Splendor and Awe

The Visionary Midrash Of Nahum HaLevi

Mizel Arts& Culture Center

Singer Gallery

350 South Dahlia Street

Denver, Co 80246

303-316-6330

www.maccjcc.org

This exhibit has been extended to January 30, 2011.

An infant Moses with a beard. A legendary female judge astride a pink horse. A prophet teletransported into another space and time. Putting one story into a mirror, doing some sleight-of-hand, and pulling another story out of the mirror, like a rabbit out of a hat. These elements are only a smattering of the facets that make a dramatic exhibit at the Singer Gallery. Simon Zalkind, curator of the exhibit, has mounted a show that is jewel-box beautiful. Be prepared to be surprised, intrigued, and ready to view the Bible in a very unique way.

Mixing space and time with the past, the present, and the future; using Hebrew words and Egyptian hieroglyphics to tell the same story; and the use of anthropomorphized trees, musical notes, and people all add to the mythology of the Old Testament.  Nahum Halevi projects  all of these features onto a vast canvas with brilliant colors and offers his Midrash, or his vision of the Bible's stories.

Who is this artist? Not what one might think at first. HaLevi is also Dr. Nathan Moskowitz, Chief of Neurosurgery in Maryland. HaLevi states: "There can be no greater training in, and application of, empathy, compassion, and immense awareness of the delicate human condition than in the practice of neurosurgery."  

As Zalkind writes in the program, "His fascination and desire to paint the Hebrew Bible became more intense as his experience with surgical interactions significantly enhanced his ability to convey a greater intensity and range of emotions." 

A Walk through the Slide Show

A brief description of the images in the artist's words. For a full description and insight into HaLevi's imagination and vision, visit www.nahumlevi.com.

The Family Amromovitz: Teamwork

Moses is portrayed as an infant with a beard, giving you the impression that you are watching a movie of his life as he is aging in fast-forward, seeing him as a child and as an adult almost simultaneously. Thus two discrete space-time coordinates are overlapping. Years later as a bearded adult he is on top of the mountain beckoning G-d and receiving the Ten Commandments. The Nile/water is also in this fast-forward movie, simultaneously transforming into Mount Sinai on top of which are the two tablets. The entire Ten Commandments are written on the tablets in ancient Hebrew.

Deborah: Women, Words and War

The overall dominant color theme of this painting is pink, representing the powerful feminine spirit which moves the story and reigns supreme. Deborah is mounted on her pink horse. In the dark moonlit sky are the pinkish feminine stars in the heavens which help her fight against Sisera. Yael is wearing a pink dress. Also in the background are pink female birds which sweep down to aid Deborah and the Israelites in battle. This represents the feminine forces of nature on the side of the Israelites. They also have the appearance of swarming bomber airplanes about to rout the Canaanites with bombs, but rather scare them by their sheer numbers, force, formation, might and intent.

Ezekiel's Brain: Flotations and Rotations in the River of Time

This painting attempts to transport you into the teletransporting visionary mind of the great prophet Ezekiel, son of Buzi HaCohen, who was exiled to Babylon along with his fellow Judeans in the sixth century BCE. Of all the prophets, Ezekiel's visions are the most phantasmagoric and visually explosive.

The Family Leibovitz: Sex, Lies, and Levirates

This is a zesty oriental tale about court intrigues, sexual desire, morals, obligations, treachery and deceit. It’s also about power plays, attempted and successful homicides, and royal battles over rightful and wrongful successions ... .it as though someone took the Judah story, rearranged the characters and their names a little, refracted them all through a Lewis Carroll looking glass, reflected them back onto a canvas, and then unveiled the King David story.

The exhibit is an original compilation of works that depict many aspects of Jewish life and culture illustrated by a very original artist.