Who can fail to be inspired by the artistic culture of Judaism going back thousands of years. We have significant achievements in great music, literature, fine art and philosophy. Some of this might be considered highbrow but we also have a very rich tradition of what might be described as folk art or culture. This would include klezmer music, folk tales and cookery. And all these from different traditions and many different parts of the world.
In recognition of this we thought that as a community we should celebrate our culture and our traditions by establishing the 3CLJC Culture Club. We know that many of our members have skills and interests that will help to grow this exciting new initiative. We already have a programme for the year ahead that includes art, music, botany, poetry, film and cuisine. How broad can you get?!
We are starting this eclectic programme with a talk by artist and art historian Mike Bagshaw on Jewish emigre painters and the transformation of British Art.
On 4th May 3CLJC Culture Club presented its first event, the first of others to come. This was held at Up Hatherley Village Hall and attended by some 30 members of the Community.
Local artist and art historian Mike Bagshaw gave an illustrated talk entitled Exiles of Inspiration. This focussed on the three Jewish 20th century emigre artists and the transformation of British art. Many of us had heard of Frank Auerbach but Eva Frankfurther and Louise von Motesiczky were lesser known. Each artist had a very different style but all the slides of their work were very moving, many inspired by their Jewish background.
Auerbach and Frankfurther were born in Germany and Motesiczky in Vienna. All came to live in England. Auerbach became a naturalised British subject in 1947. He is considered one of the leading names in the School of London, with fellow artists Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud, both of whom were early supporters of his work. Auerbach was a figurative painter, who focused on portraits and city scenes in and around the area of London in which he lived, Camden Town. Eva Frankfurther was best known for her depictions of the immigrant communities of the East End of London in the 1950s. As well as depicting members of the long established Jewish East End community, she also sketched and painted people from the Pakistani, West Indian and Irish communities then arriving in the area.
After leaving school at only thirteen, Marie-Louise von Motesiczky attended art classes in Vienna, The Hague, Frankfurt, Paris and Berlin. In England her time was increasingly dominated by the demands of caring for her mother. This prompted what was in many respects her most remarkable body of work: a series of unflinching portraits of her mother, expressive of the ravages of age but also the deep emotional bond between the two women.
True to the title of the event we were duly inspired and learned a lot. I encourage you to look at some of the paintings made by these talented artists.
Our next Culture Club event is a Biblical-Themed Garden Tour on Friday 8th August.