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Herbert Ferber (American, 1906-1999), And the Bush was Not Consumed, 1951, copper, lead, brass. Congregation B’nai Israel, Millburn, New Jersey Photo © Herbert Ferber Estate.
Adolph Gottlieb, Torah Ark Curtain, Millburn, New Jersey, United States, 1950-51, velvet: appliqué and embroidered with metallic thread. The Jewish Museum, New York; Gift of Congregation B'nai Israel, Millburn, New Jersey. Art © Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY
Robert Motherwell, The Walls of the Temple, 1952, oil on Masonite. Collection of Congregation B’nai Israel, Millburn, New Jersey. Art © Dedalus Foundation, Inc./Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY
MODERN ART, SACRED SPACE: MOTHERWELL, FERBER AND GOTTLIEB
March 14- August 1, 2010
In 1951, architect Percival Goodman charged three avant-garde artists with commissions to decorate his Congregation B’nai Israel synagogue in Millburn, New Jersey. Robert Motherwell, Adolph Gottlieb, and Herbert Ferber—each of whom went on to become a major figure in the Abstract Expressionist movement—created, respectively, a large-scale lobby mural, velvet Torah curtain, and a monumental exterior sculptural relief. This exhibition marks the first time these works have been exhibited in a museum setting since they were created over sixty years ago. Motherwell’s mural presents abstracted Biblical references such as Tablets of Moses (Ten Commandments), diaspora of the twelve tribes of Israel to the four corners of the world, and Ark of the Covenant. The mural, one of the largest paintings of its time, is one of the few works in which the artist worked in a semi-representational manner; however, Motherwell’s abstraction of the objects is in keeping with the bold style that he established in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Gottlieb’s iconographic design for the Torah curtain, now in the collection of The Jewish Museum, is a late example in the development of his influential pictograph paintings of 1941–53. Ferber’s monumental exterior relief, entitled And the Bush Was Not Consumed, expresses a religious theme in an abstract three-dimensional form. In addition to these major works, the exhibition will include studies, maquettes, and photographs, as well as an architectural model of the Goodman-designed synagogue, to highlight the creative process of this groundbreaking collaboration.
For more information please visit: The Jewish Museum
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