Norman L. Kleeblatt
Temple B’nai Israel’s 2021 Susan & Barry Koh February Lecture Series includes three lectures discussing art movements and artists from post-WWII through 1976. Broadcast on consecutive Thursdays at 7:00 PM, February 4, 11, and 18, via Zoom webinar, the series will feature three acclaimed curators in the contemporary art space. These lectures are open to the public at no charge but viewers are required to register in advance.
Rabbi Peter Hyman, of Temple B’nai Israel, said that “while the pandemic has robbed us of loved ones and physical connection to friends and family, we hope that this contemporary art series will in some small way bring together our community.”
Norman L. Kleeblatt, esteemed former Curator of The Jewish Museum in New York City, begins the contemporary art series on February 4 at 7:00 p.m., with his presentation on Abstract Expressionism: Artists & Critics.
Kleeblatt will present artists from the New York School, also known as the Abstract Expressionists, who took independent routes towards their distinctive signature styles. Kleeblatt will also examine Mark Rothko in the context of his contemporaries, including Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner, Willem de Kooning, and Clyfford Still, among others, with a particular focus on the ideas and aesthetic preferences of the luminary critics of the period, Harold Rosenberg, and Clement Greenberg.
Catherine J. Morris
On February 11, Catherine J. Morris, the Sackler Senior Curator for the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum, will present a lecture on the exhibition Seductive Subversion: Women Pop Artists, 1958–1968.
Morris will examine the impact of women artists on the traditionally male-dominated field of Pop art. It reconsiders the narrow definition of the Pop art movement and reevaluates its critical reception. In recovering important female artists, the exhibition expanded the canon to reflect more accurately women artists working internationally during this period.
Morris will discuss artworks by Chryssa, Niki de Saint Phalle, Rosalyn Drexler, Marisol, Yayoi Kusama, Jann Haworth, Vija Celmins, Lee Lozano, Marjorie Strider, Idelle Weber, and Joyce Wieland, among others.
Marshall N. Price
The final program of the Susan & Barry Koh February Lecture Series on February 18 is titled Roy Lichtenstein: History in the Making, presented by Marshall N. Price. Price is the Nancy A. Nasher and David J. Haemisegger Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. He will examine the period before Lichtenstein’s signature use of Ben Day dots in his Pop paintings and discuss how Pop art emerged in dialogue with European modernism, American history painting, and a diversity of vernacular sources.
Price will also tell the story of Lichtenstein’s brief but instrumental flirtation with abstraction in 1959 and 1960. Coinciding with the mainstreaming of Abstract Expressionism, these paintings illustrate how the artist was inspired to engage with the movement’s pervasive influence, but not without inserting his characteristic humor and wit.
The Susan & Barry Koh February Lecture Series is an annual production of Temple B’nai Israel – The Satell Center for Jewish Life on the Eastern Shore. Registration for the three lectures can be found at www.BnaiIsraelEaston.org. For further information, please call 410-822-0553.
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