Jewish Art History by Richard McBee

JEWISH ART HISTORY THIS JANUARY

At THE DERFNER JUDAICA MUSEUM, Riverdale NY

This Five-Part Primer on Jewish Art Continues through January with Richard McBee

Join Richard McBee for any or all of this series of classes on Jewish art history. “Murals, Mosaics, and Manuscript Illumination (250 CE to 16th century)” on Jan. 5 will explore the very beginnings of Jewish art with the Dura Europos murals, the synagogue mosaic floors from Roman and Byzantine Palestine, and the Golden Age of Jewish illuminated manuscripts from the 11th to 15th centuries. Then on Jan. 12, “Books, Manuscripts, and the Dawn of Jewish Painting (16th to 20th century)” will trace how the invention of the printing press revolutionized Jewish life and literacy, especially the illustrated Haggadah, as well as, on a much more modest scale, the renewal of illuminated manuscripts in the 17th century. On Jan. 19, “Modernism and Israeli Art – The 20^th Century” looks at how, as modernity revolutionized traditional Jewish life, Jewish artists explored the complexities of art, Judaism, and Zionism inPalestine and Europe. The last session on Jan. 26, “Contemporary Jewish Art (1950 - 2011),” often considered an oxymoron by secular and religious Jews alike, shows how Jewish art has slowly grown from practitioners in total denial about the Jewish content of their work to blossoming groups of artists proudly proclaiming the vibrant creativity of a new contemporary Jewish Art.

Thursdays, January 5, January 12, January 19 and January 26 at 2:30 p.m. in the Biederman Library, Weill Pavilion, The Hebrew Home at Riverdale, 5901 Palisade Ave.

Richard McBee is a painter of biblical subject matter and a writer on Jewish art. He was Program Director of the Alliance of Figurative Artists in the 1980s, and a member of the Biblical Painters Group. For the last 11 years he has written an art column for the Jewish Press. He also curates Jewish art exhibitions and in 2008 he was a founding member of the Jewish Art Salon.

ALL EVENTS ARE FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Please R.S.V.P. by calling (718) 581-1596 or e-maileoleary@hebrewhome.org

Museum hours: Sunday-Thursday, 10:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Gilbert Pavilion Gallery & Grounds: Daily, 10:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.