7th Annual
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k
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Robert Kornwise Weekend
k • N • • k,
"Putting the Pieces Together"
February 3 - 5, 1995
Camp Tamarack, Ortonville
Jewish Art Treasures
Set In A Palace
RUTH ROVNER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
0
All teens grades 9 -12 are invited
to attend a fantastic weekend of
getting to know each other.
R.O.P.E.S.,
social activities,
discussions,
sing-a-longs,
new and
old friends!
The Kornwise Weekend is being subsidized
through the generosity of the Robert Kornwise
Memorial Fund of Adat Shalom Synagogue.
For more information call Mike Mellen at the
Agency for Jewish Education (810) 354-1050.
_~
utside it looks like a state-
ly palace: a corner build-
ing in Second Empire
style, with ornate molding
and twin sculptures near the en-
trance, situated on a hill over-
looking Geneva's picturesque Old
Town.
Inside, the rooms are elegant
and striking, with marble floors,
winding staircases, high ceilings
and ornate moldings.
It's called Petit Palais; and it
was, in fact, once a palace — but
now it's a museum of modern art.
Even more unusual than its
palatial ambiance is the fact that
so many of its works are by Jew-
ish artists.
ding and more — and varied
works by Jewish artists born in
Russia, Poland, Paris and else-
where all gathered in one muse-
um in Switzerland.
On a recent visit, I began my
tour in the room on the lobby lev-
el which is entirely devoted to
works by Mane Katz. The Russ-
ian born expressionist painter of-
ten painted Jewish themes.
On one wall, for example, was
a painting titled Le Bar Mitzvah
et son jeune frere (the bar mitz-
vah boy and his young brother).
It shows a young boy holding a
Torah scroll, with his young
brother standing nearby.
"Look at their eyes. They're
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The exterior of the Petit Palais.
PHOTO BY RUTH ROVNER
"Jewish visitors are often sur- very dark, very large, and in the
prised to see so much Jewish art, eyes you can see a sadness and
and you can imagine how a pride, too," said Gustav
pleased they are," said Ofir Granath, an art student and
Scheps, a native Israeli who is cu guide who volunteered to lead
me through the museum.
Petit Palais.
We had started out tour in a
It's a museum with the
largest collection of works by Pol- room called the Pub Room. Once
ish artist Moise Kisling. A whole a salon, it was a cozy room
roomful of paintings is by Mane with lounge chairs and soft
Katz, a Russian born artist who music playing. On all the walls
later worked in Paris. There are were works by Mane Katz, sev-
also works by Marc Chagall, eral with distinctly Jewish
Chaim Soutine, and Zadkine Os- themes.
"His father was a rabbi; and
sip, an.artist and sculptor.
It may seem surprising that a he wanted his son to be a rabbi,
small, privately owned museum too. He became a painter instead,
in Geneva has such an extensive but he stayed very close to Jew-
Jewish art collection. (Actually, ish themes and rituals in his art,"
its focus is not Jewish art but said Mr. Granath, as we looked
modern art, and its collection in- at another work, Le Marriage ,
cludes works by Cezanne, Gau- which showed a traditional Jew-
gin, Picasso and other masters.) ish wedding.
Nearby was Rabbi with
But this is a Jewish-owned mu-
seum, and its founder, Dr. Oscar Torah, a painting of a rabbi hold-
Ghez de Castelnuovo, "definite- ing a Torah scroll with a vivid or-
ly makes a special effort to ac- ange cover. The rabbi's tallit is
quire Jewish art," says Ms. edged with bright yellow. An-
other painting, Three Rabbis
Scheps.
That art includes paintings with Torah, shows the rabbis
with Jewish themes — a rabbi wearing purple, orange and yel-
holding a Torah, a Jewish wed- low robes.