Nature meets divine in New York exhibit by Tobi Kahn, son of Holocaust survivors
The Lower East Side’s Museum at Eldridge Street honors the US Jewish immigrant story, continued with the spiritual works in ‘Memory and Inheritance,’ on display through November 10
NEW YORK — Nestled in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, in the thick of Chinatown, stands the Eldridge Street Synagogue. Its façade retains the Moorish revival architecture and large gothic wheel window from its construction in the late 19th century, but, inside, the synagogue has developed into much more than a house of worship. Since 1986, it has housed the Museum at Eldridge Street, a living monument to the Jewish immigrants who once defined the neighborhood.
In 1887, the Orthodox synagogue — one of the first in the United States built by Eastern European Jewish immigrants — also represented more than just a house of prayer. It became a symbol of religious freedom and a diversified Jewish community, a monument of spiritual refuge and community dialogue.
Today, the Museum at Eldridge Street stands as a reminder of the beauty and continuity of not only American Jewry, but all immigrant communities. Perhaps there is no space more ideal to display the life works of visual artist Tobi Kahn.
The pieces chosen for the exhibition “Memory and Inheritance: Paintings and Ceremonial Objects by Tobi Kahn,” which opened in the late spring and runs through November 10, are primarily informed by Kahn’s sense of identity as an artist. That identity is multifaceted and includes his Jewish upbringing, though Kahn told The Times of Israel that “my Jewishness informs the artist that I am, but I am an artist first.”
Kahn, 72, grew up in the upper Manhattan neighborhood of Washington Heights, the child of Holocaust survivors. He spoke both English and German fluently and received an extensive Jewish education. The neighborhood was a hub for German Jewish immigrants to the United States, which may be why, as Kahn recounted, “I didn’t know anybody who was not a Holocaust survivor till about ninth grade.”
Kahn is named for his uncle Arthur Kahn, who is believed to be the first Jew murdered by the Nazis. He shared various aspects of his uncle’s life and persona, which shaped his trajectory as an image maker and human being.
“[My uncle Arthur] was the only Jew in the school he went to. He was the captain of the chess team, which I was. He was an amazing draftsman,” Kahn said. “I had many similarities with him. I think about that a lot… That is even more of an influence on me than anything else.”
After 12 years of intense Jewish education, Kahn decided to pursue acting at Tel Aviv University. While at university, he studied photography and was invited to display his photos in several exhibitions, notably at the Debel Gallery in 1978 and Mishkenot Sha’ananim in 1985. His work earned him the Jerusalem House of Quality Award.
During this time, he also studied in yeshiva, or rabbinic seminary, for three years. “I never wanted to be a rabbi, but I love studying sacred texts,” he said.
In every culture, memory and inheritances are transmitted by different means, but some of the most favored and widely used are visual cues — ritual representations imbued with narratives and tradition. These cues are then filtered through the prism of our lives. There they find personal as well as collective meaning.
Kahn’s works are informed by his history, his lifelong interests, and exposures that allow him to see the divine in the everyday: the common threads of irreplaceable experience that any person regardless of creed or religion can recognize as an elevated moment in personal and collective time.
Kahn is perhaps best known for his “Sky and Water” creations. The “Sky and Water” piece that Kahn chose to display for the exhibition at Eldridge Street, “AHDYN,” explores the beauty and sanctification when blue waters meet blue skies. Nine smaller paintings, each with its own specific hue of sky and water blues, blend together to form one singular entity.
“I think my ‘Sky and Water’ paintings are the most religious work I do, because it’s all about that communion between heaven and earth,” Kahn said.
The artist has featured different versions of “Sky and Water” in several museums including Albright Knox and the Neuberger Museum.
Kahn looks at the potential of space and matter, carving new meaning from what is already familiar to the eye and spirit.
“I want art to be about the pureness of expression… It is about my seeing something beautiful and wanting to enhance it,” he said. “I like works that come from the essence of the artist… that they feel that it has to be done… giving enough to let the viewer continue the story.”
For this reason, Kahn has a healthy obsession with Cycladic art, which informs and inspires many of his personal creations. For him, the purity of artistic creation is epitomized in expressions such as cave paintings, and he finds particular beauty in Stonehenge.
Kahn’s painting “TSELA” was inspired by his investigation of an orchid, in which he saw a figure engaging in a joyful and hidden dance. “IHYR” depicts the Costa Rican rainforest as the sun breaks through the night which still hangs over the trees. In each moment, Kahn felt himself a small but essential cog experiencing an unseen but ever-present magic.
It may follow, then, that, throughout his creative life, Kahn has amplified interfaith messages through his works.
His work “SAPHYR IV (Omer Counter),” which features 49 small sculptures, each representing one day between the holidays of Passover and Shavuot. The squares vary in shape, slope, and reflection — an emphasis on the diversified qualities of one community, one world, that create dynamic, interesting, and needed perspectives. This Omer counter is one of 29 that Kahn has made, housed in various museums and institutions.
“I grew up as an observant Jew, but I always felt that this was just one lens,” he said. “I’m more interested in people who are interested in something larger than themselves… So many of the pieces I do are conceptual, based on my narrative of what the holiday or what everything should be. I then take the very personal and try to transfer it to the communal and then hopefully the community will bring their personal narratives.”
