Canadian-born painter Philip Guston lived most of his life in the United States. Early in his career, he worked for the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Arts Project, painting murals on public buildings in New York. In the 1940s, he was a leading exponent of Abstract Expressionism. In the late 1960s, Guston returned to a more figurative style, featuring cartoon-like shapes and recurring motifs, such as the soles of shoes. There have been numerous posthumous solo shows devoted to his art, including a retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2003.
[ . . . ] The two worlds, in my childhood, were not really separate. The synagogue in Graham Street, to which we walked across the Meadows every Saturday morning, was as much a part of the Edinburgh…
This lithograph of a micrographic drawing, believed to be from Poland, reproduces the text of the scroll of Esther in its entirety, as well as prayers and poems for the holiday of Purim. In the center…
This remarkable illustration is at the same time a shiviti—traditionally, a decorative plaque bearing the verse: “I am ever mindful of the Lord’s presence”—and a topographic map of the land of Israel…