 Gilbert Pavilion Gallery | Derfner Judaica Museum | Past Exhibitions
Derfner Judaica Museum Now On View
Jane Trigère: Women of the Balcony
Opening Reception and Artist’s Talk: Sunday, October 30th from 3:30 – 5:00 p.m.
This exhibition featuring Jane Trigère’s installation, Women of the Balcony, honors the women of former Congregation Ohav Sholaum in upper Manhattan. Consisting of four fabric wall panels and a three-dimensional sculptural assemblage, the work acknowledges the women of the synagogue, many of whom created seat cushions that marked their places in the balcony. The artist has re-fashioned material from those cushions – which she found abandoned in the synagogue after it closed in 2006 – into a narrative that gives meaning to the lives of the mostly anonymous émigré women whose personal histories have been lost. “My work tries to honor the Jewish women who were the remnants of German Jewry and whose nimble fingers salvaged the remnants of household life…curtains, worn-out blouses, out of fashion upholstery. . . and made cushions to mark their places in the shul pews,” Trigere has written. “I heard that these cushions were never moved, even when a woman died; they became markers in death as well.” In her work, Trigère explores the interdependence of men and women while creating a system of symbols to express their difference. In Women of the Balcony 1, for example, she creates a canvas from a prayer shawl – worn only by men in traditional Orthodox Jewish communities – and integrates it with the fabrics from the cushions that were used by women. The braided ritual fringes attached to the four corners of the garment also are transformed to signify the feminine. At the center of the triangular composition, which also symbolizes the feminine, the artist has placed a self-portrait, a representation of herself as “Everywoman,” with needle in hand. In Women of the Balcony 2 and 3, Trigère treats the intimate upstairs-downstairs nature of the male-female dialogue. And in Women of the Balcony 4, she brings the custom of separating men and women in the synagogue into the literal space of the installation: the women’s heads peek out over the three-sided wood and parachute silk assemblage that represents the balcony divider. The faces are layered with pages from a vernacular prayer book for women; the hair is fashioned out of the leftover scraps of fabric from the cushions, and vintage hats of different periods cover every head. Congregation Ohav Sholaum was founded in Inwood, in upper Manhattan, in August 1940 in the shadow of the Holocaust. It became a symbol of the annihilation of the European Jewish communities and of their rebirth on American soil. As its membership grew, the congregation relocated from a small hall to larger quarters at 34 Sherman Avenue. It dedicated its own Synagogue building in 1951 at 4624 Broadway and added a Hebrew School in 1957. Ohav Sholaum flourished as a place of worship for the Jewish community of Inwood-Washington Heights under the spiritual leadership of Rabbi Ralph Neuhaus from 1942 until his death in 1990. Rabbi Neuhaus was born in Ostrovo, Germany, which is now part of Poland. He came to the United States with his family in 1941, after being interned by the Belgian and French Governments. He was succeeded by Rabbi Richard Wolpoe, who had served as the synagogue’s cantor from 1987-1990. Jane Trigère was born in Dobbs Ferry, New York, in 1948. Her work has been included in group exhibitions at Hebrew Union College, in New York City, Philadelphia Museum of Jewish Art, National Yiddish Book Center, in Amherst, MA, and the Vered Gallery in East Hampton, New York, and was featured in a solo exhibition at Yeshiva University Museum in New York in 2007-2008. She has a B.F.A. in Theatre Design from Boston University’s School of Fine Arts and has an M.A. in Jewish Art and Visual Culture from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York. Trigère was a member of Kibbutz Kfar Giladi in northern Israel for six years in the 1980s and now lives in a converted firehouse in South Deerfield, Massachusetts, with her husband, Ken Schoen, a Judaica book dealer. As a member of the American Association of Museums, The Hebrew Home at Riverdale is committed to publicly exhibiting its art collection throughout its 19-acre campus, including the Derfner Judaica Museum and a sculpture garden overlooking the Hudson River and Palisades. The Derfner Judaica Museum + The Art Collection provide educational and cultural programming for residents of the Hebrew Home, their families and the general public from throughout New York City, its surrounding suburbs and visitors from elsewhere. The Home is a nonprofit, non-sectarian geriatric center serving more than 3,000 elderly persons through its resources and community service programs. Museum hours: Sunday – Thursday, 10:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Art Collection open daily, 10:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Call for holiday hours or for further information visit our website at http://www.hebrewhome.org/art.asp
This exhibition is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
Tradition and Remembrance: Treasures of the Derfner Judaica Museum
The Derfner Judaica Museum occupies a 5,000-square-foot exhibition space in the Jacob Reingold Pavilion at The Hebrew Home at Riverdale. It is the focal point for a wide range of educational and exhibition programming for residents and visitors alike. Completion of the Museum was funded in part by a furnishings grant received from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. With approximately 250 objects, the inaugural exhibition, Tradition and Remembrance: Treasures of the Derfner Judaica Museum, explores the intersections of Jewish history and memory. The stories of objects used in traditional Jewish practice are interpreted in light of the role of memory in shaping both individual and communal identities. Among the featured objects in the exhibition are a silver filigree vase, ca. 1911, and an early copper alloy Hanukkah lamp, both from the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts founded in Jerusalem in 1906. Other objects come from near and far, including a set of 18th-century German Torah implements, a handsomely illuminated 19th-century Italian marriage contract and a 2nd-4th century lamella amulet.
The Judaica Museum was founded in 1982 when Riverdale residents Ralph and Leuba Baum donated their collection of Jewish ceremonial art to the Home. A refugee from Nazi persecution, Ralph Baum, and his wife, Leuba, had an intense desire to preserve and pass on to future generations the memory embodied in the objects they collected, the majority of which were used primarily by European Jews before the Holocaust. In 2008 the Judaica Museum was named in honor of its benefactors, the late Helen and Harold Derfner. |
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