mentalblog.com comments:
I must compliment Tzemach Atlas on doing several big mitzvos at once: visiting this towering Jewish artist who has been recovering from several health crises during the past year; appreciating the man's greatness as a draftsman, painter, and courageous explorer of the "dark side of the moon" and the soul; and for presenting a sampling of Hyman Bloom's work on this website. Thanks, Tzemach!
"My Rabbi asked me what I want to become in America when I left Latvia, I was 7 years old then and I said I wanted to become a Rov.
WHAT WAS THE NAME OF THE ROV
Hyman named a small town in Latvia that I did not recognize. Hyman said that his mother was a chosid but father a misnaged. He named a Rov but I think he was then speaking about a Rabbi here in America. I have a recording of our interview; I need to listen to it again.
This is great stuff, on an important artist. a good direction for the blog.
My only observation/complaint; you go and visit a genius (at least at art) and you bring back nothing of any real worth. How about some penetrating questions about his spiritual journey? The impact of religion on his life and art etc. most biographers coming from a completely secular background would not have your insight into what to eve ask
Subjects for future interviews (Boston area): Samuel Bak, David Aronson, Bernie Pucker (dealer on Newbury)
Keep up this stuff, it is great and (potentially) important.
I agree with your suggestion; however,secularist, whether artist or dealer, miss that connection to that which is beyond the physical of the the object or intention of the act of creativity itself. I would suggest seeking out those "contempory artist" whose universality goes beyond itself and points back to the source of all things, the Master of the Universe.
bigberel
i am curious but as someone is using that name i will just use my own.
i do not understand your remarks at all, "the physical of the object or intention of the act of creativity itself" are intricately bound with the artists perceptions, religious and otherwise. in the case of jewish artists, such as Hyman Bloom, where it strongly influences their work it is all the more pronounced. it would be ridiculous to make that comment about Chagall for example, his religous experiences as a child and the (chabad) milieu in which he grew up so clearly and strongly influenced his work, even if it was in his rejection of some of it. he had a large (wall size) painting of a shtetl i saw at an exhibit, in the foreground was a guy crouching down with his pants down and taking a dump. that struck me as a gesture that was definitely related to his background...
while on that subject, i read in Kfar Habad magazine a few years back (or one of its supplement magazines) a story of Chagall visiting kfar habad in the 50's, is anyone familiar with aht story? he was suposedly there visiting a childhood friend who asked him in Yiddish "vos iz fun eich gevezen"
lionsgallery aka curious, I do not believe a person even a genius can shed any light on the subject of religion by virtue of his talent or fame. I also know that Bigberel can't shed any light on anything.
it is not objective truths i am looking for from artists but their subjective experiences are interesting and illuminating in appreciating their artistic output.
when their is a religious component to the work, it makes for a very interesting conversation.
artists are not good with words. I asked Hyman how he will descibe his style. He said ask the critics.
ask about his personal biography,
how he came to art, who were the shaping influences on his life, what role did religion play positively or negatively, etc.
the Arum.
I don't do "arum".
this is so tantalizing. almost meaningful.
Over the past three years I have spent many hours conversing with Hyman Bloom about his art, childhood, spiritual search, and his relation to Judaism. He believes in Hashem, and has said that if he had been exposed to pnimiyus ha-Torah during his younger years, he would have become a Chossid. In fact, part of his family stems from Kaidanover Chassidim (if I remember correctly).
He told a sad but not atypical story of growing up in a frum immigrant family in a Boston slum with almost no Jewish education. His father, who was a Shomer Shabbos but not learned, took him to an elderly Chassidisheh Rebbe in Boston in 1920 or 1921, when he was seven or eight, for religious instruction. However, the Rebbe (whom he described as having white hair and an extremely pallid complexion) apologized to them that he was to infirm to teach anyone.
In the end, the only person they could find to teach him lashon ha-kodesh was a young maskil, who agreed to teach the young boy Chumash without Rashi -- and without answering any questions of a religious nature! Hyman said that his head was teeming with questions, such as "How could a tzaddik like Yaakov Avinu marry two sisters?" But his teacher remained stubbornly silent (no doubt due to his personal emunah problems).
At age fifteen, Bloom and another great Jewish painter from Boston, Jack Levine, were both given scholarships in the fine arts by the famous Harvard professor of art, Denman Ross (d. 1935). They were star students of Harold Zimmerman, who died while still in his thirties in 1941. By then, Bloom's yiddishkeit was pretty much forgotten.
However, his spiritual search continued, taking him into the realms of Indian music and religion, psychic research, and experimentation under scientific conditions with hallucinogens -- all in the early 50s. Throughout all this, he continued to return to Jewish religious subjects in his paintings, too.
His "Rabbi Holding Sefer Torah" theme seems transparently autobiographical -- the rabbi aging as Hyman ages, and expressing his spiritual yearnings and struggles.
Among the finest drawings in this series was one that he did when he was about forty -- before he started painting this motif in color. I will try to email a scan of it to Tzemach soon, iy"H.
Well here is a little light that may light up the darkness that most wander in most of the time.
" All GREAT artist are either very religious concerning their personal sriritual search; or they are very religious in their anti religious battle denying that anything exist beyond themselves.
For verification of this small but focust beam of light look at the modernist history of the early expessionist, surrealist, and abstact expressionist.
If you do not know were to look then you should not be involved in this conversation.
Owning a gallery does not take the place of knowing and understanding historic facts.
bigberel;
" All GREAT artist are either very religious concerning their personal sriritual search; or they are very religious in their anti religious battle denying that anything exist beyond themselves." (i assume there was an end to the quote)
where is this quote from?
lions,
From yours truely.
Tzemach will testify.
Thank you.
From 40 years of study of the modernist movement. From Millet to LeWitt; from early impressionism to post conceptualism, the history is self explanatory.
Hey Tzemach,
Did the "interlectuals" run out of rhetoric. Or does truth stop the conversation?
Do you have have a full transcript of your interview? I would really love to read it. I grew up in Boston and have loved Bloom's work since first seeing his cadaver painting in the MFA's collection when i was six or seven.
Many thanks,
-zimri
I first saw drawings by Hyman Bloom as a student in our high school text on drawing. They fascinated and moved me so deeply then and ultimately led to our meeting many years later. I am gladdened to see these photographs of Hyman in his studio and before recent paintings. It is true he has had setbacks health wise as of late, but I have rarely known one as intellegent,worldly,youthful in spirit,and inspiring by example as this great man. Thanks for posting your comments and photos.
Hyman Bloom is a wounderful person and a great artist.I am glad that people see that!
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