A Moriah is now an old hand at Jewish narrative. Between 2004 and 2007 he completed the amazing task of illuminating four of the
He inaugurated his visual Torah studies in 2001 with an enormous multipaneled oil on canvas measuring overall 12 feet by 12 feet at the Jewish Theological Seminary. Gathering at Mount Sinai (2001) is emblematic of almost all of Moriah’s subsequent biblical art. At first he depicts the specific events of the text, often including much of the text itself, in a somewhat literal and historic manner, symbolically approximating ancient Hebrew and Egyptian costume and setting. The composition centers on a 6′ X 6′ square depicting 36 episodes that he has distilled from the Sinai narrative, combining to create an image of the mountain itself. This central panel is surrounded by 12 square paintings, each simultaneously depicting one of the Ten Commandments, one of the plagues, one relevant midrashic tale, and a section devoted to each of the 10 martyrs murdered in the Hadrianic persecutions. Two other panels are devoted to the Burning Bush and events in Moses’ earlier life. The resulting artwork presents no less than a visual Torah, echoing the holy text in its complexity and contextualizing its Jewish history and thought.
Moriah was born in Jerusalem and continues to live and work there. Anticipating his diverse approach to art making, he got his BFA at Bezalel Academy of Art and then came to America and earned a MFA at the world-renowned Yale University Graduate School of Art. His current art exhibits a unique blend of Middle Eastern sensibility of color and strangely primitive
figuration combined with post-Modern use of text and composition.
His earlier works include a series of paintings on
Israeli Soldiers (1981-1987); a Shoah Series (1998); Expulsion (from Spain) Series (1990); War of Independence Series (1997) and the Landscapes of Israel paintings (1980 to present). This last ongoing series is very dear to Moriah who sees painting the Holy Land of Israel as a kind of sacred obsession. Traveling the length and breadth of Israel in his specially out fi tted van that was a portable studio, he encountered what he saw as the “source of humankind” in the unique light and topology of Israel’s African rift landscapes. Much to our loss, he has been forced to abandon this intimate encounter with the Land since the 2001 intifada made such a project a danger to his personal safely.
Avner Moriah’s
Illuminated Genesis contains images on almost every page of the Torah’s epical first book. The originals are done in watercolor and gouache on paper. While that one-of-a-kind handmade Chumash is not for sale, a limited edition of 100 copies is available from artworksisrael.com.This methodology is not mechanically imposed on the Torah, rather it is utilized only when the artist feels it will enlarge and elucidate the narrative. As one can see in many other pages from
Genesis such as The Covenant and The Flood, the main story is allowed to prevail in all its imaginative glory. And not surprisingly the creation of an illuminated Torah produces many stand alone works of art. Jacob’s Dream imagines the fabled ladder being composed of the angels themselves while the image of Hanoch (Enoch) Walking with God depicts a heavenly hand scooping up the saintly Hanoch.Avner Moriah has carved out an odd corner in the cultural life of contemporary Jewish art. His passion for the – at times harsh – realities of 20th century Jewish history along with the glories of Israeli landscape has mysteriously morphed into a equally fervent obsession with sacred Jewish texts, commentary and narrative. In recent years he has spent most of his creative time immersed in ancient tales peopled with pious and paradoxically primitive Jews, a fabric of life that unmistakably also summons many aspects of 21 st century life. His aesthetic and intellectual approach is totally unique, combining ancient and modern without missing a heartbeat. I can’t wait for the next four books of the Torah to issue forth from his brush.
Richard McBee is a painter and writer on Jewish Art. Contact him at [email protected].