Gilded Lions and Jeweled Horses
America’s Carousel History and Jewish Culture
Edited by Jennifer L. Price
Gilded Lions and Jeweled Horses: The Synagogue to the
Carousel is a groundbreaking exhibition that tells the story of a little-known
aspect of American carousel history and its connection to Jewish visual culture.
This exhibition will be on view at the American Folk Art Museum in New York,
from October 2, 2007 through March 23, 2008. Approximately one hundred splendid
and rarely exhibited artworks are on loan from public and private collections
from the U.S. and Israel. The exhibition will travel to the Fenimore Art
Museum, Cooperstown, New York, from May 24 to September 1, 2008.
 Gilded Lions and Jeweled Horses is the first major study of
an important aspect of the Jewish contribution to American folk art. Many of
the artisans who arrived in America carved for their local synagogues; some also
found work creating horses and other animals for the flourishing carousel
industry. Inspired by the memory of symbolic references carved into
majestic Torah arks and gravestones and cut into paper, they translated these
motifs into an American idiom, elevating carousel art into a powerful sculptural
expression of dynamic and animated forms. Although fanciful carousel animals
have long been exhibited in museums, the religious carvings have primarily been
known and appreciated only within the setting of the synagogue. Until now, the
important historical and aesthetic link between the two has never been
documented.
 The
exhibition begins with an exploration of the imagery that infused three
important centers of traditional Jewish life in Eastern and Central Europe—the
synagogue, the home, and the cemetery. Gilded Lions and Jeweled Horses follows
the legacy of these motifs to America, where they were re-created by immigrants
in vital Jewish centers in Philadelphia, New York, and Boston as well as newly
established communities in the Midwest and further reaches of the country.
A number of education programs have been arranged in
conjunction with the exhibition. A collaborative field trip with the Eldridge
Street Project (October 10), Perspectives on Jewish Woodcarving panel discussion
(October 24), and a curator's talk (November 13), a collaboration with the
Tenement Museum (December 5), and a collaboration with the Coney Island History
Project (December 12). A film screening about Coney Island (November 14),
Gallery Tours with the curator (November 6 and December 4) and a Papercutting
Workshop (January 11, 2008) are also planned.
To complement the exhibition is a 192-page full color book
Gilded Lions And Jeweled Horses: The Synagogue to the Carousel by Murray Zimiles,
with an essay by Vivian B. Mann and a foreword by Gerard C. Wertkin. Published
by University Press of New England/Brandeis University Press in association with
the American Folk Art Museum, the cost of the book is $35 and may be ordered
through the Museum Shop.
The American Folk Art Museum, founded in 1961, is the
foremost institution devoted to the collection, exhibition, study, and
preservation of folk art. Through the presentation of innovation exhibitions,
educational programs, and scholarly publications, the museum explores the
nation's diverse cultural heritage and related global expressions. It is home
to one of the world's preeminent collections of folk art dating from the 18 th
century to the present, including paintings, sculpture, textiles, ceramics, and
furniture, and the work of contemporary self-taught artists from the U.S. and
abroad.
VISITOR INFORMATION
American Folk Art Museum, 45 West 53 Street, New York 10019
Hours: Tuesday-Sunday 10:30 am - 5:30 pm; Friday until 7:30
pm; Closed Monday
Admission $9; Students and Seniors $7; children 12 and under are free. Free
admission on Friday from 5:30 - 7:30 pm.
There is a Museum Shop and Café
For further information:
www.folkartmuseum.org or call 212/265-1040 |
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