Mayer featured as 2008 Ashkenaz Festival in Toronto on Monday September 1, 2008

THEY CALLED ME MAYER JULY: THE ART OF Mayer Kirshenblatt

Monday, September 1, 2pm, Studio Theatre, Harbourfront Centre, FREE

Slide show presentation and discussion
Mayer Kirshenblatt was born in the shtetl of Opatow, Poland in 1916 and spent the formative years of his life there before emigrating to Canada in 1934. Kirshenblatt made his home in Toronto and a career as a house painter and furniture restorer. He raised a family and put the world of his childhood behind him. Reluctant for decades to share much of his past, on the occasion of his 50^th wedding anniversary in 1990 he relented to his family’s requests that he “paint” his memories. With no prior experience as an artist, at the age of 73 Kirshenblatt taught himself to paint and began spilling his vivid childhood recollections onto what has now grown to a collection of over 270 canvasses. Each of Kirshenblatt’s paintings tells a story, and together they recreate in living color the bygone world of pre-war Polish-Jewish shtetl life. Kirshenblatt’s work has been exhibited at museums and festival worldwide, and with his daughter NYU professor Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett has released a stunning book featuring over 200 images of his paintings, woven together with a rich narrative of historical background and contextual remembrances from the artist.

Details here: http://www.beachesclubhouse.com/ashkenaz/