Talmud in the Art of Benzion and Marc Chagall
Nether the artists' easily, the characters on the pages of the Bible take on form. Adam and Eve, Moses, Ruth, Chore, Male monarch David, fifty-fifty God himself -- they smile, pray, sing, scowl, weep out in distress.
In one, faced with the burning bush-league from which God speaks, Moses covers his confront with one arm and reaches downwards with the other to untie his sandal. In some other, Adam and Eve, bathed in warm tones, reach out to take the forbidden fruit.
Scenes from the Bible have long been subjects for artists, but these works are distinctive because they are the visions of two of the 20th century's most renowned artists, Marc Chagall and Ben-Zion. And in a rare opportunity for lovers of fine art and the Bible, sets of express-edition intaglio and lithograph prints by these artists are on brandish at a local church for another 10 days, cheers to connections with the Lakeland native who owns them.
The exhibition, "Talmud and the Art of Ben-Zion and Marc Chagall," is temporarily on loan to Commencement United Methodist Church in Lakeland. It consists of 18 prints by Ben-Zion and 24 by Chagall, hung in the church'southward fellowship hall. The show can be seen for free past the public on Dominicus mornings and during other limited viewing hours until March xiv. The works are owned by artist and collector Edward Knippers of Arlington, Va., a 1965 graduate of Lakeland Loftier Schoolhouse. It is the second exhibition Knippers has mounted from an all-encompassing collection he assembled with his late married woman, Diane, and information technology has been on tour since 2002, he said past phone from his home. Later on the exhibition closed an engagement at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, there was a gap in the schedule. Diane Knippers' parents, Clarence and Vera LeMasters, who are members of First United Methodist, asked if the church would be willing to host the exhibition until its next scheduled stop in Alexandria, La.
The Rev. Lee Lallance, government minister of music and fine arts at Start United Methodist, took accuse of the project, and the prints were hung in January with assistance from Polk Museum of Art Curator Gregory Mills.
"I thought it was keen because information technology's and so different to see them outside a museum. This stuff wouldn't come up back to Florida for awhile," Lallance said.
In a guide written for the exhibition, Knippers explained that the championship of the exhibition was inspired past discussions with a Jewish friend. The Talmud is a big drove of second-century commentaries on the Torah, the get-go five books of the Hebrew scriptures, and Knippers wrote that he sees the works of Ben-Zion and Chagall every bit loosely within that tradition.
The significance of the exhibition for believers, Knippers said, is that it takes the scriptures seriously.
"Particularly in our mean solar day, anything dealing objectively with scripture, not trying to discount information technology, should be an encouragement, because we're and then much under attack these days. And, information technology'southward encouraging for the Christian laic to know our roots are in the Old Testament. We empathize scripture more than completely if we understand our roots," he said.
Ben-Zion (1897-1987) was the son of a Polish rabbi and was largely cocky-taught as an creative person. His works show the influence of abstruse expressionism, with broad or grotesque features and exaggerated perspectives.
"He was considered quite an important artist in the 1950s. There's something raw, almost a naivete, well-nigh his piece of work. He's non as well-known now," Knippers said.
The 18 prints in the "Talmud" exhibition represent a consummate prepare of his 1951 portfolio, "Biblical Themes," i of four portfolios he rendered on biblical subjects in the intaglio method, in which prints are fabricated from an engraved metallic plate. Almost all the prints in the "Biblical Themes" set portray scenes from the Torah.
In a depiction of the temptation of Adam and Eve, a reclining Adam reaches desiringly toward a standing Eve, who is taking fruit from the forbidden tree. In a humorous work, Balaam the seer strikes his ass, who has laid downward in the road and looks back at him with teeth and tongue bared, mocking him.
The Russian Marc Chagall (1887-1985) is famous for his exuberant use of color and fantasy-like scenes. Chagall did many etchings of biblical scenes, and two sets of lithographs in color were somewhen published, one in 1956 and another in 1960. The "Talmud" exhibition has a complete gear up of the 1960 prints. Some describe biblical scenes from Genesis and Ruth, while others are portraits of biblical characters such equally Esther and Job.
In "Creation," angels and animals surroundings a luminous circle while below in a field of deep bluish, fish, trees and Adam and Eve swirl together. In another, "The Garden of Eden," in typical Chagall fashion, faces, creatures and symbols are superimposed or nigh cryptically subconscious in the scene of Eve and the serpent.
Calling these prints "absolutely charming," Knippers said they have an encouraging effect.
"Equally a believer, it's encouraging to encounter these stories in such a joyous presentation. The colors are wonderful," he said.
Rabbi Edward Fob of Temple Emanuel in Lakeland, during a contempo visit to the exhibition, said his favorite among the Chagalls is "Job at Prayer," in which the famous sufferer looks upward in supplication as an angel hovers overhead.
"To me, it represents all people who have a human relationship with God and no matter what the difficulties are -- we see his anguish, only his God is pure. His religion is going to hang in at that place. He's saying, `If y'all can help me, pull me up.' His rima oris is open up as if he'south chanting, he'southward moaning," he said.
In improver to being a collector, Knippers is known for his large-scale paintings of biblical scenes, which are rather controversial for their liberal employ of nudity and direct portrayal of violence. He is a devout Episcopalian and is in the process of putting together another exhibition from the Edward and Diane Knippers Collection, "Cross/Purposes," which contains portrayals of the Jesus' crucifixion. The exhibitions are a way, he said, of countering the current trend in the visual arts of ignoring or denigrating religious themes.
"It really establishes that just because most artists don't deal with this today, artists then really did," he said.
Cary McMullen can be reached via e-mail at cary.mcmullen@the ledger.com or by calling 863-802-7509.
WHAT: "Talmud and the Art of Ben-Zion and Marc Chagall" WHEN: 9-11 a.m. today, 7-9 p.thousand. Monday, Tuesday, March 13 and 14. WHERE: Outset United Methodist Church, 72 Lake Morton Drive, Lakeland. Cost: Costless. Telephone: 686-3163.
If You Go
Source: https://www.theledger.com/story/news/2006/03/04/lakeland-methodist-church-displays-works-of-artists-marc-chagall-and-ben-zion/25830515007/
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