUBLIC PROGRAMSThursday, November 11, 6:30 pm
Panel Discussion
CONJURING HOUDINI IN THE POPULAR IMAGINATION
Karal Ann Marling, George Schindler, Dorothy Dietrich and Kenneth SilvermanTickets: $15 general public; $12 students/over 65; $10 Jewish Museum members
Thursday, November 18, 6:30 pm
Conversation
INSPIRED BY HOUDINI: E. L. Doctorow
E. L. Doctorow and Alan BrinkleyTickets: $15 general public; $12 students/over 65; $10 Jewish Museum members
Thursday, December 2, 6:30 pm
Conversation
IN CONVERSATION: DANIEL LIBESKIND AND JOAN ROSENBAUMTickets: $15 general public; $12 students/over 65; $10 Jewish Museum members
Tuesday, December 7, 7:30 pm
Concert
The KlezmaticsTickets: $35 general public; $30 Jewish Museum members
FAMILY PROGRAMSSunday, October 24, 2 pm
CONCERT: JUSTIN ROBERTS Age 3 and upTickets: $16 per adult; $11 per child; $13 adult Jewish Museum family level member;
$9 child Jewish Museum family level member
Sunday, November 14, Noon - 4 pm
HOUDINI FAMILY DAY Age 4 and upFree with Museum admission
Sunday, November 21, 11:15 am - 12:15 pm
ART WORKSHOP AND GALLERY TOUR: Ages 8 to 12
GLOWING TAPESTRIES FOR HANUKKAHTickets: $12 per adult; $10 per child; $10 adult Jewish Museum family level member;
$8 child Jewish Museum family level member
Sunday, December 5, Noon - 4 pm
HANUKKAH FAMILY DAY Age 4 and upFree with Museum admission
Sunday, December 12, 2 pm
MUSICAL THEATER: PETER AND THE WOLF Age 5 and up
Pushcart PlayersTickets: $16 per adult; $11 per child; $13 adult Jewish Museum family level member;
$9 child Jewish Museum family level member
December 24, 26, 27, 28, and 30, 1 - 4 pm
VACATION WEEK DROP IN ART WORKSHOP: Age 3 and up
HOUDINI INSPIRATIONS Free with Museum admission
Monday, December 27; Tuesday, December 28, 11:30 am - 2:30 pm
4TH ANNUAL REALLY ROSIE TO THE MUPPET SHOW Ages 3 to 9
FAMILY FILM DAYS
Free with Museum admission
Sundays through June 12, 2010, 1 - 4 pm
DROP-IN ART WORKSHOP Ages 3 and upFree with Museum admission
Sundays through June 12, 2010, 1:15 pm
STORYBOOKS AND ART Ages 3 to 7
Storytelling and gallery activitiesFree with Museum admission
SPECIAL NEEDS PROGRAMMonday, December 6, 2 pm
SIGN LANGUAGE INTERPRETED TEA TIME TOUR FOR VISITORS WHO ARE DEAF OR HARD OF HEARINGTea Time Tour of Houdini: Art and Magic, followed by a light reception. Free with Museum admission
GENERAL INFORMATIONINFORMATION HOTLINE
To reach the Museum's offices, call: 212.423.3200.
ONLINE INFORMATION
http://www.thejewishmuseum.org
OTHER INFORMATION
Public and Family Programs 212.423.3337
The Jewish Museum's Cooper Shop 212.423.3211
Celebrations - The Jewish Museum Design Shop 212.423.3260
NEW MUSEUM HOURS
Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday 11:00 am to 5:45 pm
Thursday 11:00 am to 8:00 pm
Friday 11:00 am to 4:00 pm
Wednesday CLOSED
CLOSED major legal and Jewish holidays
NOTE: The children's exhibition, Archaeology Zone: Discovering Treasures from Playgrounds to Palaces, is open Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday (not on Saturday).
NEW COOPER SHOP AND JEWISH MUSEUM DESIGN SHOP HOURS
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday 11:00 am to 5:45 pm
Wednesday 11:00 am to 3:00 pm
Thursday 11:00 am to 8:00 pm
Friday 11:00 am to 4:00 pm
CLOSED Saturday and major legal and Jewish holidays
ADMISSION
Adults $12.00
Senior Citizens $10.00
Students $ 7.50
Children under 12 FREE
Jewish Museum Members FREE
Saturdays FREE
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