They Called Me Mayer July

Award for Mayer July Acoustiguide from American Association of Museums

We are thrilled that the audioguide for the exhibition They Called Me Mayer July: A Jewish Childhood in Poland Before the Holocaust at The Jewish Museum (NYC) has just received an award from the American Association of Museums (AAM) for outstanding achievement in museum media and technology. 

You can hear parts of it here:
 http://www.thejewishmuseum.org/site/pages/mayer-july-onlinefeature.html

Bravo to The Jewish Museum!

Bonny V. Fetterman reviews Mayer July in Reform Judaism Online, Spring 2010

Having recently returned from a trip to the Polish town of my mother’s childhood, I was eager to see Mayer Kirshenblatt’s paintings of Jewish life in prewar Poland on exhibit at the Jewish Museum in New York. I immediately recognized buildings and landscapes I had seen on the trip—the small, square houses surrounding the town square, ruins of once impressive, multi-tiered synagogues—but the exhibition instantly filled me with joy because Mayer Kirshenblatt’s paintings put the people back in a panoramic view of life before the Holocaust.

At once naive and sophisticated, Kirshenblatt’s art captures the energy and diversity of life as it was lived in prewar Apt (Opatów in Polish), a shtetl in southern Poland. Shunning nostalgia for accuracy, the paintings are rich in ethnographic detail and show every area of activity, some with the artist as a blue-clad schoolboy looking on. The 93-year-old Toronto artist, who started painting in his seventies, is becoming internationally known; his work was recently exhibited at the Galician Jewish Museum in Kraków.

The text of this book, which includes 200 full color reproductions, represents another kind of achievement. Each painting tells a story, evoking memories of people, trades, and events. Mayer Kirshenblatt collaborated with his daughter, Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, a scholar of Eastern European Jewish culture and folklore, on a captivating text recording his almost encyclopedic range of memories of the town up to 1934, the year he departed for Canada.

Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, who co-authored Image Before My Eyes: A Photographic History of Jewish Life in Poland with Lucjan Dobroszychi, a book based on the photographic collection of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, comments on her father’s art: “Until Mayer’s paintings, all my images of Jewish life in Poland were black and white because all of them were from photographs,” she writes. “That world, thanks to Mayer’s paintings, was now emerging in vibrant color.” Kirshenblatt’s extraordinary visual memory, humor, and love can revivify this world for us all.

http://reformjudaismmag.org/Articles/index.cfm?id=1557

Mayer July exhibition opens at the National Yiddish Book Center in April 2010

An exhibition of digital prints of Mayer's paintings, accompanied by an audio guide in English, Polish, and Yiddish, will travel in North America starting with the National Yiddish Book Center in New Hampshire (April 2010) and Brandeis University in Boston (fall 2010). The exhibition started in Mayer's home town, Opatów, with the help of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, and was reinstalled at the Galicia Jewish Museum in Kazimierz. The GJM is traveling the exhibition. Stay tuned! 

Mayer July opens in Amsterdam June 3, 2010

We are thrilled that They Called Me Mayer July will open at the Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam June 3, 2010. Stay tuned for details!

Mayer July at the Museum of Family History, an online museum

Steve Lasky has created a beautiful exhibition in his online Museum of Family History. Here is his blog entry: http://museumoffamilyhistory.blogspot.com/

The main exhibition is here:
 http://www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/ce/kirshenblatt/kirshenblatt.htm

The holiday exhibition is here:
http://www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/ce/kirshenblatt/jholidays-kirshenblatt.htm

With warm thanks to Steve. This museum is a true labor of love and thing of beauty to behold.

Studio International review

Crazy Mayer's Storehouse of Memories

They Called Me Mayer July: Painted Memories of a Jewish Childhood in Poland Before the Holocaust
The Jewish Museum, New York City
10 May–1 October 2009

by CINDI Di MARZO

September 25, 2009

'The places I remember exist no more. They are only in my head, and if I die they will disappear with me. I paint these scenes as I remember them as a little boy looking through the window'.

According to Mayer Kirshenblatt, the Polish town that he knew by its Yiddish name, Apt (called Opatów in Polish), was like many other towns in Poland. After meeting with some of the idiosyncratic characters described in Kirshenblatt's paintings and his lively written accounts, visitors to an exhibit of the artist's work now displayed at the Jewish Museum in New York City will find it difficult to believe that such people existed anywhere else.² From flour porter Laybl Tule and the 'human fly' who scaled the corner of one of the largest buildings in town to the hunchback (and pregnant) bride standing under a wedding canopy and a prostitute displaying her wares in the marketplace, Mayer's portraits will become for all who see them iconic of Apt prior to World War II. In effect, as Kirshenblatt noted, Apt stands for all of small-town Poland at this time.

Hurry! Last chance to see They Called Me Mayer July at The Jewish Museum. Show closes October 1

Only one week remains to see the remarkable work of Mayer Kirshenblatt at The Jewish Museum. They Called Me Mayer July: Painted Memories of a Jewish Childhood in Poland Before the Holocaust is a moving tribute to Kirshenblatt’s boyhood town painted many years after he left it. More than 80 colorful paintings and drawings, rendered in exquisite detail, transport you to another time and place; one that’s full of wonder, humor, charm and history. The New York Times summed it up in a word—“extraordinary.”

They Called Me Mayer July: Painted Memories of a Jewish Childhood in Poland Before the Holocaust - closing Thursday, October 1, 2009

The Jewish Museum
Fifth Avenue at 92nd Street, New York
www.thejewishmuseum.org

Review of Mayer July exhibition on Second Life!

Look no further than the nearest comfy couch or recliner for the future of Museums and Museum exhibitions.

I had the honor of attending a gallery opening at the Tachles Gallery in Second Life for the Mayer July (First Life name:  Mayer Kirshenblatt) exhibition.  I met up with others from across the world – some of the cities represented were Warsaw, New York City, San Francisco and Stockholm...

Each work in this wonderful exhibition is a combination of experience, personal recollection and even a lesson in history.  There were a number of times that an avatar in attendance said “wow, I had no idea…” and I feel so strongly that art like this has an important place in every group or culture.

The Second Life exhibition of Mayer’s work was actually a simultaneous presentation of the work.  People in New York City and Warsaw had the opportunity to attend the opening in First Life (affectionately known by many as Real Life).  The images have been shown already at the Judah L. Magnes Museum in Berkley, CA and in Mayer’s hometown in Apt.  They are currently able to be seen in First Life at The Jewish Museum, New York and in the Galicia Jewish Museum in Krakow, Poland.  Some of Mayer’s works will be soon traveling toAmsterdam for an exhibition there as well.

Read the whole review here:

http://westmuse.wordpress.com/2009/09/23/they-called-me-mayer-july%E2%80%99s-second-life/

With thanks to James Leventhal for turning out (J)avatars from around the world in First Life! We are meeting at the SL exhibition again tomorrow morning, Friday September 25, 10:30 am NYC time. Please join us.

Mayer July exhibit opened on Second Life at the Tachles Gallery and Aufbau Cafe

Have a look at Mayer's exhibition on Second Life. Many avatars and Javatars attended the opening, including a goldfish. 

 

Mayer July opens on Second Life, September 13, 11:00 SLT

 

Please join us for the opening of Mayer's exhibition on Second Life.

Sunday September 13, 11:00 SLT

Tachles Gallery in the Jewish neighborhood of Second Life.

I'll be teleporting from Warsaw. Looking forward to seeing you there!

With warm thanks to Javatar Julian Voloj, editor of 2L Magazine, for arranging the exhibition. Details on 2L Magazine, a blog on Virtual Judaism.