The Art Of Memory
Marilyn Cohen preserves personal histories in the medium of collage.
SUZANNE CHESSLER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
N
ew York artist Marilyn Cohen has begun
showing her work in Michigan, introduc-
ing subjects that recall the past and tech-
niques that press on toward the future.
Cohen has found her subjects in old photographs, of-
ten merging images from several into one work. What
she calls paintings actually are collages formed from pa-
pers she dyes, tears and glues to canvas, a process she
developed and keeps enhancing.
Only three paintings remain from the 50 in her series
"Where Did They Go When They Came to America?"
— a collection that captures generations of a Jewish fam-
ily from each of the United States.
Her current project, "Teach Me
the Songs My Mothers Sang — A
Celebration of American Women,"
portrays 20 pioneers who forged
their talents in fields previously re-
stricted to men.
The earlier works, sometimes
dream-like visions, were shown to-
gether at the B'nai B'rith Klutznick
National Jewish Museum in Wash-
ington, D.C. The new collection will
open next January at Fairfield Uni-
versity in Connecticut, move to Vas-
sar in March and go on to colleges
around the country.
"People live their lives thinking
there's nothing particularly unusu-
al about their families or them-
selves, and yet they are part of what
makes up American history," Co-
hen said.
Above:
Early family photographs were Marilyn Cohen's original inspiration
for her watercolor tom paper collages: A Matter of Time.
Below:
Marilyn Cohen works in a studio surrounded by photos.
"All of my work is based on real people. Through their
oral histories and family photographs, I am able to cre-
ate images based on actual events."
The Posner Gallery in Birmingham has eight of Co-
hen's paintings. Two are from the immigrant series. The
rest are from an autobiographical series based on early
family photos from the artist's childhood.
"Part of what propelled me into doing work based on
family histories was using my own family's snapshots,"
said Cohen, who first worked as a designer and illustra-
tor after attending New York's School of Visual Arts.
"In working with my family photographs and then
with the immigrant series, I found that the memories
that had been told to me sifted into my own memory.
`The underlying fascination I have with other people's
family histories is the universality. We are connected
to people we don't even know because our experiences
are shared."
When Cohen set out to find a family to represent each
state, she began with her own state and the ones near-
by. One contact lead to another, and she located people
with whom she could talk on the phone about photos they
were willing to send her.
The Lachman family represented Michigan. The artist
had been put in touch with Shirley Fink of Bloomfield
Hills and Sol Lachman of Oak Park.
"In the Detroit story, Joseph Lachman opened a store
on Michigan Avenue in 1893 and sold watches, jewelry
and violins," recalled Cohen, who provides a brief fami-
ly history text to accompany each rendering.
'With each generation that came along, something
was added to the business. After one of the sons went
to optometry school, eyeglasses were added."
Working with Lachman photos, Cohen created "Dad-
dy Drove a Model T," a collage that includes a mother
and father standing by a Model T in the background and
three children in the foreground.
"Wherever possible, I integrated some aspect of the
time so that viewers would get a feeling of when this was
happening," Cohen said.
"Of the people I interviewed, I found that the only sig-
nificant difference in the immigrant experience was not
regional but whether people had settled in very popu-
lated cities or in small towns." Cohen started her women's
series as a lesson for her daughters and their friends, re-
minding them of what women had to go through to at-
tain new goals.
"Freddy Drake Paine, in her 80s and now in Califor-
nia, lived for a time in Detroit and made her mark as a
political activist and union organizer," Cohen explained
about one of the Jewish women shown in her series.
"Octogenarian Grace Lee Boggs currently is involved
with a community project in Detroit, where young peo-
ple from around the country come every summer to work
alongside local youths and elders in community building
initiatives.
"All the women are 70 and older and did things that
were unusual for women to do. Most of their experiences
began before World War II. The project includes a pilot,
professional baseball player, a doctor and a corporate ex-
ecutive."
Cohen, whose husband, Lewis, works with computer
graphics, maintains a home studio, where she puts in
full days of work In the early years, her hours were sched-
uled around responsibilities for three children as they
were growing up.
`Tye come to believe that my mission is to get people
to understand the importance of salvaging their own his-
tory," Cohen said.
Marilyn Cohen's works are on view at the Posner
Gallery, 523 N. Woodward, Birmingham. For infor-
mation, call (810) 647-2552.