November 9, 2008–January 31, 2009
The Artists
Carol Cohen
Emily Corbató
Karen Frostig
Barbara Milman
Stepheny Kotzen Riemer
| WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE STANDING AGAIN? |
As we mark the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht and recall the cataclysmic events triggered by that night of anti-Semitic rampage
in Nazi Germany, this striking exhibit presents us with a challenge: What does it mean to be standing again—in the ghettos, on the train platforms, in the camps, before the firing squads—with the victims and survivors, as
Jews in 21st-century America?
Two responses reflect the braided dichotomies of Jewish life. One is to mourn the victims of the Shoa in an act of solidarity and self-dignity—never to forget who we are, as Jews and as humans who vow that no such atrocity will ever occur again. The other response is to assert that the Holocaust does not dominate our consciousness about what it means to be Jewish. The past informs who we are, but does not determine us. There is a present and a future. Our human ability to create asserts that we have the power to make anew.
In his
Guide for the Perplexed, 3:53, Maimonides writes that creating is an act of loving-kindness, of grace—an offering of the spirit. The artist takes a private vision and makes it public, and in so doing, stands up in relationship to others, challenging us to participate in that vision. So it is with the works on display in this exhibit. We are graced by each artist’s personal response to the horrors of the Holocaust, and challenged to stand up and examine our own.
Dr. David B. Starr
Vice President for Community Education
The exhibit is supported by a generous gift from the estate of Mary Mackenzie.
CAROL COHEN
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Kristallnacht (1990)
Glass, paint, bird
14” x 16” x 12”
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Cambridge-based artist Carol Cohen’s work lives in a remarkable limbo between painting and sculpture. “Carol Cohen’s sculpture is meant to frustrate,” wrote artist Joshua Meyer in
Arts Media (1999). “Her art draws you in with its evanescent, enticingly beautiful forms—still-lifes, swimmers, clothing—all things that want to be touched. But when you approach the work, what you get is glass—delicate yet dangerous, sharp yet intensely fragile, and positively untouchable since the object you think you are looking at isn’t even there.”
EMILY CORBATÓ
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Terezin: The Small Fortress, Cell (2004)
Toned silver gelatin print
11” x 14” (framed)
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Emily Corbató has exhibited throughout New England, in New York and Dallas. She received a Hadassah-Brandeis grant to photograph within the Jewish communities of eastern Ukraine and has worked in China, Israel, Japan, Portugal and Czech Republic. Her images can be found in collections at MIT, the Computer History Museum (California), the Fitchburg Art Museum, Merrimack College, Yivo Archives (New York), Brandeis University and private collections throughout the country. She has been a Resident Artist/Scholar at the Women’s Studies Research Center at Brandeis since 2001.
KAREN FROSTIG
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Mourning Shroud, detail (2002)
Cloth, beads, Xeroxed photos on cloth
54” x 40” x 4”
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Dr. Karen Frostig earned her PhD from the Union Institute and University in Cincinnati, Ohio. She serves on the core faculty of Lesley University. Frostig is also an arts activist, deeply engaged with ideas concerning visual culture, critical theory and feminist discourse. She has exhibited throughout the country and frequently presents papers at national and international conferences. Her work represents an intergenerational conversation about Holocaust history and genocide.
BARBARA MILMAN
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Warsaw (1997)
Accordion book with 13 linocuts,
edition of 25
13.5” x 8” (closed)
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Barbara Milman is an award-winning book artist, printmaker and mixed-media artist, whose prints and handmade artist books have been shown throughout the United States and can be found in many university and museum collections. She has published two books of her prints,
Light in the Shadows (Jonathan David Publishers, 1997) and
Alzheimer’s Dreams (Red Parrot Press, 2002), and is included in
The Best of Printmaking: An International Collection (Rockport Publishers, 1997). Milman is the president of the California Society of Printmakers.
STEPHENY KOTZEN RIEMER
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Father and Son (1993)
Oil paint, plaster
24” x 18” x 1”
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Stepheny Riemer uses a wide range of techniques and media to express history and social themes in the visual form. Her Holocaust works include watercolors, monoprints and plaster casts mounted on oil paint. She has studied at the MFA, Mass Art, the DeCordova Museum, the Leventhal-Sidman Jewish Community Center and with George Dergalis of Wayland. Riemer earned a master’s degree in art administration and is a former chair of the Starr Gallery and the Cultural Arts Department of the LSJCC.
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