Exhibition: Traces of Sepharad – Huellas de Sefarad, NYC

Etchings of Judeo-Spanish Proverbs

Exhibition continues
through May 2009 at the Center for Jewish History, NYC.

by Marc Shanker

The new exhibition and book, Traces of Sepharad, by Marc Shanker, features more than 40 interpretive etchings of Judeo-Spanish proverbs, offering a unique window into Sephardic culture and thinking.  The sheer breadth of lovely etchings of these timeless Ladino proverbs are easily recognized, understood and shared by a broad audience.  They evoke the Judeo-Spanish culture which was maintained for over 500 years by Sephardic Jewish communities in the Diaspora.  They bring our attention back to the thriving Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula at a time when Jews, Muslims and Christians lived together in relative peace.

The exhibition is hosted by American Sephardi Federation, and co-sponsored by the Consulate General of Spain in New York, the Turkish Consulate General in New York, and the Instituto Cervantes, New York. The Jewish expulsion and the Diaspora that followed, with many of the exiled Jews settling in the Ottoman Empire, is the central focus that ties these institutions together; Spain is in the process of reinterpreting its history and reassessing the contribution of its Jewish and Muslim communities; the Ottoman Turks welcomed the exiled Sephardic Jews, and for over 400 years was a principal repository of Judeo-Spanish language and culture; the American Sephardi Federation’s mission is the preservation of Sephardic culture, and the fostering of fraternal links to other religions and nationalities.

Madre que parió culevros, se apiadó de ellos.
The mother who bore snakes felt pity for them.

Del loco y del niño se sabe la verdad.
The truth is known from fools and children.

Book:
Accompanying the exhibition is the release of the newly published book, with translations in Spanish, Traces of Sepharad (Huellas de Sefarad).
Traces of Sepharad, is the first book to use Ladino proverbs as the basis of a large body of serious visual art. Mr. Shanker’s etchings are accompanied by essays by the artist, Mr. Antonio Muñoz Molina, an internationally known novelist and critic, and by Professor T.A. Perry, a respected Sephardic and Biblical scholar. Together the book forges a unique synthesis of fine art, and literary and scholarly essays that touch on salient aspects of the Sephardic experience: language, meaning, humor, religion, cultural and personal identity, family, exile, assimilation, as well as connections to contemporary Spain.

Artist & Author:
Marc Shanker is a self-taught artist and a Sephardic Jew. He has been painting, drawing and writing for more than 30 years. His narrative style of art mirrors qualities intrinsic to the Sephardic proverbs: irony, humor, and contradiction while illuminating and interpreting their meanings. Mr. Shanker has exhibited widely, and has published his art in small press magazines.

American Sephardi Federation
Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street (between 5th & 6th Avenues)
New York, NY 10011

Reservations are required. To RSVP: Please call 212.294.8350 x.0

Fuente: American Sephardic Federation