NEW EXHIBITION OFFERS INSIGHTS INTO GREATEST ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIND OF THE 20^TH CENTURY

THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS:

 MYSTERIES OF THE ANCIENT WORLD

OPENS AT THE JEWISH MUSEUM ON SEPTEMBER 21

NEW YORK, NY – The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls was one of the archaeological sensations of the 20^th century.  Treasured objects of ancient religious observance and intense modern scholarly debate, these parchment texts were found, starting in 1947, in caves in the Judean Desert, east of Jerusalem and near the Dead Sea.  Created over 2,000 years ago, the scrolls turned out to contain previously unknown Jewish compositions as well as the oldest surviving copies of the Hebrew Bible.  When biblical scholars first learned of these texts, they were electrified by their potential for new revelations about Judaism and Christianity.  Over time, some 900 separate scrolls were found in neighboring caves. They are collectively called the Dead Sea Scrolls.

        The Dead Sea Scrolls: Mysteries of the Ancient World, opens at The Jewish Museum on September 21, 2008 and remains on view through January 4, 2009. This new exhibition features fragments of six scrolls, which have never been seen in New York City before.  Three of the scrolls are being exhibited for the first time anywhere.  Revered and revelatory, the Dead Sea Scrolls on display, together with over 30 artifacts discovered near the caves where the documents were found, provide new insights into the varied beliefs of ancient peoples and religious diversity today.  A seven-minute film further enriches the visitor experience.

        This exhibition represents the collaboration between the Israel Antiquities Authority and The Jewish Museum.  All of the objects are from the National Treasures of the Israel Antiquities Authority.  The Dead Sea Scrolls: Mysteries of the Ancient World is sponsored by AIG.

        The exhibition at The Jewish Museum includes six Dead Sea Scrolls.  These fragments of parchment documents consist of the Book of Jeremiah (225-175 BCE), one of the earliest copies of the Hebrew Bible in existence; an early example of prayers from the Words of the Luminaries; the Book of Tobit, a Jewish text that was not included in the Hebrew canon but later accepted into some versions of the Christian Old Testament (Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox); the Aramaic Apocryphon of Daniel, which mentions a son of God; the Community Rule, which lays out the regulations for joining and being a member of a sect; and the War Rule, which describes a great war at the end of days.   Each represents an aspect of the diverse religious milieu in which they were created more than 2,000 years ago. In an adjoining gallery, visitors will learn that scholars still do not agree about the origins and meaning of the scrolls decades after their discovery.

                The Dead Sea Scrolls: Mysteries of the Ancient World was organized for The Jewish Museum by Susan L. Braunstein, Curator of Archaeology and Judaica. In assembling the exhibition, she selected texts that illustrate the diversity and transformations in Judaism during the Second Temple Period, when the written word and prayer were rivaling sacrifice in worship, as well as early Christianity’s connections to Judaism.

        The Dead Sea Scrolls date from the late third century BCE through the first century CE. The texts consist of biblical books and commentary, poetry and prayers, and the communal rules and writings of one or more dissident Jewish religious groups.  The scrolls were in use during a period of successive political upheavals, from the Maccabean revolt for Jewish independence to the reign of King Herod to the Roman destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple in 70 CE.  This was also a time that saw the development of two religions – early Judaism and Christianity.

        At some point in the first century CE, the people who treasured these scrolls placed them in eleven caves along a five-mile stretch of cliffs in the barren Judean Desert, close to the Dead Sea.  Nearby was a small settlement at Khirbet Qumran, inhabited from the late second century BCE to the first century CE.  No one returned to collect the scrolls from the caves, and they lay there undisturbed until their discovery in 1947.

        Since then, scholars have once again pored over these texts and over the archaeological remains from Qumran, seeking to unravel their mysteries:  Who wrote and used them?  What can they tell us about the development of early Judaism, the text-oriented and synagogue-based form of worship that evolved alongside the sacrificial rituals at the Temple?  And can they shed light on the beginnings of Christianity in the first century CE?

        Finding the answers to these questions is an ongoing process, one that has already produced lively scholarly debates. The scrolls have opened up a complex world of Jewish diversity and inquiry from which Christianity eventually emerged.

        Scholars have two basic theories about who used the scrolls. The first posits that the scrolls all belonged to a single religious sect that probably lived at the settlement of Qumran.  Most scholars identify this group as the Essenes described in the writings of ancient historians, although other groups such as the Sadducees and even proto-Christians have been proposed.

        The second theory proposes that the scrolls were a random collection of texts reflecting the beliefs of many Jewish groups of the period.  They represented either a single priestly repository or public library, or the sacred texts of various Jewish communities from Jerusalem and elsewhere in the Land of Israel.  During the Jewish revolt against Rome beginning in 68 CE, refugees from further north hid their precious texts in the Dead Sea caves.  This hypothesis holds that there is no connection between the scrolls and the settlement at Qumran, and that the site was a fortress, a villa, a farm, an industrial site, or a commercial center.

Some scholars remain cautious about adopting either theory, and await more information from new publications of the scrolls and the Qumran excavations.

        What we know, Dr. Braunstein asserts, is that “these scrolls represent incredible voices speaking to us from a very important and fluid time in the development of the Jewish and Christian religions. I hope that their power will be felt and that our interpretation will help visitors understand them.”

        Among the artifacts included in the exhibition are leather sandals, representing the footwear of ordinary citizens of ancient Israel.  They serve as poignant reminders of people who may have lived in or taken refuge in the Qumran caves, perhaps while hiding from the Romans.

Also on view is a linen hairnet.  One of the hotly contested issues in the debates over who used the scrolls is whether or not the sect members were celibate men.  Hairnets found in the caves near Qumran, similar to the example on display, provide tantalizing but inconclusive evidence for women’s presence at the site.  Were they left by Qumran residents, or by refugees fleeing the Roman soldiers?

Many scrolls were probably stored either wrapped in a cloth or placed in a jar, or sometimes both, in order to protect and preserve them.  Wrapper decoration, which was rare, consisted of blue lines made from threads dyed with indigo or violet.  The very fine weaving of a scroll wrapper in the exhibition, and the use of expensive, imported indigo dye, suggest a certain level of wealth on the part of those who cared for the scrolls. It is unusual for a textile to survive from antiquity, since the climate and soil of Israel are not conducive to the preservation of organic materials.

Other objects on exhibition include silver coins, cups and plates for dining, stone vessels, a scroll jar and lid, a comb, an inkwell, and tefillin (phylactery) cases (small leather boxes containing passages of scripture worn by men at weekday morning prayer).  The tefillin cases in this exhibition are the earliest known examples in the world.

        The Dead Sea Scrolls: Mysteries of the Ancient World is sponsored by AIG.  Generous support was also provided by the Schaina and Josephina Lurje Memorial Foundation; the Eugene and Emily Grant Family Foundation in honor of Evelyn G. Clyman; an anonymous donor; the Joseph Alexander Foundation; the Salo W. and Jeanette M. Baron Foundation; Gail A. Binderman; Janine and Peter Lowy;  the Solow Art and Architecture Foundation; and the Sternlicht Family Foundation.  This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

Press Preview

        An exhibition press preview will be held at The Jewish Museum on Wednesday, September 17, 2008 from 10 am to 1 pm, with remarks by Joan Rosenbaum, Helen Goldsmith Menschel Director, The Jewish Museum; Susan Braunstein, Curator of Archaeology and Judaica, The Jewish Museum; and Pnina Shor, Head, Artifacts Treatment and Conservation Department, Israel Antiquities Authority.

        PLEASE NOTE that this will be the only opportunity for press photography or videotaping during the run of the exhibition due to the fragility of the scrolls.

About The Jewish Museum

The Jewish Museum was established on January 20, 1904 when Judge Mayer Sulzberger donated 26 ceremonial art objects to The Jewish Theological Seminary of America as the core of a museum collection.  Today, The Jewish Museum maintains an important collection of 26,000 objects – paintings, sculpture, works on paper, photographs, archaeological artifacts, ceremonial objects, and broadcast media.  Widely admired for its exhibitions and educational programs that inspire people of all backgrounds, The Jewish Museum is the preeminent institution exploring the intersection of 4,000 years of art and Jewish culture.

General Information

        Museum hours are Saturday through Wednesday, 11am to 5:45pm; and Thursday, 11am to 8pm.  Museum admission is $12.00 for adults, $10.00 for senior citizens, $7.50 for students, free for children under 12 and Jewish Museum members.  Admission is free on Saturdays.  For general information on The Jewish Museum, the public may visit the Museum’s Web site at www.thejewishmuseum.org or call 212.423.3200.  The Jewish Museum is located at 1109 Fifth Avenue at 92^nd Street, Manhattan.
About The Israel Antiquities Authority
        The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) considers the protection of the country’s archaeological heritage its foremost mission. In charge of Israel’s archaeological sites and ancient finds, the IAA licenses excavations, and supervises their preservation, conservation, study, and publication.  The IAA strives to maintain a balance between the modern needs of development and antiquities preservation.  It also fosters raising public awareness of and interest in Israel’s rich archaeological heritage.  Those interested in further information on the IAA can visit www.antiquities.org.il.

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THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS: MYSTERIES OF THE ANCIENT WORLD OPENS AT THE JEWISH MUSEUM ON SEPTEMBER 21

NEW YORK, NY – The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls was one of the archaeological sensations of the 20^th century.  Treasured objects of ancient religious observance and intense modern scholarly debate, these parchment texts were found, starting in 1947, in caves in the Judean Desert, east of Jerusalem and near the Dead Sea.  Created over 2,000 years ago, the scrolls turned out to contain previously unknown Jewish compositions as well as the oldest surviving copies of the Hebrew Bible.  When biblical scholars first learned of these texts, they were electrified by their potential for new revelations about Judaism and Christianity.  Over time, some 900 separate scrolls were found in neighboring caves. They are collectively called the Dead Sea Scrolls.

        The Dead Sea Scrolls: Mysteries of the Ancient World, opens at The Jewish Museum on September 21, 2008 and remains on view through January 4, 2009. This new exhibition features fragments of six scrolls, which have never been seen in New York City before.  Three of the scrolls are being exhibited for the first time anywhere.  Revered and revelatory, the Dead Sea Scrolls on display, together with over 30 artifacts discovered near the caves where the documents were found, will provide unique insights into the lives of ancient peoples and the formulation of modern religious practice.  A seven-minute film will further enrich the visitor experience.

        This exhibition represents the collaboration between the Israel Antiquities Authority and The Jewish Museum.  All of the objects are from the National Treasures of the Israel Antiquities Authority.  The Dead Sea Scrolls: Mysteries of the Ancient World is sponsored by AIG.

        The exhibition at The Jewish Museum includes six Dead Sea Scrolls.  These fragments of parchment documents consist of the Book of Jeremiah (225-175 BCE), one of the earliest copies of the Hebrew Bible in existence; an early example of prayer from the Words of the Luminaries; the Book of Tobit, a Jewish text that was rejected for the Hebrew canon but later accepted into Christian apocrypha; the Aramaic Apocryphon of Daniel, which mentions a son of God; the Community Rule, which lays out the regulations for joining and being a member of a sect; and the War Rule, which describes a great war at the end of days.   Each represents an aspect of the diverse religious milieu in which they were created more than 2,000 years ago. In an adjoining gallery, visitors will learn that scholars still do not agree about the origins and meaning of the scrolls decades after their discovery.

        The Dead Sea Scrolls: Mysteries of the Ancient World was organized for The Jewish Museum by Susan L. Braunstein, Curator of Archaeology and Judaica. In assembling the exhibition, she selected texts that illustrate the diversity and transformations in Judaism during the Second Temple Period, when the written word and prayer were rivaling sacrifice in worship, as well as early Christianity’s connections to Judaism.

        The Dead Sea Scrolls date from the late third century BCE through the first century CE. The texts consist of biblical books and commentary, poetry and prayers, and the communal rules and writings of one or more dissident Jewish religious groups.  The scrolls were in use during a period of successive political upheavals, from the Maccabean revolt for Jewish independence to the reign of King Herod to the Roman destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple in 70 CE.  This was also a time that saw the emergence of two religions – early Judaism and Christianity.

        At some point in the first century CE, the people who treasured these scrolls placed them in eleven caves along a five-mile stretch of cliffs in the barren Judean Desert, close to the Dead Sea.  Nearby was a small settlement at Khirbet Qumran, inhabited from the late second century BCE to the first century CE.  No one returned to collect the scrolls from the caves, and they lay there undisturbed until their discovery in 1947.

        Since then, scholars have once again pored over these texts and over the archaeological remains from Qumran, seeking to unravel their mysteries:  Who wrote and used them?  What can they tell us about the development of early Judaism, the text-oriented and synagogue-based form of worship that evolved alongside the sacrificial rituals at the Temple?  And can they shed light on the beginnings of Christianity in the first century CE?

        Finding the answers to these questions is an ongoing process, one that has already produced lively scholarly debates. The scrolls have opened up a complex world of Jewish diversity and inquiry from which Christianity eventually emerged.

        Scholars have two basic theories about who used the scrolls. The first posits that the scrolls all belonged to a single religious sect that probably lived at the settlement of Qumran.  Most scholars identify this group as the Essenes described in the writings of ancient historians, although other groups such as the Saducees and even proto-Christians have been proposed.

        The second theory proposes that the scrolls were a random collection of texts reflecting the beliefs of many Jewish groups of the period.  They represented either a single priestly repository or public library or the sacred texts of various Jewish communities from Jerusalem and elsewhere in the land of Israel.  During the Jewish revolt against Rome beginning in 68 CE, refugees from further north hid their precious texts in the Dead Sea caves.  This hypothesis holds that there is no connection between the scrolls and the settlement at Qumran, and that the site was a fortress, a villa, a farm, an industrial site, or a commercial center.

        Some scholars remain cautious about adopting either theory, and await more information from new publications of the scrolls and the Qumran excavations.

        What we know, Dr. Braunstein asserts, is that “these scrolls represent incredible voices speaking to us from a very important and fluid time in the development of the Jewish and Christian religions. I hope that their power will be felt and that our interpretation will help visitors understand them.”

        The Dead Sea Scrolls: Mysteries of the Ancient World is sponsored by AIG.  Generous support was also provided by the Eugene and Emily Grant Family Foundation in honor of Evelyn G. Clyman; an anonymous donor; the Joseph Alexander Foundation; the Salo W. and Jeanette M. Baron Foundation; and Gail A. Binderman.

Press Preview

        An exhibition press preview will be held at The Jewish Museum on Wednesday, September 17, 2008 from 10 am to 1 pm, with remarks by Joan Rosenbaum, Helen Goldsmith Menschel Director, The Jewish Museum; Susan Braunstein, Curator of Archaeology and Judaica, The Jewish Museum; and Pnina Shor, Head, Artifacts Treatment and Conservation Department, Israel Antiquities Authority.

        PLEASE NOTE that this will be the only opportunity for press photography or videotaping during the run of the exhibition due to the fragility of the scrolls.

About The Jewish Museum

The Jewish Museum was established on January 20, 1904 when Judge Mayer Sulzberger donated 26 ceremonial art objects to The Jewish Theological Seminary of America as the core of a museum collection.  Today, The Jewish Museum maintains an important collection of 26,000 objects – paintings, sculpture, works on paper, photographs, archaeological artifacts, ceremonial objects, and broadcast media.  Widely admired for its exhibitions and educational programs that inspire people of all backgrounds, The Jewish Museum is the preeminent institution exploring the intersection of 4,000 years of art and Jewish culture.

General Information

        Museum hours are Saturday through Wednesday, 11am to 5:45pm; and Thursday, 11am to 8pm.  Museum admission is $12.00 for adults, $10.00 for senior citizens, $7.50 for students, free for children under 12 and Jewish Museum members.  Admission is free on Saturdays.  For general information on The Jewish Museum, the public may visit the Museum’s Web site at http://www.thejewishmuseum.org or call 212.423.3200.  The Jewish Museum is located at 1109 Fifth Avenue at 92^nd Street, Manhattan.

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Jewish Museum Exhibition And Program Listings July, August, September 2008

NEW EXHIBITION

THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS: MYSTERIES OF THE ANCIENT WORLD

September 21, 2008 through January 4, 2009

The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls was one of the archaeological sensations of the 20^th century.  Objects of ancient religious observance and intense modern scholarly debate, these parchment texts were found, starting in 1947, in caves in the Judean Desert, east of Jerusalem and near the Dead Sea.  Created over 2,000 years ago, the scrolls turned out to contain previously unknown Jewish compositions as well as the oldest surviving copies of the Hebrew Bible.  When biblical scholars first learned of these texts, they were electrified by their potential for new revelations about Judaism and Christianity.  Over time, some 900 separate scrolls were found in neighboring caves. They are collectively called the Dead Sea Scrolls.   The new exhibition, The Dead Sea Scrolls: Mysteries of the Ancient World, features fragments of six scrolls, which have never been seen in New York City before.  Three of the scrolls are being exhibited for the first time anywhere.  Treasured and revelatory, the Dead Sea Scrolls on display, together with over 30 artifacts discovered at Qumran, near the caves where the documents were found, will provide unique insights into the lives of ancient peoples and the formulation of modern religious practice.  A seven-minute film will further enrich the visitor experience.  This exhibition represents the collaboration between the Israel Antiquities Authority and The Jewish Museum.  All of the objects are from the National Treasures of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

PRESS PREVIEW – Wednesday, September 17, 10 am – 1 pm

NEW MEDIA CENTER EXHIBITION

MOTHER ECONOMY: A FILM BY MAYA ZACK

July 1 through October 23, 2008

The 19-minute film Mother Economy: A Film by Maya Zack is a meditation on Holocaust remembrance and an homage to the resourcefulness of Jewish women. In Mother Economy, a homemaker (portrayed by Idit Neuderfer) wearing glasses and a lace-collared blouse, her hair neatly arranged in a bun, maintains order and composure by performing household rituals with scientific precision.  Efficient and focused, the woman locates and identifies objects belonging to absent family members while radio broadcasts in the background suggest war, destruction, and chaos outside her controlled domestic space.  Using a marker, she traces a tennis racquet, cigarette ash, pocket change, and other personal artifacts on paper covering the walls and floors.  The paper is pink, a color associated with financial newspapers and femininity.  She proceeds to catalog objects before her.  Using formulas from a notebook and an abacus, she bakes a round kugel (noodle pudding) which is cut to resemble an economic pie chart.  Both the artist and the fictional character struggle to make sense of personal and collective trauma when information is scarce.  Zack’s film was strongly influenced by a visit to her grandmother’s former house in Kosice, a city in present-day Slovakia.  Unable to enter the house, Zack tried to imagine the interiors – both present and past.  For the film’s set, Zack incorporates period clothing and furniture, but it remains an incomplete sketch of the past.

CONTINUING EXHIBITIONS

WARHOL’S JEWS: TEN PORTRAITS RECONSIDERED

Through August 3, 2008

Warhol’s Jews: Ten Portraits Reconsidered is on view at The Jewish Museum through August 3, 2008.  When it premiered in 1980, Andy Warhol’s Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century was met with both admiration and hostility.  The series depicts such luminaries of Jewish culture as Sarah Bernhardt, Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, the Marx Brothers, Golda Meir, and Franz Kafka, among others.  On view in this exhibition are the photographs that Warhol used as source images, several preliminary sketches, a preparatory collage, an edition of the final silk-screen print portfolio (of which 200 were published), and one of the five complete sets of paintings that he made for the series.  The drawings and source photographs have not previously been exhibited alongside the finished pictures.  Additional materials related to the portraits, including the list of nearly 100 “famous Jews” prepared by Warhol’s dealer, and television coverage of the artist’s trip to Miami for the world premiere of the series, shed light on their creation and display.  Following its New York City showing, the exhibition will travel to the Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, CA (October 12, 2008 – January 25, 2009).

ART, IMAGES AND WARHOL CONNECTIONS

Through August 3, 2008

In the mini-exhibition, Art, Image and Warhol Connections, works by seven artists who directly respond to Andy Warhol or employ techniques often associated with Warhol’s oeuvre are on view.  Warhol and themes central to his practice – such as current events, consumer culture and the superstar – are seen reflected through 26 works by a multi-generational group of artists, including Deborah Kass, Alex Katz, Abshalom Jac Lahav, Adam Rolston, Ben Shahn, Devorah Sperber and June Wayne.  In the 1960s and 1970s, Shahn, Wayne and Katz developed new ways to portray the public personas of private individuals.  In the 1990s, artists such as Kass, Rolston and Sperber cast a critical yet admiring eye on Warhol to address his omissions and limitations. Emerging painter Abshalom Jac Lahav elaborates and subsumes subjects of Warhol’s Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century in his own ongoing portraiture project.  Directly or indirectly, these artists extend and transform Warhol’s legacy.

ACTION/ABSTRACTION: POLLOCK, DE KOONING, AND AMERICAN ART, 1940-1976

Through September 21, 2008

In Action/Abstraction: Pollock, de Kooning, and American Art, 1940-1976, the first major U.S. exhibition in 20 years to rethink Abstract Expressionism and the movements that followed, fifty key works by 31 artists – among them Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Helen Frankenthaler, Mark Rothko – are viewed from the perspectives of rival art critics, the artists, and popular culture.  Beginning in the 1940s, artists such as Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning created paintings and sculptures that catapulted American art onto the international stage, making New York City the successor to prewar Paris as the mecca for the avant-garde. Two art critics played a crucial role in the reception of the new American painting and sculpture — the highly influential New York intellectuals Clement Greenberg and Harold Rosenberg.  In the pages of magazines as diverse as Partisan Review, The Nation, The New Yorker, ARTnews, and Vogue, these critics wrote incisively about seismic changes in the art world, often disagreeing with each other vehemently.  Their advocacy propelled the artists and their art to the forefront of the public imagination.  By the late 1950s, Pollock and de Kooning were virtually household names and Abstract Expressionism was widely known throughout America and internationally.  Action/Abstraction presents major paintings and sculptures from this decisive era, surveying the first generation of Abstract Expressionists as well as later artists who built on their achievements.  Context rooms in the exhibition feature personal correspondence, magazines and newspapers, film and television clips, and photographs that shed light on the cultural and social climate of the 1940s to the 1970s.  The works in the exhibition, arranged in thematic sections, are grouped to evoke the rivalry of Greenberg and Rosenberg and the epic transformation of American art in the postwar period.  Following its New York City showing, Action/Abstraction will travel to the Saint Louis Art Museum from October 19, 2008 to January 11, 2009, and the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY from February 13 to May 31, 2009.  The exhibition has been organized by The Jewish Museum, in collaboration with the Albright-Knox Art Gallery and the Saint Louis Art Museum.

CHILDREN’S EXHIBITION

ARCHAEOLOGY ZONE: DISCOVERING TREASURES FROM PLAYGROUNDS TO PALACES

Through June 15, 2009

In 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 CENTER

THE BARBARA AND E. ROBERT GOODKIND MEDIA CENTER

The Barbara and E. Robert Goodkind Media Center features an exhibition space dedicated to video 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 the incomparable 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, Jewish feminism, 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.

PERMANENT EXHIBITION

CULTURE AND CONTINUITY: THE JEWISH JOURNEY

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 now 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 Max Weber, Moritz Daniel Oppenheim, Isidor Kaufmann, Morris Louis, and Ken Aptekar; prints by Marc Chagall and El Lissitzky; and sculpture by Elie Nadelman.  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.  Television excerpts from the Museum’s National Jewish Archive of Broadcasting are also included.  The entire exhibition is comprised of close to 800 works and 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.

        The portraits of the Levy-Franks family, attributed to Gerardus Duyckinck and dating from the 1720s to 1735, are the most extensive surviving group of Colonial American portraiture.  The Jewish Museum will be exhibiting six of them consecutively in pairs through June 2009 in Culture and Continuity.  The first two were on view through December 31, 2007, the second pair are on view from January through September 2008, and the third pair from October 2008 through June 2009.  These six paintings are from the collection of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, a new museum scheduled to open in 2009.  Spanning three generations, the works depict the German-born patriarch Moses Raphael Levy, his wife Grace Mears Levy, his daughter Abigaill Franks and her husband Jacob Franks, and five of their children. These paintings also hold a noteworthy place in American art as one of the oldest surviving family portrait series.

        A recently acquired 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.

PUBLIC PROGRAMS

Concert
SUMMERNIGHTS: SLAVIC SOUL PARTY!
Thursday, July 17, 8 pm

The musicians of Slavic Soul Party!- featuring Jacob Garchik, John Carlson, Brian Drye, Peter Stan,     Ben Holmes, Ron Caswell, Matt Moran and Oscar Noriega – forge virtuosic new brass band music, melding Gypsy, East European, Mexican, and Asian immigrant backgrounds with American jazz and soul.

Tickets: $15 general public; $12 students/over 65; $10 Jewish Museum members
Concert
SUMMERNIGHTS: THE KLEZ DISPENSERS
Thursday, July 24, 8 pm
This eight-piece ensemble – featuring Alex Kontorovich (clarinet, alto and baritone sax), Ben Holmes (trumpet), Amy Zakar (violin, mandolin), Audrey Betsy Welber (alto and tenor sax, clarinet), Susan Watts (vocals, trumpet), Adrian Banner (piano), Heather Chriscaden Versace (bass), and Gregg Mervine (drums) – employs both tradition and innovation, mixing old-school klezmer, a wide variety of  jazz styles, and avant-garde klezmer fusion to create state-of-the-art music.

Tickets: $15 general public; $12 students/over 65; $10 Jewish Museum members
FAMILY PROGRAMS

Mondays,  July 14 through August 18, 11:15 am – 12:15 pm

ART ADVENTURE MONDAYS                                           Ages 4 to 7

This special tour program for families features stories, sketching, and new themes each week.

Free with Museum admission

Monday,  September 8, 3:30 pm – 4:30 pm

STORYBOOK MONDAY – DRIP, SPLASH, SCRATCH, AND SPLATTER  Ages 3 to 5

Storybook readings and interactive family gallery tours.

Free with Museum admission

Sunday, September 14, 11:15 am – 12:15 pm

FAMILY GALLERY TOUR – POUR, SPLASH, DRIP                                Ages 5 to 12

A Museum educator will lead families on a tour of the exhibition, Action/Abstraction: Pollock, de Kooning, and American Art, 1940-1976.  A sketching activity is included.

Free with Museum admission

Sunday, September 14, 2 pm

CONCERT: HAYES GREENFIELD                                               Ages 4 to 10
Jazz it up with Action/Abstraction!

Families can groove to the jazz of Hayes Greenfield as he celebrates the masters of Abstract Expressionism through sounds and rhythms inspired by paintings and sculptures from the exhibition, Action/Abstraction: Pollock, de Kooning, and American Art, 1940-1976.

Tickets: $15 per adult; $10 per child; $12 adult Jewish Museum family member; $8 child family member

Mondays, September 15 to December 1, 9:30 am – 10:15 am,
OR 10:30 am – 11:15 am, OR 11:30 am – 12:15 pm

MUSIC CLASSES: MUSIC FOR AARDVARKS AND OTHER MAMMALS    Ages 1 to 4

Toddlers and their parents can dance, sing funky original tunes, and  create a jam session together in this series of classes. 

Registration fee: $460.00 per child;  $420.00 Jewish Museum family member

Class size is limited – early registration is recommended

Monday,  September 22, 3:30 pm – 4:30 pm

STORYBOOK MONDAY – ANCIENT EXPLORATIONS                 Ages 3 to 5

Storybook readings and interactive family gallery tours.

Free with Museum admission

Sunday, September 29, 2 pm

CONCERT: FUNKEY MONKEYS TWO SHOWS!                      Ages 2 to 6

Families can enjoy sweet tunes for the Jewish New Year as the Funkey Monkeys return to The Jewish Museum.  This unique band is a combination of Seinfeld, The Wiggles, The Muppet Show, and A Prairie Home Companion for toddlers.

Tickets: $15 per adult; $10 per child; $12 adult Jewish Museum family member; $8 child family member

Sundays beginning September 14, 1 to 4 pm

DROP-IN ART WORKSHOP                                                         Ages 3 and up

Families can participate in a hands-on drop-in art workshop focusing on Jewish holidays, the Museum’s collection, and special exhibitions and ticketed programs.

Free with Museum admission

Sundays beginning September 14

1:30 pm

STORYBOOK READINGS              Ages 2 to 6

Specially selected stories and Jewish tales told by a Museum educator with audience participation.

Free with Museum admission

Sundays, beginning September 14

3:30 pm

DRAW AND DISCOVER                                                       Ages 5 to 12

Participants can examine artworks and artifacts in Culture and Continuity: The Jewish Journey, The Jewish Museum’s permanent exhibition, looking carefully at selected artworks and sketching what  they see.

Free with Museum admission

SERVICES FOR VISITORS WHO ARE BLIND OR PARTIALLY SIGHTED

The Jewish Museum offers open tours of its exhibitions for visitors who are blind or partially sighted. Museum docents are trained to lead Verbal Imaging tours.  All tours are free with museum admission.  A verbal imaging “Tea Time” tour is being offered on Tuesday, July 22 at 2:00 pm for the exhibition, Warhol’s Jews: Ten Portraits Reconsidered.  A verbal imaging “Tea Time” tour is being offered on Tuesday, September 9 for the exhibition, Action/Abstraction: Pollock, de Kooning and American Art, 1940-1976.  All participants are invited to join museum staff at a reception with light refreshments immediately following these tours.  “Tea Time” tours require pre-registration by calling the Scheduling and Access Coordinator.  A verbal imaging tour is also being offered on Monday, September 15 at 1:15 pm for Action/Abstraction: Pollock, de Kooning, and American Art, 1940-1976.  The Museum also offers Verbal Imaging and Touch Tours by appointment for groups.  Large Print Labels are available for all special exhibitions. To arrange for a tour, the public may contact the Scheduling and Access Coordinator at 212.423.3225.

SERVICES FOR VISITORS WHO ARE DEAF OR HARD OF HEARING

The Jewish Museum offers open tours of its exhibitions for visitors who are deaf and hard of hearing on the second Monday and third Thursday of each month.  These 45-minute tours are led by a Jewish Museum docent who is accompanied by a certified sign language interpreter for the deaf.  All sign interpreted tours are free with Museum admission.  Assistive listening devices for the hard of hearing are available for all tours. An infrared assistive listening system for visitors who are hard of hearing is available for programs in the Museum’s S.H. and Helen R. Scheuer Auditorium.  Sign interpreted tours are also available by appointment. To arrange for a tour, the public may contact the Scheduling and Access Coordinator at 212.423.3225 or TTY 212.660.1515.

GENERAL INFORMATION

INFORMATION

HOTLINE:                To reach the Museum’s offices, call: 212.423.3200.

ONLINE

INFORMATION:    http://www.thejewishmuseum.org

OTHER                   Public and Family Programs                              212.423.3337

INFORMATION:    The Jewish Museum’s Cooper Shop                 212.423.3211

                        Celebrations – The Jewish Museum Design Shop            212.423.3260

MUSEUM AND CAFÉ WEISSMAN HOURS:

                        Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday            11:00 am to 5:45 pm

                        Thursday                                                        11:00 am to 8:00 pm

                        Friday                                                  CLOSED

                        CLOSED major legal and Jewish holidays

                        CAFÉ closes at 5:30 pm on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday

                        and at 7:30 pm Thursday.  Café Weissman is closed on Friday and Saturday

                        NOTE: The children’s exhibition, Archaeology Zone: Discovering Treasures

                        from Playgrounds to Palaces, is open Sunday through Thursday (not on Saturday).

THE COOPER SHOP AND JEWISH MUSEUM DESIGN SHOP HOURS:

                        Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday                      11:00 am to 5:45 pm

                        Thursday        11:00 am to 8:00 pm

                                                (Design Shop closes at 5:45 pm)

                        Friday                                                          11:00 am to 3:00 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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MOTHER ECONOMY: A FILM BY MAYA ZACK OPENS AT THE JEWISH MUSEUM ON JULY 1

New York, NY – The Jewish Museum will present Mother Economy: A Film by Maya Zack from July 1 to October 23, 2008 in the Museum’s Barbara and E. Robert Goodkind Media Center.  This 19 minute film (2007) is a meditation on Holocaust remembrance and an homage to the resourcefulness of Jewish women.

        In Mother Economy, a homemaker (portrayed by Idit Neuderfer) wearing glasses and a lace-collared blouse, her hair neatly arranged in a bun, maintains order and composure by performing household rituals with scientific precision.  Efficient and focused, the woman locates and identifies objects belonging to absent family members while radio broadcasts in the background suggest war, destruction, and chaos outside her controlled domestic space.  Using a marker, she traces a tennis racquet, cigarette ash, pocket change, and other personal artifacts on paper covering the walls and floors.  The paper is pink, a color associated with financial newspapers and femininity.  She proceeds to catalog objects before her.  Using formulas from a notebook and an abacus, she bakes a round kugel (noodle pudding) which is cut to resemble an economic pie chart.

        Both the artist and the fictional character struggle to make sense of personal and collective trauma when information is scarce.  Zack’s film was strongly influenced by a visit to her grandmother’s former house in Kosice, a city in present-day Slovakia.  Unable to enter the house, Zack tried to imagine the interiors – both present and past.  For the film’s set, Zack incorporates period clothing and furniture, but it remains an incomplete sketch of the past.

        Filmmaker and sculptor Maya Zack (Israeli, b. 1976) lives and works in Tel Aviv.  Her work has been exhibited at the Noga Gallery of Contemporary Art (Tel Aviv), Altneuland Gallery (Berlin), The Israel Museum, The Haifa Museum of Art, The Tel Aviv Museum of Art, and the 4th Gwangju Biennale in Korea.  In 2008 Zack was awarded Germany’s Celeste Art Prize for Mother Economy.

        Located on the third floor of The Jewish Museum, the Goodkind Media Center houses a digital library of radio and television programs from the Museum’s National Jewish Archive of Broadcasting (NJAB). It also features a changing exhibition space dedicated to video and new media.  Using computer workstations, visitors are able to search material by keyword and by categories such as art, comedy, drama, news, music, kids, Israel, and the Holocaust.

About the National Jewish Archive of Broadcasting

        The National Jewish Archive of Broadcasting, founded in 1981 in association with the Charles H. Revson Foundation, is the largest and most comprehensive body of broadcast materials on 20th century Jewish culture in the United States.  With a mission to collect, preserve and exhibit  television and radio programs related to the Jewish experience, the NJAB is an important educational resource for critical examination of how Jews have been portrayed and portray themselves, and how the mass media has addressed issues of ethnicity and diversity.  Its collection is comprised of 4,300 broadcast and cable television and radio programs.

About The Jewish Museum

The Jewish Museum was established on January 20, 1904 when Judge Mayer Sulzberger donated 26 ceremonial art objects to The Jewish Theological Seminary of America as the core of a museum collection.  Today, The Jewish Museum maintains an important collection of 26,000 objects – paintings, sculpture, works on paper, photographs, archaeological artifacts, ceremonial objects, and broadcast media.  Widely admired for its exhibitions and educational programs that inspire people of all backgrounds, The Jewish Museum is the preeminent United States institution exploring the intersection of 4,000 years of art and Jewish culture.

General Information

        Museum hours are Saturday through Wednesday, 11am to 5:45pm; and Thursday, 11am to 8pm.  Museum admission is $12.00 for adults, $10.00 for senior citizens, $7.50 for students, free for children under 12 and Jewish Museum members.  Admission is free on Saturdays.  For general information on The Jewish Museum, the public may visit the Museum’s Web site at http://www.thejewishmuseum.org or call 212.423.3200.  The Jewish Museum is located at 1109 Fifth Avenue at 92^nd Street, Manhattan.

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FIRST MAJOR U.S. EXHIBITION IN 20 YEARS

TO RETHINK ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM,

ACTION/ABSTRACTION:

 POLLOCK, DE KOONING, AND AMERICAN ART, 1940-1976,

OPENS AT THE JEWISH MUSEUM ON MAY 4

NEW YORK, NY – The Jewish Museum will present Action/Abstraction: Pollock, de Kooning, and American Art, 1940-1976 from May 4 through September 21, 2008.  In the first major U.S. exhibition in 20 years to rethink Abstract Expressionism and the movements that followed, fifty key works by 31 artists – among them Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Helen Frankenthaler, Mark Rothko – will be viewed from the perspectives of influential, rival art critics Clement Greenberg and Harold Rosenberg, the artists, and popular culture.  Following its New York City showing, the exhibition will travel to the Saint Louis Art Museum from October 19, 2008 to January 11, 2009, and the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY from February 13 to May 31, 2009.

        Beginning in the 1940s, artists such as Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning created paintings and sculptures that catapulted American art onto the international stage, making New York City the successor to prewar Paris as the mecca for the avant-garde. Two rival art critics played a crucial role in the reception of the new American painting and sculpture: the highly influential New York intellectuals Clement Greenberg and Harold Rosenberg.  In the pages of magazines as diverse as Partisan Review, The Nation, The New Yorker, ARTnews, and Vogue, these critics wrote incisively about seismic changes in the art world, often disagreeing with each other vehemently.

        By interpreting the significance of the most daring art of their times, their advocacy propelled the artists and their art to the forefront of the public imagination.  In 1949, when Life – then the nation’s most popular magazine and a barometer of mainstream taste – featured a piece on Jackson Pollock, it was clear that Clement Greenberg’s influence had begun to be felt beyond the world of art.  By the late 1950s, Pollock and de Kooning were virtually household names and Abstract Expressionism was widely known throughout America and internationally.

        In a period fueled by Cold War politics, the mushrooming of mass media, and surging consumerism, Rosenberg promoted action – his idea of the creative, physical act of making art – against Greenberg’s belief in abstraction and the formal purity of the art object.  The artists they championed included Pollock and de Kooning, Hans Hofmann and Arshile Gorky, Helen Frankenthaler and Joan Mitchell, Jules Olitski and Philip Guston, Mark Rothko and Clyfford Still.  Action/Abstraction presents major paintings and sculptures from this decisive era, surveying the first generation of Abstract Expressionists as well as later artists who built on their achievements.  Context rooms in the exhibition will feature personal correspondence, magazines and newspapers, film and television clips, and photographs that shed light on the cultural and social climate of the 1940s to the 1970s.  The works in the exhibition, arranged in thematic sections, are grouped to evoke the rivalry of Greenberg and Rosenberg and the epic transformation of American art in the postwar period.

        Visitors will see important Pollock paintings, including Convergence (1952), hanging near classic masterpieces by de Kooning, such as Gotham News (1955).  Despite the fact that the roster of Abstract Expressionist artists included many outsiders – among them immigrant Greeks, Russians, Armenians, and Jews – and showed the influence of non-Western art, such as Native American and African works, Greenberg and Rosenberg often disregarded minority artists, particularly women and African Americans.  Notable among the critics’ “blind spots” were the painters Lee Krasner, Grace Hartigan and Norman Lewis.  Krasner is represented in the exhibition by two pictures, including Untitled (1948) – one of her transformative Little Image paintings.  Grace Hartigan’s energetic canvases fused figuration with abstraction.  Norman Lewis created vibrant, abstract works that referenced jazz and African textiles.  Among the many highlights in Action/Abstraction are Barnett Newman’s Genesis – The Break (1946) and Onement IV (1949).  Such works represent a bridge to the next phase of Abstract Expressionism: Color Field Painting.  Helen Frankenthaler’s breakthrough painting Mountains and Sea (1952), which was highly influential for a number of other painters, is the opening work in a gallery devoted to Post-Painterly Abstraction.  The exhibition culminates in the work of artists who chose divergent paths. In his monumental Marriage of Reason and Squalor (1959), Frank Stella took Greenberg’s thinking about art for art’s sake, flatness and artistic purity to the next level.  Allan Kaprow, in contrast, hewing to Rosenberg’s concept of action, invented Happenings and Environments, which redirected the focus from the artist as actor to the audience as creators. Kaprow’s 1962 Environment, Words, has been specially reinvented for Action/Abstraction by contemporary artist Martha Rosler.

        The show brings together masterworks from major institutions and collections throughout the U.S. and abroad.  Action/Abstraction was conceived and organized by Norman L. Kleeblatt, Susan & Elihu Rose Chief Curator of The Jewish Museum, with consulting curators Maurice Berger, Senior Fellow at The Vera List Center for Art & Politics, New School University and Senior Research Scholar of the Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture, University of Maryland; Douglas Dreishpoon, Senior Curator of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery; and Charlotte Eyerman, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Saint Louis Art Museum.  Maurice Berger curated the context rooms in the exhibition.

Produced by The Jewish Museum in association with Acoustiguide, a random access audio guide using MP3 technology has been created for the Action/Abstraction exhibition.  Available to visitors for $4, it features an introduction by The Jewish Museum’s Director Joan Rosenbaum, and critical commentary by curator Norman L. Kleeblatt, world renowned sculptor Sir Anthony Caro, and the painter Peter Saul.

The accompanying 344-page catalogue, co-published by The Jewish Museum and Yale University Press, and edited by Norman L. Kleeblatt, features 255 illustrations (166 color and 89 black and white images), a cultural timeline by Maurice Berger, exhibition checklist, and essays by Kleeblatt, Dreishpoon, and Eyerman as well as by specialists of the period – Debra Bricker Balken, Morris Dickstein, Mark Godfrey, Caroline A. Jones, and Irving Sandler.  The hardcover book will sell for $60.00 at The Jewish Museum’s Cooper Shop and bookstores everywhere.  The soft cover edition will be available only at the three exhibition venues for $40.00.

The exhibition has been organized by The Jewish Museum, in collaboration with the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo and the Saint Louis Art Museum.

The Action/Abstraction exhibition was designed by the New York-based architecture and design firm Tsao & McKown.

Leadership support has been provided by the Weissman Family Foundation, The National Endowment for the Humanities, a federal agency, and the Peter Jay Sharp Foundation.  The exhibition is sponsored by the Jerome L. Greene Foundation.

Additional funding has been provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Schaina and Josephina Lurje Memorial Foundation, The Donald and Barbara Zucker Foundation, the Roy J. Zuckerberg Family Foundation, the New York Council for the Humanities, Ruth Albert, the Laurie Kayden Foundation, the Robert Lehman Foundation, Lief D. Rosenblatt, Barry and Teri Volpert, and the Alfred J. Grunebaum Memorial Fund.

The catalogue is supported by the Dorot Foundation publications endowment.

About The Jewish Museum

The Jewish Museum was established on January 20, 1904 when Judge Mayer Sulzberger donated 26 ceremonial art objects to The Jewish Theological Seminary of America as the core of a museum collection.  Today, The Jewish Museum maintains an important collection of 26,000 objects – paintings, sculpture, works on paper, photographs, archaeological artifacts, ceremonial objects, and broadcast media.  Widely admired for its exhibitions and educational programs that inspire people of all backgrounds, The Jewish Museum is the preeminent institution exploring the intersection of 4,000 years of art and Jewish culture.

General Information

        Museum hours are Saturday through Wednesday, 11am to 5:45pm; and Thursday, 11am to 8pm.  Museum admission is $12.00 for adults, $10.00 for senior citizens, $7.50 for students, free for children under 12 and Jewish Museum members.  Admission is free on Saturdays.  For general information on The Jewish Museum, the public may visit the Museum’s Web site at http://www.thejewishmuseum.org or call 212.423.3200.  The Jewish Museum is located at 1109 Fifth Avenue at 92^nd Street, Manhattan.

#           #           #

EXHIBITION AND PROGRAM LISTINGS

April, May, June 2008

This release contains information covering the three month period of April through June 2008.  Free Saturdays at The Jewish Museum will continue for the foreseeable future.  Saturday hours are from 11 am to 5:45 pm.  The Jewish Museum’s galleries, shops and café will be closed on Sunday, April 20; Monday, April 21; Saturday, April 26; and Sunday, April 27 in observance of Passover; and Monday, June 9 and Tuesday, June 10 in observance of Shavuot. The 30th annual Museum Mile Festival takes place on Tuesday, June 3 from 6 to 9 pm.
NEW EXHIBITIONS
ACTION/ABSTRACTION: POLLOCK, DE KOONING, AND AMERICAN ART, 1940-1976

May 4 through September 21, 2008

In Action/Abstraction: Pollock, de Kooning, and American Art, 1940-1976, the first major U.S. exhibition in 20 years to rethink Abstract Expressionism and the movements that followed, fifty key works by 31 artists – among them Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Helen Frankenthaler, Mark Rothko – will be viewed from the perspectives of rival art critics, the artists, and popular culture.  Beginning in the 1940s, artists such as Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning created paintings and sculptures that catapulted American art onto the international stage, making New York City the successor to prewar Paris as the mecca for the avant-garde. Two art critics played a crucial role in the reception of the new American painting and sculpture — the highly influential New York intellectuals Clement Greenberg and Harold Rosenberg.  In the pages of magazines as diverse as Partisan Review, The Nation, The New Yorker, ARTnews, and Vogue, these critics wrote incisively about seismic changes in the art world, often disagreeing with each other vehemently.  Their advocacy propelled the artists and their art to the forefront of the public imagination.  By the late 1950s, Pollock and de Kooning were virtually household names and Abstract Expressionism was widely known throughout America and internationally.  Action/Abstraction presents major paintings and sculptures from this decisive era, surveying the first generation of Abstract Expressionists as well as later artists who built on their achievements.  Context rooms in the exhibition will feature personal correspondence, magazines and newspapers, film and television clips, and photographs that shed light on the cultural and social climate of the 1940s to the 1970s.  The works in the exhibition, arranged in thematic sections, are grouped to evoke the rivalry of Greenberg and Rosenberg and the epic transformation of American art in the postwar period.  Following its New York City showing, Action/Abstraction will travel to the Saint Louis Art Museum from October 19, 2008 to January 11, 2009, and the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY from February 13 to May 31, 2009.  The exhibition has been organized by The Jewish Museum, in collaboration with the Albright-Knox Art Gallery and the Saint Louis Art Museum.

CONTINUING EXHIBITIONS

WARHOL’S JEWS: TEN PORTRAITS RECONSIDERED

Through August 3, 2008

Warhol’s Jews: Ten Portraits Reconsidered is on view at The Jewish Museum through August 3, 2008.  When it premiered in 1980, Andy Warhol’s Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century was met with both admiration and hostility.  The series depicts such luminaries of Jewish culture as Sarah Bernhardt, Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, the Marx Brothers, Golda Meir, and Franz Kafka, among others.  On view in this exhibition are the photographs that Warhol used as source images, several preliminary sketches, a preparatory collage, an edition of the final silk-screen print portfolio (of which 200 were published), and one of the five complete sets of paintings that he made for the series.  The drawings and source photographs have not previously been exhibited alongside the finished pictures.  Additional materials related to the portraits, including the list of nearly 100 “famous Jews” prepared by Warhol’s dealer, and television coverage of the artist’s trip to Miami for the world premiere of the series, shed light on their creation and display.  Following its New York City showing, the exhibition will travel to the Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, CA (October 12, 2008 – January 25, 2009).

ART, IMAGES AND WARHOL CONNECTIONS

Through August 3, 2008

In the mini-exhibition, Art, Image and Warhol Connections, works by seven artists who directly respond to Andy Warhol or employ techniques often associated with Warhol’s oeuvre are on view.  Warhol and themes central to his practice – such as current events, consumer culture and the superstar – are seen reflected through 26 works by a multi-generational group of artists, including Deborah Kass, Alex Katz, Abshalom Jac Lahav, Adam Rolston, Ben Shahn, Devorah Sperber and June Wayne.  In the 1960s and 1970s, Shahn, Wayne and Katz developed new ways to portray the public personas of private individuals.  In the 1990s, artists such as Kass, Rolston and Sperber cast a critical yet admiring eye on Warhol to address his omissions and limitations. Emerging painter Abshalom Jac Lahav elaborates and subsumes subjects of Warhol’s Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century in his own ongoing portraiture project.  Directly or indirectly, these artists extend and transform Warhol’s legacy.

CHILDREN’S EXHIBITION

ARCHAEOLOGY ZONE: DISCOVERING TREASURES FROM PLAYGROUNDS TO PALACES

Through June 15, 2009

In 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 CENTER EXHIBITIONS

OIL/WATER-MOTHER/DAUGHTER: VIDEO AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY MOR ARKADIR

Through June 22, 2008  

The Jewish Museum presents the documentary film Oil, Water (2005) and the photograph Overlap (2004) by Mor Arkadir, winner of the 2005 Adi Prize for Jewish Expression in Art and Design, in the Museum’s Barbara and E. Robert Goodkind Media Center.  Both works explore the intersection between the artist’s secular world and her mother’s religious observance.  Oil, Water is a 14-minute film depicting a 24-hour road trip in which mother and daughter confront generational differences, conflicting belief systems, and engine troubles.

POMEGRANATE: A VIDEO BY ORI GERSHT

Through June 22, 2008

Referencing a still life by 16^th century Spanish artist Juan Sánchez Cotán, Ori Gersht’s eerie and painterly video features a ripe pomegranate dangling from a string, and framed with other freshly harvested produce in a window.  In slow motion a bullet slices through the fruit-a food symbolic of the Bible, Jewish law, and Near Eastern culture-spraying blood-red seeds and flesh in the air.

MEDIA CENTER

THE BARBARA AND E. ROBERT GOODKIND MEDIA CENTER

The Barbara and E. Robert Goodkind Media Center features an exhibition space dedicated to video 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 the incomparable 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, Jewish feminism, 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.

PERMANENT EXHIBITION

CULTURE AND CONTINUITY: THE JEWISH JOURNEY

        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 now 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 Max Weber, Moritz Daniel Oppenheim, Isidor Kaufmann, Morris Louis, and Ken Aptekar; prints by Marc Chagall and El Lissitzky; and sculpture by Elie Nadelman.  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.  Leonard Baskin’s 1977 sculpture, The Altar (based on the biblical story of the sacrifice of Isaac), considered the artist’s greatest carving, is on view for the first time since 1986. Television excerpts from the Museum’s National Jewish Archive of Broadcasting are also included.  The entire exhibition is comprised of close to 800 works and 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.

        The portraits of the Levy-Franks family, attributed to Gerardus Duyckinck and dating from the 1720s to 1735, are the most extensive surviving group of Colonial American portraiture.  The Jewish Museum will be exhibiting six of them consecutively in pairs through June 2009 in Culture and Continuity.  The first two were on view through December 31, 2007, the second pair are on view from January through September 2008, and the third pair from October 2008 through June 2009.  These six paintings are from the collection of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, a new museum scheduled to open in 2009.  Spanning three generations, the works depict the German-born patriarch Moses Raphael Levy, his wife Grace Mears Levy, his daughter Abigaill Franks and her husband Jacob Franks, and five of their children. These paintings also hold a noteworthy place in American art as one of the oldest surviving family portrait series.

        A recently acquired 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.

PUBLIC PROGRAMS

Panel Discussion

WHEN GREAT ART MEETS GREAT EVIL

Thursday, April 10

6:30 pm

Moderator James Oestreich will speak with novelists Henry Grinberg and Eugene Drucker about their       novels Variations on the Beast and The Savior.  Both works deal with the contradictions between the greatness of German musical culture and the depths of depravity to which an entire nation sank while the Nazis were in power.

Tickets: $15 general public; $12 students/over 65; $10 Jewish Museum members

Books in Focus 

MICHAEL WEX: JUST SAY NU

Thursday, April 17

6:30 pm

Just Say Nu looks at the uniquely contrary nature of the Yiddish language–its origins and how to use it in daily life.  According to the author, Yiddish has the unique ability to diminish human misery without increasing human happiness; Just Say Nu will explain the art of being able to do so.  Michael Wex is a novelist, professor, translator (including the only Yiddish translation of The Threepenny Opera), lecturer, and performer (of stand-up and one person shows).  Wex has been hailed as “a Yiddish national treasure” and is one of the leading lights in the current revival of Yiddish, lecturing widely on Yiddish and Jewish culture.  He lives in Toronto.

Free with Museum admission

Lecture

ABSTRACTION & THE HOLOCAUST

Thursday,  May 1

6:30 pm

Dr. Mark Godfrey, curator at Tate Modern in London, will offer an assessment of how American abstract artists such as Barnett Newman and Richard Serra responded to the Holocaust.  This lecture is presented in conjunction with the exhibition, Action/Abstraction: Pollock, de Kooning, and American Art, 1940-1976.

Free with Museum admission

Daytime Lecture Series

WHAT IS ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM?

Tuesdays, May 6, 13 and 20

11:30 am

Joan Pachner, an art historian and lecturer at the Museum of Modern Art and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, will explore the artistic and cultural conditions that nourished the emergence of Abstract Expressionism as the first truly revolutionary art movement born in America.  Attendees will gain a greater understanding of Abstract Expressionism and critically evaluate the painting and sculpture that transformed the art world after World War II. Session I identifies the movement’s origins; Session II addresses the diversity of Abstract Expressionism; Session III examines artist reactions against the movement.  This lecture series is presented in conjunction with the exhibition, Action/Abstraction: Pollock, de Kooning, and American Art, 1940-1976.

Tickets: $45 for entire series; $20 for single lectures

Panel Discussion

ART AND AMERICAN CULTURE AT MID-CENTURY

Thursday, May 8

6:30 pm

The years following World War II are recognized as one of the most exciting and controversial periods in American culture. This panel focuses on the creative ferment in postwar art and culture as it reflected yet also challenged the shifting currents of American social life. Panelists include: Ann Douglas, Parr Professor of Comparative Literature at Columbia University and author of Terrible Honesty: Mongrel Manhattan in the 1920s; Gary Giddins, author of nine books, including Visions of Jazz, for which he won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism; Anne Roiphe bestselling author of 14 books, including Fruitless, a National Book Award nominee and a forthcoming memoir, Epilogue; and Irving Sandler, a critic and art historian whose books include A Sweeper-Up After Artists: A Memoir.  The moderator is Morris Dickstein, Distinguished Professor of English at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, where he is also a senior fellow of the Center for the Humanities, and author of A Mirror in the Roadway: Literature and the Real World.  This discussion is presented in conjunction with the exhibition, Action/Abstraction: Pollock, de Kooning, and American Art, 1940-1976.

Tickets: $15 general public; $12 students/over 65; $10 Jewish Museum members

Panel Discussion

IDENTITY, ENGAGEMENT, JUDGMENT: CLEMENT GREENBERG AND HAROLD ROSENBERG THEN AND NOW

Thursday,  May 15

6:30 pm

What lessons can be learned from Clement Greenberg and Harold Rosenberg, rival art critics who were instrumental in defining the terms and consequence of postwar American art?  How effective and appropriate do their words and arguments seem now?  How can the artistic present, which is partly defined by anxiety about the impact and legitimacy of art criticism, judge and use their achievements? Scholar-critics open unexpected passages between that moment and ours.  Panelists include David Joselit, Chairman of the Department of the History of Art at Yale University and author of Feedback: Television Against Democracy; Linda Norden, Director of the Amie and Tony James Gallery at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York; Kenneth E. Silver, Professor of Modern Art at New York University and Adjunct Curator at the Bruce Museum, Greenwich, Connecticut; and Catherine Soussloff, UC Presidential Chair and Professor of History of Art & Visual Culture at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and author of The Subject in Art.  The moderator is Michael Brenson, an art critic, art historian and teacher, and author of Acts of Engagement: Writings on Art, Criticism, and Institutions, 1993-2002. This discussion is presented in conjunction with the exhibition, Action/Abstraction: Pollock, de Kooning, and American Art, 1940-1976.

Tickets: $15 general public; $12 students/over 65; $10 Jewish Museum members

Panel Discussion

BUT IS IT JEWISH? CONTEMPLATING CONTEMPORARY ISRAELI CINEMA

Thursday, June 3

6:30 pm

This discussion examines Israeli film and Jewish film.  Where do they intersect, and what are the differences?  Is all Israeli film Jewish film?  Panelists include Uri S. Cohen, Assistant Professor of Hebrew Literature at the Columbia University Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies and filmmaker of a documentary film on Israeli author Ida Fink; David D’Arcy, programmer at the Haifa International Film Festival in Israel and film critic for Screen International and GreenCine.com; and Noah Stollman, screenwriter of Someone to Run With.  This program marks the 60^th anniversary of Israel’s founding and is offered in conjunction with a series of Israeli films presented at The Walter Reade Theater in Lincoln Center from May 28 to June 5 by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, Israel Office of Cultural Affairs in the USA, The Jewish Museum, and the JCC of Manhattan.

Free with Museum admission

Lecture

LEE KRASNER

Thursday, June 5

6:30 pm

American painter Lee Krasner (1908-1984), a student of Hans Hofmann and an influential Abstract Expressionist artist, produced a distinguished and ambitious body of work.  Robert Hobbs, curator of the 2001 exhibition, Lee Krasner, for Independent Curators International, will explore Krasner’s aesthetic development, her innovative art, and her involvement with the New York School.  This lecture is presented in conjunction with the exhibition, Action/Abstraction: Pollock, de Kooning, and American Art, 1940-1976.

Tickets: $15 general public; $12 students/over 65; $10 Jewish Museum members

Concert

SUMMERNIGHTS: MY SONG FOR YOU

Featuring Libby Shapiro and Special Guests

Thursday, June 26

8 pm

The Jewish Museum’s annual SummerNights concert series returns, presenting live music from three continents on five Thursdays in June and July.  Libby Shapiro launches the series with an evening of favorite folk, pop, and jazz songs in English, German, and Yiddish. Selections include such classics as Pennies from Heaven, Raisins and Almonds, and Bei mir Bistu Scheyn.

Tickets: $15 general public; $12 students/over 65; $10 Jewish Museum members

FAMILY PROGRAMS

DRAWING SERIES FOR TWEENS: 

PORTRAITS FROM TRADTIONAL TO POP ART                            Ages 10 to 13

Tuesdays, April 8, 15, 29, and May 6
4 – 5:30 pm

Kids ages 10 to 13 can spend four Tuesdays exploring the Museum’s permanent exhibition, Culture and Continuity: The Jewish Journey and the special exhibition, Warhol’s Jews: Ten Portraits Reconsidered. Drawing inspiration from portraits in these exhibitions, budding artists will learn new techniques and build on drawing skills.

Free with Museum admission – Advance Registration Required (Limited Spaces Available)

Call 212.423.3225 to register. 

Note: Students must attend all four sessions.

CONCERT: MUSIC FOR AARDVARKS    TWO SHOWS!

Sunday, April 6

11:30 am AND 2 pm

                                                                                Ages 3 to 8

Families can groove to the original and rockin’ sound of Music for Aardvarks.  This popular kids’ band will play catchy favorite songs that celebrate being a kid in New York City.

Tickets: $15 per adult; $10 per child; $12 adult Jewish Museum family member;

$8 child family member

CONCERT: DAVID GROVER AND THE BIG BEAR BAND                     Ages 3 to 8

Sunday, April 13

2 pm

In this Passover concert for families, David Grover and the Big Bear Band will play songs that celebrate freedom, and sing about crunchy matzah.  David Grover’s folk sound for the 21st century will entertain adults and children alike.

Tickets: $15 per adult; $10 per child; $12 adult Jewish Museum family member;

$8 child family member

STORYBOOK MONDAY – SPRING THINGS                                        Ages 3 to 5

Monday,  April 14

3:30 pm – 4:30 pm

This program includes storybook readings and interactive family gallery tours.

Free with Museum admission

VACATION WEEK ARTS AND CRAFTS:

PASSOVER POP ART                                                                   Ages 5 and up

Tuesday,  April 22 through  Thursday, April 24

1 pm – 4 pm

Children will use bold colors and shapes to design a work of Pop Art with a Passover theme inspired by Warhol’s Jews: Ten Portraits Reconsidered.

Free with Museum admission

STORYBOOK MONDAY – INCREDIBLE EARTH                             Ages 3 to 5

Monday, April 28

3:30 pm – 4:30 pm

This program includes storybook readings and interactive family gallery tours.

Free with Museum admission
CONCERT: AUDRAROX                                                       Ages 2 to 6

Sunday, May 4

2 pm

Families can boogie to the punky rock and roll of AudraRox, and sing along to original tunes about everyday adventures.

Tickets: $15 per adult; $10 per child; $12 adult Jewish Museum family member;

$8 child family member

STORYBOOK MONDAY – COLORS AND SHAPES                            Ages 3 to 5

Monday, May 12

3:30 pm – 4:30 pm

This program includes storybook readings and interactive family gallery tours.

Free with Museum admission
ACTION/ABSTRACTION FAMILY DAY                                   Ages 3 and up
Sunday, May 18
Noon – 4 pm

The Jewish Museum will present a fun-filled afternoon of art, music, and more in celebration of the Museum’s exhibition, Action/Abstraction: Pollock, de Kooning, and American Art, 1940-1976.  Highlights of the day include the unique sounds of The Dream Jam Band,  a giant collaborative abstract art project, a gallery hunt, and a huge arts and crafts workshop.

Free with Museum admission
CONCERT: ELIZABETH MITCHELL and YOU ARE MY FLOWER               Ages 2 to 7

Sunday,  June 8

2 pm

Families can celebrate nature with the folk-rock sound of Elizabeth Mitchell, her husband Daniel Littleton, and her daughter Storey.

Tickets: $15 per adult; $10 per child; $12 adult Jewish Museum family member;

$8 child family member

DROP-IN ART WORKSHOP                                                         Ages 3 and up

Sundays through June 8

1 to 4  pm

Families can participate in a hands-on drop-in art workshop focusing on Jewish holidays, the Museum’s collection, and special exhibitions and ticketed programs.

Free with Museum admission

STORYBOOK READINGS              Ages 2 to 6

Sundays through June 8

1:30 pm

Specially selected stories and Jewish tales told by a Museum educator with audience participation.

Free with Museum admission

DRAW AND DISCOVER                                                       Ages 5 to 12

Sundays through June 8

3:15 pm

Participants can examine artworks and artifacts in Culture and Continuity: The Jewish Journey, The Jewish Museum’s permanent exhibition, looking carefully at selected artworks and sketching what  they see.

Free with Museum admission

SERVICES FOR VISITORS WHO ARE BLIND OR PARTIALLY SIGHTED

The Jewish Museum offers open tours of its exhibitions for visitors who are blind or partially sighted. Museum docents are trained to lead Verbal Imaging tours.  All tours are free with museum admission.  A verbal imaging tour is being offered on Monday, May 19 at 1:15 pm for the exhibitions, Warhol’s Jews: Ten Portraits Reconsidered and Art, Image, and Warhol Connections.  A verbal imaging tour is also being offered on Thursday, June 12 at 1:15 pm for the exhibition, Action/Abstraction: Pollock, de Kooning, and American Art, 1940-1976.  The Museum also offers Verbal Imaging and Touch Tours by appointment for groups.  Large Print Labels are available for all special exhibitions. To arrange for a tour, the public may contact the Scheduling and Access Coordinator at 212.423.3225.

SERVICES FOR VISITORS WHO ARE DEAF OR HARD OF HEARING

The Jewish Museum offers open tours of its exhibitions for visitors who are deaf and hard of hearing.  These 45-minute tours are led by a Jewish Museum docent who is accompanied by a certified sign language interpreter for the deaf.  All sign interpreted tours are free with Museum admission.  Assistive listening devices for the hard of hearing are available for all tours. A “Tea Time” tour is scheduled for Tuesday, April 1 at 2:00 pm for the exhibitions, Warhol’s Jews: Ten Portraits Reconsidered and Art, Image, and Warhol Connections. A sign interpreted tour is scheduled on Thursday, May 21 at 2:00 pm for the exhibition, Action/Abstraction: Pollock, de Kooning, and American Art, 1940-1976. All participants are invited to join museum staff to a reception with light refreshments immediately following the tour.  All “Tea Time” tours are free and require pre-registration by calling the Scheduling and Access Coordinator. An infrared assistive listening system for visitors who are hard of hearing is available for programs in the Museum’s S.H. and Helen R. Scheuer Auditorium.  Sign interpreted tours are also available by appointment. To arrange for a tour, the public may contact the Scheduling and Access Coordinator at 212.423.3225 or TTY 212.660.1515.

GENERAL INFORMATION

INFORMATION

HOTLINE:                To reach the Museum’s offices, call: 212.423.3200.

ONLINE

INFORMATION:    http://www.thejewishmuseum.org

OTHER           Public and Family Programs                                      212.423.3337

INFORMATION:    The Jewish Museum’s Cooper Shop                 212.423.3211

                        Celebrations – The Jewish Museum Design Shop            212.423.3260

MUSEUM AND CAFÉ WEISSMAN HOURS:

                        Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday            11:00 am to 5:45 pm

                        Thursday                                                        11:00 am to 8:00 pm

                        Friday                                                  CLOSED

                        CLOSED major legal and Jewish holidays

                        CAFÉ closes at 5:30 pm on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday

                        and at 7:30 pm Thursday.  Café Weissman is closed on Friday and Saturday

                        NOTE: The children’s exhibition, Archaeology Zone: Discovering Treasures

                        from Playgrounds to Palaces, is open Sunday through Thursday (not on Saturday).

THE COOPER SHOP AND JEWISH MUSEUM DESIGN SHOP HOURS:

                        Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday                      11:00 am to 5:45 pm

                        Thursday        11:00 am to 8:00 pm

                                                (Design Shop closes at 5:45 pm)

                        Friday                                                          11:00 am to 3:00 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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ACTION/ABSTRACTION: POLLOCK, DE KOONING,

AND AMERICAN ART, 1940-1976

OPENS AT THE JEWISH MUSEUM ON MAY 4

NEW YORK, NY – The Jewish Museum will present Action/Abstraction: Pollock, de Kooning, and American Art, 1940-1976 from May 4 through September 21, 2008.  In the first major U.S. exhibition in 20 years to rethink Abstract Expressionism and the movements that followed, fifty key works by 31 artists – among them Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Helen Frankenthaler, Mark Rothko – will be viewed from the perspectives of influential, rival art critics Clement Greenberg and Harold Rosenberg, the artists, and popular culture.  Following its New York City showing, the exhibition will travel to the Saint Louis Art Museum from October 19, 2008 to January 11, 2009, and the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY from February 13 to May 31, 2009.

        Beginning in the 1940s, artists such as Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning created paintings and sculptures that catapulted American art onto the international stage, making New York City the successor to prewar Paris as the mecca for the avant-garde. Two rival art critics played a crucial role in the reception of the new American painting and sculpture: the highly influential New York intellectuals Clement Greenberg and Harold Rosenberg.  In the pages of magazines as diverse as Partisan Review, The Nation, ARTnews, and Vogue, these critics wrote incisively about seismic changes in the art world, often disagreeing with each other vehemently.

        By interpreting the significance of the most daring art of their times, their advocacy propelled the artists and their art to the forefront of the public imagination.  In 1949, when Life – then the nation’s most popular magazine and a barometer of mainstream taste – featured a piece on Jackson Pollock, it was clear that Clement Greenberg’s influence had begun to be felt beyond the world of art.  By the late 1950s, Pollock and de Kooning were household names and Abstract Expressionism was widely known throughout America and internationally.

        In a period fueled by Cold War politics, the mushrooming of mass media, and surging consumerism, Rosenberg promoted action – his idea of the creative, physical act of making art – against Greenberg’s belief in abstraction and the formal purity of the art object.  The artists they championed included Pollock and de Kooning, Hans Hofmann and Arshile Gorky, Helen Frankenthaler and Joan Mitchell, Jules Olitski and Philip Guston, Mark Rothko and Clyfford Still.  Action/Abstraction presents major paintings and sculptures from this decisive era, surveying the first generation of Abstract Expressionists as well as later artists who built on their achievements.  Context rooms in the exhibition will feature documents – including personal correspondence, magazines and newspapers, film and television clips, and photographs – that shed light on the cultural and social climate of the 1940s to the 1970s.  The works in the exhibition, arranged in thematic sections, are grouped to evoke the rivalry of Greenberg and Rosenberg and the epic transformation of American art in the postwar period.

The show brings together masterworks from major institutions and collections throughout the U.S. and abroad.  Action/Abstraction was conceived and organized by Norman L. Kleeblatt, Susan & Elihu Rose Chief Curator of The Jewish Museum, with curatorial consultants Maurice Berger, Senior Fellow at the Vera List Center for Art and Politics, New School University and Curator of the Center for Art and Visual Culture, University of Maryland; Douglas Dreishpoon, Senior Curator of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery; and Charlotte Eyerman, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Saint Louis Art Museum.  Maurice Berger curated the context rooms in the exhibition.

The accompanying 344-page catalogue, co-published by The Jewish Museum and Yale University Press, and edited by Norman L. Kleeblatt, features 255 illustrations (166 color and 89 black and white images), a cultural timeline by Maurice Berger, exhibition checklist, and essays by Kleeblatt, Dreishpoon, and Eyerman as well as by specialists of the period – Debra Bricker Balken, Morris Dickstein, Mark Godfrey, Caroline A. Jones, and Irving Sandler.  The hardcover book will sell for $60.00 at The Jewish Museum’s Cooper Shop and bookstores everywhere.  The soft cover edition will be available only at the three exhibition venues for $40.00.

The exhibition has been organized by The Jewish Museum, in collaboration with the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo and the Saint Louis Art Museum.

Leadership support has been provided by the Weissman Family Foundation, The National Endowment for the Humanities, a federal agency, and the Peter Jay Sharp Foundation.  The exhibition is sponsored by the Jerome L. Greene Foundation.

Additional funding has been provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Schaina and Josephina Lurje Memorial Foundation, The Donald and Barbara Zucker Foundation, the Roy J. Zuckerberg Family Foundation, the New York Council for the Humanities, Ruth Albert, the Laurie Kayden Foundation, the Robert Lehman Foundation, Lief D. Rosenblatt, Barry and Teri Volpert, and the Alfred J. Grunebaum Memorial Fund.

The catalogue is supported by the Dorot Foundation publications endowment.

About The Jewish Museum

The Jewish Museum was established on January 20, 1904 when Judge Mayer Sulzberger donated 26 ceremonial art objects to The Jewish Theological Seminary of America as the core of a museum collection.  Today, The Jewish Museum maintains an important collection of 26,000 objects – paintings, sculpture, works on paper, photographs, archaeological artifacts, ceremonial objects, and broadcast media.  Widely admired for its exhibitions and educational programs that inspire people of all backgrounds, The Jewish Museum is the preeminent institution exploring the intersection of 4,000 years of art and Jewish culture.

General Information

        Museum hours are Saturday through Wednesday, 11am to 5:45pm; and Thursday, 11am to 8pm.  Museum admission is $12.00 for adults, $10.00 for senior citizens, $7.50 for students, free for children under 12 and Jewish Museum members.  Admission is free on Saturdays.  For general information on The Jewish Museum, the public may visit the Museum’s Web site at http://www.thejewishmuseum.org or call 212.423.3200.  The Jewish Museum is located at 1109 Fifth Avenue at 92^nd Street, Manhattan.

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THE 30TH ANNUAL MUSEUM MILE FESTIVAL

TUESDAY, JUNE 3, 2008 FROM 6 PM TO 9 PM

FREE MUSEUM ADMISSIONS,

OUTDOOR ART ACTIVITIES FOR CHILDREN

New York, NY – Now celebrating its 30th year, the annual Museum Mile Festival (www.museummilefestival.org) will take place rain or shine on Tuesday, June 3, 2008, from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm.  Well over one million people have taken part in this annual celebration since its inception.  Festival attendees can walk the Mile from 82nd Street to 105th Street and visit nine of New York City’s finest cultural institutions open free that evening to the public.  In addition, several of the participating museums will offer outdoor art activities for children.

The Museum Mile Festival’s opening ceremony will take place at 5:45 pm at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum (91st Street off Fifth Avenue).  Traditionally, the Commissioner of Cultural Affairs and other city and state dignitaries have opened the Festival.

El Museo del Barrio; The Museum of the City of New York; The Jewish Museum; Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution; National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; Neue Galerie New York; Goethe-Institut New York/German Cultural Center; and The Metropolitan Museum of Art are the nine institutions that participate in this highly successful collaboration.

Fifth Avenue will be closed to traffic and become a strollers’ haven.  Special exhibitions and works from permanent collections will be on view inside the museums’ galleries and live music from jazz to Broadway tunes to string quartets will be featured in front of each museum.  Additional street entertainers will perform along Fifth Avenue all evening.  Exhibitions on view will include: Catholics in New York 1808-1846, a fascinating social history of one of the region’s largest Christian faiths, which tells the story of how this community made an indelible imprint on the city through hauntingly beautiful photographs, revealing documents, and other historic artifacts, at the Museum of the City of New York; Action/Abstraction: Pollock, de Kooning, and American Art, 1940-1976, the first major U. S. exhibition in 20 years to rethink Abstract Expressionism, featuring fifty extraordinary works by 31 artists including Pollock, de Kooning, Rothko, and Frankenthaler, at The Jewish Museum; Rococo: The Continuing Curve, 1730-2008, which fully explores the Rococo style and its continuing revivals up to the present day in multiple fields, including furniture, decorative arts, textiles, prints, and drawings, at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum; 183rd Annual:  An Invitational Exhibition of Contemporary American Art, featuring contemporary works by over 100 of the finest American artists from across the country, bringing together emerging and established painters, sculptors, printmakers, installation artists, and architects, including Maria Elena Gonzalez, Steven Holl, Sean Scully, and James Wines, at the National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts; A Year with Children 2008: Selected Works from Learning Through Art, an annual exhibition showcasing approximately 250 artworks by students from public schools throughout New York City that participated in the artist-led Learning Through Art (LTA) education program of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; Wiener Werkstätte Jewelry, the first major museum exhibition devoted exclusively to Wiener Werkstätte jewelry, featuring more than 40 exquisite pieces designed by Josef Hoffmann, Kolomon Moser, and Dagobert Peche, among others, at the Neue Galerie New York; and Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy, featuring movie costumes, avant-garde haute couture, and high-performance sportswear showing how fictional characters influence fashion, at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Established in 1978 to increase public awareness of its member institutions and promote public support of the arts, the Museum Mile Festival has served as a model for similar events across the country.  For further information, the public may call 212-606-2296 or visit the festival Web site at www.museummilefestival.org.

EXHIBITIONS ON VIEW:

El Museo del Barrio: The galleries at El Museo del Barrio will be closed while the museum undergoes a major renovation campaign.  However, El Museo will continue to offer mural making and workshops with art educators on Fifth Avenue, and will present live music and dance performances in partnership with the Harbor Conservatory for the Performing Arts.

Museum of the City of New York: Catholics in New York 1808-1846 and Timescapes

The Jewish Museum: Action/Abstraction: Pollock, de Kooning, and American Art, 1940-1976; Warhol’s Jews: Ten Portraits Reconsidered; Art, Image and Warhol Connections; Oil/Water-Mother/Daughter: Video and Photography by Mor Arkadir; Pomegranate: A Video by Ori Gersht; Culture and Continuity: The Jewish Journey; and for children, Archaeology Zone: Discovering Treasures from Playgrounds to Palaces

Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum: Rococo: The Continuing Curve, 1730 – 2008, Campana Brothers Select: Works From The Permanent Collection, and Multiple Choice: From Sample To Product

National Academy Museum: 183rd Annual:  An Invitational Exhibition of Contemporary American Art

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum: The Thannhauser Collection and A Year with Children 2008: Selected Works from Learning Through Art

Neue Galerie New York: Gustav Klimt: The Ronald S. Lauder and Serge Sabarsky Collections and Wiener Werkstätte Jewelry

Goethe-Institut New York/German Cultural Center:  To be determined

The Metropolitan Museum of Art:  Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy; New Greek and Roman Galleries; Galleries for 19th- and Early 20th-Century European Paintings and Sculpture; New Gallery for Art of Native North America, New Galleries for Oceanic Art

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ANDY WARHOL MUSEUM DIRECTOR

TOM SOKOLOWSKI LECTURES ON

ANDY WARHOL’S TEN PORTRAITS OF JEWS

OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY RECONSIDERED

AT THE JEWISH MUSEUM APRIL 3

New York, NY – Tom Sokolowski, Director of The Andy Warhol Museum, will lecture on Andy Warhol’s Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century Reconsidered, a lecture at The Jewish Museum, 1109 Fifth Avenue at 92nd Street, on Thursday, April 3 at 6:30 pm.  Sokolowski will examine the significance of these iconic works, featured in the Museum’s exhibition, Warhol’s Jews: Ten Portraits Reconsidered.  He will consider them in the context of historical models of similar portraiture-both religious and secular-as well as other series in Warhol’s oeuvre, such as Socialites, Reigning Queens, and Endangered Species, among others.

        Tickets are $15 for the general public; $12 for students and seniors; and $10 for Jewish Museum members.  For further information regarding programs at The Jewish Museum, the public may call 212.423.3337.  Tickets for programs at The Jewish Museum can now be purchased online at the Museum’s Web site, www.thejewishmuseum.org.

        Tom Sokolowski assumed his position as Director for The Andy Warhol Museum, one of the four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, in 1996.  Mr. Sokolowski previously served as Director for New York University’s Grey Art Gallery & Study Center since 1984. Under Mr. Sokolowski’s direction the Grey Art Gallery mounted 15 exhibitions and site-specific installations annually, including Against Nature:  Japanese Art in the Eighties and Success is a Job in New York…:  The Early Art and Business of Andy Warhol, which was shown in Paris, London, Turin, Philadelphia, Newport Beach and Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Museum of Art.  Mr. Sokolowski served as chief curator for the Chrysler Art Museum (1982-1984), and previously as curator of European Painting and Sculpture (1981-1982).  He has taught for New York University (1989-1992); Old Dominion University (1982-1984); the University of British Columbia (1980-1981); the University of Minnesota (1979); and Kent State University (1979).

        Warhol’s Jews: Ten Portraits Reconsidered will be on view at The Jewish Museum from March 16 through August 3, 2008.  When it premiered in 1980, Andy Warhol’s Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century was met with both admiration and hostility.  The series depicts such luminaries of Jewish culture as Sarah Bernhardt, Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, the Marx Brothers, Golda Meir, and Franz Kafka, among others.  On view in this exhibition are the photographs that Warhol used as source images, several preliminary sketches, a preparatory collage, an edition of the final silk-screen print portfolio (of which 200 were published), and one of the five complete sets of paintings that he made for the series.  The drawings and source photographs have not previously been exhibited alongside the finished pictures.  Additional materials related to the portraits, including the list of nearly 100 “famous Jews” prepared by Warhol’s dealer, and television coverage of the artist’s trip to Miami for the world premiere of the series, will shed light on their creation and display.  Following its New York City showing, the exhibition will travel to the Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, CA (October 12, 2008 – January 25, 2009).

        An infrared assistive listening system for the hearing impaired is available for programs in the Museum’s S. H. and Helen R. Scheuer Auditorium.

        Public Programs at The Jewish Museum are supported, in part, by public funds from by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.  Major annual support is provided by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency.  The audio-visual system has been funded by The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Inc.

About The Jewish Museum

The Jewish Museum was established on January 20, 1904 when Judge Mayer Sulzberger donated 26 ceremonial art objects to The Jewish Theological Seminary of America as the core of a museum collection.  Today, The Jewish Museum maintains an important collection of 26,000 objects – paintings, sculpture, works on paper, photographs, archaeological artifacts, ceremonial objects, and broadcast media.  Widely admired for its exhibitions and educational programs that inspire people of all backgrounds, The Jewish Museum is the preeminent United States institution exploring the intersection of 4,000 years of art and Jewish culture.

General Information

        Museum hours are Saturday through Wednesday, 11am to 5:45pm; and Thursday, 11am to 8pm.  Museum admission is $12.00 for adults, $10.00 for senior citizens, $7.50 for students, free for children under 12 and Jewish Museum members.  Admission is free on Saturdays.  For general information on The Jewish Museum, the public may visit the Museum’s Web site at http://www.thejewishmuseum.org or call 212.423.3200.  The Jewish Museum is located at 1109 Fifth Avenue at 92^nd Street, Manhattan.

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ART, IMAGE AND WARHOL CONNECTIONS

OPENS AT THE JEWISH MUSEUM ON MARCH 16

NEW YORK, NY – The Jewish Museum will present Art, Image and Warhol Connections from March 16 through August 3, 2008.  In this mini-exhibition, works by seven artists who directly respond to Andy Warhol or employ techniques often associated with Warhol’s oeuvre will be on view in the contemporary gallery of the Museum’s permanent exhibition, Culture and Continuity: The Jewish Journey.  Warhol and themes central to his practice – such as current events, consumer culture and the superstar – are seen reflected through 26 works by a multi-generational group of artists, including Deborah Kass, Alex Katz, Abshalom Jac Lahav, Adam Rolston, Ben Shahn, Devorah Sperber and June Wayne.  In the 1960s and 1970s, Shahn, Wayne and Katz developed new ways to portray the public personas of private individuals.  In the 1990s, artists such as Kass, Rolston and Sperber cast a critical yet admiring eye on Warhol to address his omissions and limitations. Emerging painter Abshalom Jac Lahav elaborates and subsumes subjects of Warhol’s Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century in his own ongoing portraiture project.  Directly or indirectly, these artists extend and transform Warhol’s legacy.  Art, Image and Warhol Connections is on view concurrently with the exhibition Warhol’s Jews: Ten Portraits Reconsidered.

        The murders of James Cheney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner during the Freedom Summer of 1964 prompted an international surge of support for the Civil Rights Movement. Ben Shahn created in a set of screen prints in 1965, basing his works on photographs of the three civil rights workers as shown in the FBI poster circulated after their disappearance.  Like Shahn, Warhol repeatedly incorporated photographs into his work and in 1963 he created a series of paintings entitled Race Riots that captured the upheaval in America in the 1960s.  In his Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century, Warhol frames the profiles of his subjects with bold, fragmented lines evoking Shahn’s drawing style.

        Alex Katz’s lithograph Portrait of a Poet (1970) is a near replica of his 1967 oil painting.  For the print, Katz cropped the image just below the chin, centering the nose. The severe geometry of the face and harsh lighting on the glasses recall the stark outlines of Katz’s cut-out painted steel sculptures. With Portrait of a Poet, Katz dispensed with context and rendered the picture akin to Warhol’s coolly measured Screen Test films. The slight upward tilt of the head suggests the esteem Katz held for poet and playwright Kenneth Koch, a frequent creative partner in the 1960s.

        June Wayne founded the nonprofit Tamarind Lithography Workshop in 1960, helping to revive the professional production of artist prints in the United States. Based in Los Angeles, Wayne’s workshop was a continent away from Warhol’s Factory in New York. The Dorothy Series consists of twenty lithographs in a visual narrative charting the major events in the life of Wayne’s mother, Dorothy Kline, an immigrant, divorcée, feminist, and garment salesperson.  Documents-photographs, tax returns, letters, and so on-are layered against striking colors. Wayne, like Warhol, exploits modern advertising styles to rejuvenate the imagery of daily life.   Two 1981 lithographs from the series will be on view.

        Deborah Kass examines the tensions among popular culture, fine art, and identity. In her Warhol Project (1992-2000), Kass appropriated Warhol’s techniques, colors, and compositions.  Six Blue Barbras (1992) retroactively introduces Barbra Streisand to the pantheon of female celebrities portrayed by Warhol in the early 1960s. The project concluded with the ironic self-portrait Red Deb (2000) that re-created the Liz Taylor of Warhol’s 1963 painting in Kass’s own image. The works displace the art of a male predecessor into feminist narrative.

        Adam Rolston’s untitled 1993 painting of a matzoh box directly responds to Andy Warhol’s imagery of Coca-Cola bottles and Campbell’s soup cans. As both homage and critique of Warhol, Rolston glamorizes the Horowitz Margarten brand and elevates it to art.  The artist’s hand is clearly seen in Rolston’s painterly brushwork which differs from the silk-screening process preferred by Warhol.

           Portraiture becomes visual interpretation and argument in Abshalom Jac Lahav’s open-ended project, 48 Jews (2007), examining the representation of Jews in the Diaspora.  Using a playful wit and critical acumen, Lahav gathers images from the Internet and other media sources and selects them for their iconic quality. The uniform size, composition, and subject of the paintings in 48 Jews suggest a canon, Warhol’s Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century (1980).  Lahav, however, continually repaints, adds, and discards individuals, preventing closure or completeness.  The individuality of each subject is affirmed with Lahav’s stylistic inconsistency, challenging their status as members of a coherent group and engaging the debate over the facts and myths of Jewish identity.   A selection of 16 paintings by Lahav will be on view, depicting Hannah Arendt, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Niels Bohr, Marc Chagall, Noam Chomsky, Bob Dylan, Anne Frank, Alan Greenspan, Harry Houdini, Frida Kahlo, Lee Krasner, Monica Lewinsky, Elvis Presley,  Marcel Proust, Slash, and Gertrude Stein.

        When asked why he was interested in painting Campbell’s soup cans, Warhol replied, “I used to drink it.  I used to have the same lunch everyday, for twenty years, I guess, the same thing over and over again.” Artist Devorah Sperber re-creates Warhol’s iconic image in her elaborate thread installation After Warhol (2008).  Nearly 700 spools of thread create the pixilated, deconstructed image that becomes clear to viewers once they look through the viewing sphere placed in front of the piece. Her renditions of familiar paintings suggest the ways in which the brain recognizes and processes visual information.

        Art, Image and Warhol Connections was organized by Daniel Belasco, Henry J. Leir Assistant Curator of The Jewish Museum, and Joanna Montoya, Curatorial Program Coordinator.

        The exhibition is made possible by the Melva Bucksbaum Fund for Contemporary Art.

About The Jewish Museum

        The Jewish Museum was established on January 20, 1904 when Judge Mayer Sulzberger donated 26 ceremonial art objects to The Jewish Theological Seminary of America as the core of a museum collection.  Today, The Jewish Museum maintains an important collection of 26,000 objects – paintings, sculpture, works on paper, photographs, archaeological artifacts, ceremonial objects, and broadcast media.  Widely admired for its exhibitions and educational programs that inspire people of all backgrounds, The Jewish Museum is the preeminent institution exploring the intersection of 4,000 years of art and Jewish culture.

General Information

        Museum hours are Saturday through Wednesday, 11am to 5:45pm; and Thursday, 11am to 8pm.  Museum admission is $12.00 for adults, $10.00 for senior citizens, $7.50 for students, free for children under 12 and Jewish Museum members.  Admission is free on Saturdays.  For general information on The Jewish Museum, the public may visit the Museum’s Web site at http://www.thejewishmuseum.org or call 212.423.3200.  The Jewish Museum is located at 1109 Fifth Avenue at 92^nd Street, Manhattan.

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