Includes a forward by Elie Wiesel about how artists like Mark Podwal have the unique ability to unite us all through stories, both past and present. As a political activist, Nobel Laureate, writer, professor, and Holocaust survivor, Wiesel's forward in Reimagined: 45 Years of Jewish Art helps the reader understand the genesis and inspiration behind every piece of Podwal's art.
Renowned for his innovative ink drawings and paintings of the Jewish experience, Mark Podwal was initially known for his drawings in the New York Times Op-Ed page. As prolific artist, Podwal is the illustrator of numerous books and has collaborated with luminaries including Elie Wiesel, Harold Bloom, and Francine Prose.
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Reimagined: 45 Years of Jewish Art is the first monograph of Podwal's massive collection and take the reader on a journey through a diverse array of works that represent and span the artist's illustrious career. From the whimsical, such as Matzoh Moonand Talmud Typewriter, to the political, such asMunich Massacreand Annexing Arab Anger, to the religious, which includes Passover Haggadahillustrations and textile designs from the world’s most historic synagogues, art lovers from New York, Prague, Israel, and everywhere in-between feel an indescribable and mystical connection to Podwal's art.
Luxuriously produced and spanning 45 years of intensive work, this collection of Podwal's oeuvre contains more than 350 gorgeously reproduced artworks that imaginatively illuminate Jewish legend, history, and tradition. Reimagined is a must-have not only for collectors of Jewish art, but for anyone interested in the process of creating beautiful and original drawings and the personal evolution of a major artist.
Praise for Reimagined:
"Podwal is like no one else that I know of, and his work with withstand the test of time."
—David McCullough, historian and author
"Imagination abounds, and his hand seems liberated by his erudition."
—Edward Hirsch, The New York Times Book Review
"Mark Podwal's superb drawings evoke the climate [of Prague], dark and filled with foreboding."
—Kenneth A. Briggs, The New York Times
About the Authors:
Mark Podwal is a celebrated artist whose work is represented in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Israel Museum, the Jewish Museum in Prague, the Bodleian Library, the Library of Congress, and many others. While attending New York University School of Medicine, the tumultuous events of the 1960s compelled Podwal to create a series of political drawings that were published as his first book The Decline and Fall of the American Empire. In 1996, the French government named Podwal an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters. Beyond his works on paper, Podwal's artistry has been employed in an array of diverse projects including the design of a series of decorative plates for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. His artwork has been engraved on a Congressional Gold Medal and embroidered on tapestries that adorn the Old-New Synagogue in Prague.
Elie Wiesel is a Jewish writer, professor, political activist, and Nobel Laureate. He is the author of more than fifty titles, including Night, a work based on his experiences as a prisoner in the Auschwitz, Buna, and Buchenwald concentration camps.
Cynthia Ozick is an American-Jewish short story writer, novelist, and essayist.
Elisheva Carlebach is an American scholar of early modern Jewish history and a professor of Jewish history, culture, and society at Columbia University.
ISBN: 978-1-943876-30-3
374 pages; 9 x 12"; hardcover;
350 color artworks and black and white drawings
