VPA, Hillel at SU to present exhibition celebrating work of artist Selma Hurwitz ’49

Friday, April 10, 2009, By News Staff

VPA, Hillel at SU to present exhibition celebrating work of artist Selma Hurwitz ’49April 10, 2009Erica Blustesblust@syr.edu

Syracuse University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) and Hillel at SUwill celebrate the work of artist and VPA alumna Selma Hurwitz ’49 with the exhibition “Threads of a Culture: Hadbakah Images by Selma Hurwitz,” which will be on view April 20-June 1 at the Winnick Hillel Center for Jewish Life, 102 Walnut Place, Syracuse. A reception with the artist will be held Thursday, April 23, from 6-8 p.m. The exhibition and reception are free and open to the public.

Hurwitz is an internationally known artist whose works portray personal and social themes of universal impact, as well as basic motifs of love, beauty, valor and tyranny. In 1964, she created her own medium, hadbakah (Hebrew for “gluing”), which is glued-thread painting. Instead of using a brush, the artist glues various individual threads, particularly those that are metalized, to a specially prepared surface. Careful planning of thread direction and location, as well as meticulous maneuvering of the threads during the gluing process, achieves the desired shading and design.

Hurwitz has exhibited work in numerous solo shows, including those at the Russell Senate Office Building Rotunda and the First Baptist Church in Washington, D.C.; the Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles; the American Jewish Historical Society in Waltham, Mass.; and the Herzl Institute in New York City. Her work is part of numerous collections, including the Israel Museum, Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial and Knesset, all in Jerusalem; the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California; and the National Endowment for the Arts Library in Washington, D.C.

Regular exhibition hours are Monday-Thursday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., and Friday, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. For more information about the exhibition, contact April Maw, VPA Office of Advancement, at (315) 443-7095 or aamaw@syr.edu. For more information about Hurwitz, visit http://mysite.verizon.net/hhurwitz/.