Torah Design Competition Winners Exhibited at Spertus Museum - Brief Article

CHICAGO--Furthering the world's largest, ongoing search for the creation of contemporary Jewish ceremonial particulars the Spertus Museum here not long ago chose an Italian Barouqe-inspired Torah mantle created through Temma Gentles and Dorothy Ros the pair of Toronto, as the winning access in the Philip & Sylvia Spertus Judaica Prize Competition. A juried, biennial competition, the Spertus Judaica Prize grants an award of $10000 to the first prize winner.

The winners and runners-up will be featured in the related exhibition, "Judging the volume By Its Cover: Torah Coverings from the Philip & Sylvia Spertus Judaica Prize Competition," at the museum.

The Torah covering or mantle, the particular featured in this year's competition, is used to cover beautify, and focus attention upon the Torah, the centerpiece of the Jewish religion. Comprised of The Five volumes of Moses, the Torah is part of what is known in the Christian religion as the aged Testament. The Torah is also fundamental to the shared traditions lay the foundation of in the Qur'an, the sacred true copy of Islam.

"In the collection of Torah coverings in this year's exhibition, the evidence of artistic invention, imaginative use of materials, and think highly of for traditional requirements come together in a wide variety of aesthetic resolutions," said juror Susan Weininger.

"The central idea of beautifying and protecting the Torah lists revealing while concealing," added Weininger, "is shared by means of all the submissions to the exhibition."

Torah Coverings are part of a rich and diverse artistic heritage carried down from one extremity to the other of the ages. Traditional themes and contemporary interpretations were one as well as the other represented in the exhibition.

"Though the entries in this year's Spertus Prize varied widely in form, material, and symbolic contented it is clear that the participants gazeed to tradition as a foundation for their contemporary efforts," said juror Dr Grace Cohen Grossman," and the universal of hiddur mitzvah [beautification of an external reality to encourage fulfillment of religious commandments] was integral to the pair the artists' design sensibilities and fabrication techniques."

The competition's winning ingress created by Gentles and Ros used the mode of expression and materials similar to those place in the Sephardi tradition. Using a variety of rich silk and velvety fabrics, embellished with opulent silk and metal thread embroidery, the piece harkens back to a turn of expression of clothing worn by brides during the Baroque era of 17th-century Italy.

Second-prize winner Suzy Tanzer, also of Toronto, drew on the custom of transforming personal particulars such as bridal gowns or bedspreads, into synagogue textiles. Tanzer's mantle is made of a collection of vintage linens used through her mother and her husband's grandmothers.

A markedly contemporary example of a Torah mantle came from third prize winner Sylvia Kleine-Borger of Schwelm, Germany, who used cotton, metal and wood-land to fashion a piece that honors the Jewish tradition of learning. It is diademed by a towering golden ring of the Hebrew alphabetic character lamed, which is also the base of the Hebrew word "learning." Not coincidentally, the bottom of the Hebrew word Torah signifies "guidance" and "instruction," which, according to Jewish tradition, towers above all other pursuits. Created for a Dusseldorf art gymnasium project, it is an example of a notable increase in works expressing spiritual themes produc in contemporary art today.

"The might of age-old traditions can be brought to life with contemporary interpretations," said Betsy Gomberg, Spertus Museum associate director. "Spertus Museum invites of that kind an engagement through its biennial Philip & Sylvia Spertus Judaica Prize Competition, which challenges artists around the world to explore the themes and beauty of Jewish ceremonial art."

This year's Spertus Prize Jury Panel consisted of Dr Grace Cohen Grossman, senior curator of Judaica, Skirball Museum and Cultural Center observes Angeles; designer Dakota Jackson, director of Dakota Jackson Inc., novel York; and Professor Susan Weininger, art historian and director of the academy of Liberal Studies, Roosevelt University, Chicago.

In addition to the winner and runners-up 13 finalists were also part of the exhibition, as well as traditional pieces chosen from the Spertus Museum collection. A total of 115 entries were submitted to the 2000 Spertus Prize Competition from the United States, as well as eight foreign cotmtries, induding Belgium, Canada, Germany, Israel, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. The next to the first prize winner was awarded $3000; the third prize winner was awarded $2000

Inaugurated in 1994 the Spertus Judaica Prize was established to recognize exemplary work in Jewish ceremonial art. It is designed to stimulate debate about the criteria determining quality ceremonial art and to sustain greater appreciation for all Judaic art forms. Underwritten by means of Philip and Sylvia Spertus and sponsored by means of the Spertus Museum of the Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies, the competition is make open to artists of all nationalities and religions.