Only a few weeks left to see AVAM’s “Storytelling” exhibit
This is a special guest post from the folks over at the American Visionary Art Museum! They thought our readers might be interested in their current exhibit, The Art of Storytelling, and we agree! Make sure to check it out, as the exhibit closes soon – plus they’re offering a discount on admission to all JMM members!
Members of the Jewish Museum of Maryland may be interested to know that the American Visionary Art Museum’s 18th original exhibition of embroidery, diorama, sculpture, film, graffiti, and PostSecret confession, The Art of Storytelling: Lies Enchantment Humor & Truth, will turn its final page on September 1, 2013. This yearlong exhibit, which opened in October 2012, explores the impact of story via visual narratives created by 30+ visionary artists, each expressive of some personal aspect of tale telling. Their intuitive creations include Mars Tokyo’s amazing micro-stories in her superbly detailed “Theaters of the 13th Dimension;” Vanessa German’s mighty “Power Figures;” Debbie & Mike Schramer’s whimsical “Fairy Tree Houses;” and a major highlight: the inspiring, 36-piece, embroidered holocaust survival story of visionary artist Esther Krinitz.
Esther Nisenthal Krinitz (1927-2001) first began her series of fabric pictures in 1977 at the age of 50. The first two works depicted the beauty and happiness of her rural childhood home in Poland, and were presented as gifts for her two adult daughters, Bernice and Helene. Although trained as a dressmaker and highly skilled in needlework, Esther had no training in art and no conception of herself as an artist. Yet, her first embroidered pictures were so well received by her family and friends and so personally satisfying that she would later create 34 other pieces, unveiling a sequential narrative series of increasing complexity. With the addition of text, Esther’s art became an exquisite embroidered testimony to her true story of survival during World War II. Esther’s story, complete with biographical and personal details from her life, is accompanied in the exhibit by the award-winning documentary Through The Eye of The Needle by filmmaker Nina Shapiro-Perl.
In celebration of the last month of this exciting show, AVAM invites current members of The Jewish Museum of Maryland to tour the exhibit before it comes to a close on Labor Day weekend. Current JMM members can take advantage of a special $2 off our regular admission price when you show your member card at AVAM’s desk, now through September 1, 2013. For more information on AVAM or the exhibit, visit http://avam.org/. To find out more about artist Esther Krinitz, visit http://artandremembrance.org/.