Tobi Kahn "Sacred Spaces for the 21st Century"
Museum of Biblical Art
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An exhibition of 30 recent paintings, sculptures and objects by the noted New York artist. As the first exhibition to explore Kahn's notion of sacred space, it marks the public debut of a complex new work— a visually cohesive environment Kahn has created for the interior of a synagogue, the Congregation Emanu-El B'ne Jeshurun in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (2008). Anchored by eight magnificent six-foot-high abstract murals in shimmering tones of gold and white suggestive of a limitless grandeur, this elegant artistic ensemble draws upon Kahn's rich awareness of history to create a place of worship that departs from tradition, even as it is informed by it. Arising out of Kahn's fascination with shrines of varied cultures, and inspired by the artist's roots in German Jewry and his own observant Jewish identity, these unified works catapult the viewer into a state of heightened reality, inviting contemplation of life's mystery and majesty. Drawing upon such diverse artistic influences as the American abstract landscape tradition, the New York School and German Romanticism, Kahn has executed a fully imagined, finely wrought environment that contains cultural references ranging from modernism to mysticism. His new sanctuary evokes the most ancient rites and universal spiritual yearnings, speaking to all, while honoring the questing philosophy, prayer and ritual at the core of Judaism's 3000-year tradition.
[Image: Tobi Khan "Shalom Bat" (2008) painted chairs]
Media
Schedule
from October 16, 2009 to January 24, 2010