Remembering Italian Jewish Artist Amedeo Modigliani (1886-1920)

Helsinki, Finland. Large sign for Modigliani exhibit at Helsinki airport. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber November, 2016.

Remembering Italian Jewish Artist Amedeo Modigliani (1886-1920)
by Samuel D. Gruber
 
Today is the anniversary of the death of  Italian Jewish artist Amedeo Modigliani, who died young of tuberculosis in the heyday of the School of Paris, and whose popularity continues to grow decade by decade.  Born in a Jewish family in Livorno, Italy, he spent his artistic career in Paris. Even so, worldwide, he may the best known Italian painter of the 20th century, surpassing Balla, Boccioni, de Chirico, Morandi, Burri and so many more. His story and his star rival Van Gogh's in art-celebrity annals (2 movies have been made of his life). 

More than the cubists, Modigliani was able to take some precepts of modernism and apply them to traditional - and still recognizable genres.  Though all his many portraits are stylized and unmistakably his, the subjects are recognizable.  He was a very social artist and his portraits of his many artist and writers friends and patrons help us to populate one of the most fertile periods of European art.

Modigliani was also a Jewish artist.  Though in upbringing., language, and religious identity he was quite different from the many Yiddish speaking East European artists in Paris, he was exceptional close friends with many of them, especially Chaim Soutine and Jacques Lipchitz, as well as the American Jewish artist Jacob Epstein. His own Sephardi roots in Livorno and elsewhere were deep and though he was not known to be religious, he overtly and often defiantly identified himself as Jewish, sometimes introducing himself "as an artist and a Jew."

Amedeo Modigliani. Caryatide Head, drawing, 1911

Amedeo Modigliani. Portrait of Jean Cocteau, 1916. Perlman Foundation on long-term loan to Princeton University Art Museum

Amedeo Modigliani. Portrait of Moise Kisling, 1915

Amedeo Modigliani. Portrait of Juan Gris, 1915. Photo: Metropolitan Museum of Art.

And then there are the nudes. Few artists have been as unashamedly in love with the female body, presenting nudes with a bold confidence hardly seen since the Rubens. There is no rosy soft-focus of Renoir, or the statuesque perfection of Bouguereau and other soft-porn academic painters of the previous generation. Modigliani's nudes are real women - or at least real bodies - of flesh and blood and taste and smell.  God knows, when I was a teenager I was certainly mesmerized!  These works--which now fetch some of the world's highest prices for art--were commissioned by Modigliani's friend and dealer Léopold Zborowski, who provided  his apartment,  models, and painting materials. This was beneficial to both--Modigliani needed money (he was alcoholic and drug-addicted) and Zborowski  paid him fifteen to twenty francs each day for his work.  

When exhibited, the nudes caused a great sensation--positive and negative--the show was cited for obscenity. So the nudes in many ways stand alone. Though Modigliani had seriously studied the nude since a teenage art student, these works were unlike his thousands of drawings often created in a passionate frenzy, or his portraits of friends, done as much for friendship as cash. The nudes were conceived of as a commercial venture. And brilliantly so.

Restitution: Looted Painting by Belgian Artist Antoine Carte Returned

Restitution: Nazi-Looted Painting of Jewish Child by Belgian Artist Antoine Carte Returned

Art Knoweldge News reports that "a portrait of a child with her pet rabbit by Belgian artist, Antoine (Anto) Carte that was looted by the Nazis during the Belgian Occupation has been returned to its owner after the Art Loss Register (ALR) located it in the hands of an art dealer from Long Island, USA. 'Jeune Fille a la Robe Bleue' (1932) was the centrepiece of a hand-over ceremony at the Jewish Museum of Belgium on 1 December 2009. The Jewish child in the portrait fled Brussels with her family during the Nazi Occupation and survived the war hiding in the Belgian countryside. The family's abandoned apartment in Ohain was looted in 1944 and five oil paintings, including the Anto Carte portrait, disappeared.

For a photo and the full story click here.

Poland: Impressions of Krakow's Kupa Synagogue

Poland: Impressions of Krakow's Kupa Synagogue
By Samuel D. Gruber




(ISJM) Not long ago I posted an historic photo of the Ark wall of the synagogue of Zhovkva (Ukraine) which showed an elaborate painting (c 1920) of Jerusalem. The image is interesting for many reasons, but I just want to point out the juxtaposition of the descriptive landscape (possibly derived from a postcard or Bonfils photo) and the symbolic elements of the ancient Temple, also represented near the Ark. The contrast demonstrates the long history of invoking the ancient Temple and Jerusalem in the synagogue, but also a shift in emphasis that began in the late 19th century and accelerated in the 20th, along with the spread of tourism and Zionism. When you start looking you’ll see all sorts of references to the temple, Jerusalem and Eretz Israel in synagogues. Some of symbolic, some are architectural, some are textual and some are representational. But after 1900 representational views become more common.
 
Some very vivid views of the Holy Land painted in 1929-30 in the Kupa Synagogue (see photos) in Krakow were restored a few years ago, and I had the opportunity to see them on my recent visit to Krakow a month ago (I want to thank my old friend Henry Halkowski for making it easy for me enter on short notice). The “restored” synagogue is difficult to understand since elements from different phases of its existence now co-exist, and because the essential elements that make a synagogue (bimah, seats, etc) are gone. The Kupa was seriously damaged during the German occupation in World War II. It was restored ca. 2000 and now serves as a lecture, concert and exhibition hall for community events and also can be rented for special occasions.

Located on a plot between Warszauera Street and Miadowa Street, the building is adjacent to the old walls of Kazimierz. It is thought that the synagogue name derives from the Hebrew world for "donation box" and that the synagogue was probably funded by donations. The Kupa was also known as the "Hospital" and "needy" synagogue because it cooperated with the Jewish hospitals and with the Jewish poorhouse.

Founded in 1643, the Kupa has been remodeled many times. The remains of the Baroque Ark can still be seen, but most other aspects of the interior date from the 19th and early 20th centuries, including unusual Gothic arches in the women's gallery. The two-story annex was added with entrance hall and washrooms in 1830-1834 and the western wing was built in the 1860s. The synagogue was connected to the adjoining building at the end of the 19th century. These annex spaces now serve the Jewish community as guest rooms.

There is much to see in the small space, and I only a short time. Four elements are worth noting here, especially since they relate to others items I have posted, or about which I plan to write.

1. First, on the south wall under the women’s gallery , the conservators have revealed part of a large wall painting of the lower part of a Menorah, flanked by painted ewers, signs of the Levites. Again, we have the Temple reference, but here it is not near the Ark. Prof. Bracha Yaniv of Bar Ilan University, an expert on Krakow Synagogue wall decorations, is writing about this image, and she points out that the Menorah is in exactly the right place in the synagogue, against the south wall just as it was in the Tabernacle (Exodus 25:35: Put the table outside the paroches, and the menorah opposite the table, toward the southern side of the mishkan. The table should be placed on the northern side). So actually this Tabernacle/Temple reference is stronger and more explicit than those synagogues which scatter images of Temple and festival implements along the East wall.

2. A second decorative element that interests me a lot is the painting around the Ark, which is a large and impressive Baroque construction. On the wall behind the projecting stone Ark is painted a large red curtain, drawn apart just above the apex of the Ark. Of course this too, can have Temple associations, since a curtain in the Temple hung before the entrance of the Holy of Holies. Here, though, the curtain is hung behind the Ark, and it is open. What does it mean? Is it an earthly curtain, intended to create the illusion of greater synagogue space? Is it a symbolic curtain, representing either Temple or perhaps the revelation of the Torah? Or perhaps is it a curtain allowing a glimpse from this world into another? It could be all these things, or none. I’m not going to decide. But since I’m looking I am seeing these curtains almost everywhere - and they are one of the favorite European (or Polish) synagogue decorative devices carried over by immigrant artists from the old world to the new. I'm still looking for some contemporary user - a rabbi or congregant - who commented on their position and use.

3. Another interesting feature of the Kupa Synagogue is a dedicatory inscription set into the introdos of the window just south of the Ark. This inscription in high relief (see photo) refers to the Society of Cohens and Levites in Krakow that donated the window in 1647. According to Eli Valley, the text reads: "This window was donated to the synagogue by the Holy Society of Cohens and Levites for the glory of God and the glory of the synagogue, for its enlightenment." The text then quotes Numbers 6:25-26, "May the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you! May the Lord lift up His countenance unto you and grant you peace." The letters highlighted indicate the Hebrew year 5407 (1647). I think this inscription is a very important one as it is an early textual source in which the functional role of the window is linked to God's light (his shining face), and a general sense of enlightenment beyond the strictly physical sensation. Prof. Yaniv tells me of a very different window inscription in the Shakh (after Shabtai ben Meir ha-Kohen, known as Shakh), Synagogue in Holesov, Moravia (Czech Republic). At Holesov, the patrons and painters employed an explicit biblical text that mentioned the Temple's windows (I Kings 6:4 וַיַּעַשׂ לַבָּיִת, חַלּוֹנֵי שְׁקֻפִים אֲטוּמִים / And for the house he made windows broad within, and narrow without), and inscribed this above the windows of the synagogue.

4. Most of the painted decorations - especially those on the ceiling - date from either the late 1920s or 1930s. These depict sites in the Holy Land: Hebron, Tiberias, Jerusalem's Jaffa Gate, The Western Wall, Haifa, the terebinths (trees) of Mamre, the Flood, and the Temple Mount. The inclusion of these suggests a Zionist program, as I hinted above. The political and social situation for Jews was getting pretty bad in Poland in 1930. The Holy Land – as a spiritual and an actual retreat probably looked pretty good.

According to the Center for Jewish Art: "There are also Biblical scenes and illustrations to verses in Psalms, such as the painting showing people standing by the rivers of Babylon (Psalms 137:1-3), or musical instruments (Psalms 150:3-6). Another painting depicts Noah's ark including the figure of Noah – quite unusual since the use of human images was very rare in Jewish art. The signs of the Zodiac are painted over the women's gallery. The artist, although unidentified, was clearly professional.”

About the Restoration / Renewal

 I did not see these wall paintings before they were restored, so I cannot say how much of the work is original and how much is new painting. A comparison with published (black and white) photos from before the restoration suggest there is a lot of new work, including substantial new painting of scene or over painting of the earlier work. I have mixed feeling about this type of restoration (not conservation). On the one hand in continues (perhaps unwittingly) an old synagogue tradition of renewing wall painting by simply over painting earlier work, but often maintaining the basis of the earlier design. In some American synagogues where paint tests have been carried out as many as 2 dozen layers of paint have been found in buildings hardly more than a century old. Even in the Kupa, the older photos sow the patterns of an earlier design showing through some of the 1920s scenes. Still, with the Kupa (and with other synagogues in Poland, Ukraine and elsewhere) all normal traditions and patterns of maintenance have been broken. What remains of the pre-War years – even when in less than perfect condition takes of new meaning and added value. These are works of artist who quite likely met their deaths in the Holocaust. These are tangible remnants of a lost culture. Careful decisions need to be made about how to maintain them. Sometimes decaying plaster or flaking paint requires major new work. But more often it requires more serious thinking about what to preserve and why. The new work at Kupa is bright and vivid, perhaps as it was when first painted. A great deal of the history of the place, however is lost.

Exhibitions: Ruth Weisberg at Norton Simon Museum

Exhibitions: Ruth Weisberg at Norton Simon Museum
by Samuel D. Gruber

(ISJM) Two years ago the Skirball Museum mounted a impressive exhibition of Los Angeles artist Ruth Weisberg's work that demonstrated her importance as a Jewish artist and as feminist (see my review). Now for something completely (almost) different, The Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, California has mounted an exhibition of 20 Weisberg works inspired by the Museum's dramatic Baroque masterpiece by Guido Cagnacci, Martha Rebuking Mary for Her Vanity painted after 1660. Like much of the art shown at the Skirball, these works demonstrate Weisberg's love of figure painting, but even more than the explicitly Jewish works - which placed her in a cultural continuum - these works show Weisberg situating her work in an art historical - and specifically painterly - tradition.

Contemplating Cagnacci, Weisberg has created a series of paintings, monumental drawings and monotypes in which the moral and compositional complexity of the Baroque work is deconstructed; she imagines how the 17th century Italian went about creating his work - she explores all the pieces,and reinterprets them with her own brush, in her own voice. Repentance, anger and the triumph of virtue over vice are themes that Weisberg explored to some extent in her Scroll and other Jewish works about the Patriarchs and other biblical character. Here she turns her eye to the themes in a theatrically presented Christian moralizing work, re-presents them through in her more contemporary figurative and color style.

Read more here.

The exhibition will be on view until March 2, 2009. Weisberg, who is Dean of the Roski School of Fine Arts at the University of Southern California, is a past president of the College Art Association (CAA). CAA will meet in Pasadena in February, so members will have a chance to see Weisberg's newest work.

Looking Back, 2008

Mixed Media Drawing on Paper

30-1/2 x 22-1/4 inches

Courtesy of Ruth Weisberg

La Citta Ideale, 2008

Oil and Mixed Media Painting on Canvas

48 x 64 inches

Courtesy of Ruth Weisberg

Ruth Weisberg in her studio, 2008

Norton Simon Art Foundation; photo by Ramona Trent

Ukraine: Zhovkva Historic Photos

Ukraine: Zhovkva Historic Photos

(ISJM) Sergey Kravtsov of the Center for Jewish Art has sent these historic photos of the synagogue of Zhovkva. The two interior photos of the Aron-ha Kodesh wall provide a reminder of how richly sculpted and painted the interiors of the synagogue was - although much of the decoration including the musical instruments and the view of Jerusalem probably date to the late 19th or first decades of the 20th century. Such motifs were common - almost ubiquitous in Polish synagogues (and synagogues founded by Polish immigrants in America and elsewhere) of the time. The view of the Ark, however, shows it in all of its Baroque splendor.

The photo of the destruction of the synagogue raises the issue of exactly how and when the synagogue was destroyed. Was it set afire (as we see here) or was it blown up? Both fates are possible. Many synagogues went through multiple destructions during the German occupation. First they were pillaged and burned, and then later, when empty, if no other use was apparent, they were blown up. Many of the big masonry synagogues, however, were so strongly built, with walls often more than a meter thick, that even when exploded much of the original structure remained. Wooden synagogues, of course, were burned, and therefore we have few of those left.

There is disagreement over whether Germans or Ukrainians burned the Zhovkva synagogue. I don't know the details, but it is possible that some of the local population helped set the synagogue afire under the protection, and possibly the direction of the Germans, who are shown in this photo.

Art: Jozef Israels Painting Donated to Israel Museum

Art: Jozef Israels Painting Donated to Israel Museum

The Jerusalem Post reports that children of the prominent Italian Jewish Bedarida and Toaff families have donated a Jozef Israels (1824-1911) painting to the Israel Museum.

To read article and see photo.

The painting is Fisherwomen of Zandvoort, from 1890, and it will be the eighth Israels' work in the Museum's European art collection.

Israels is one the most important painters of the 19th century, a leader in the realist school that sought to depict the lives and occupations of the lower and working classes. This work is one of many that depict rural workign scenes, and which were highly prized as emblematic of the virtues of hard working (and sometime long-suffering) Dutch laborers. He also painted urban scenes and his work greatly influence other leading european artists such as his friend Max Lieberman. Israels did not classify himself as a "Jewish artist," but nor did he shrink from his Jewish roots and associations. Several of his works were included in the 1901 fifth Zionist Congress Exhibition in Basel, Switzerland. He successfully straddled Jewish, Dutch and European cultural boundaries, to be acclaimed by many of his contemporaries as the "new Rembrandt."

Israels' 1903 painting the Jewish Wedding in the Rijksmuseum is one of the most widely reproduced modern paintings on a Jewish theme.

The donated painting belonged to art collector and scholar Guido Bedarida of Livorno, Italy (d. 1962) and his wife Tia Toaff (d. 2002), who was the sister of Elio Toaff, the emeritus chief rabbi of Rome. Her father was Alfredo Sabato Toaff, chief rabbi of Livorno.