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