Who? Zvi Orgad (Bar-Ilan University, Department of Jewish Art)
When? Thursday, March, 16 2023 | 10:00 am
Where? HS 01.22 | Universitätsplatz 3, 8010 Graz
Richard Fuchs (1887-1947) was a German composer and architect. Leo Kahn (1894-1983) was a German-Jewish painter. In 1923, they cooperated in designing conceptual prayer room in the ״great art exhibition ״ of Karlsruhe.
Its main architectural characteristics were based on early modern rural synagogue design. The paintings correspond with prayer rooms rediscovered and exhibited in Franconia during the first quarter of the 20th century. Three years later, Kahn adorned the Karlsruhe synagogue in a similar style. The lecture traces the efforts of Jewish architects and painters in the first half of the 20th century to formulate a new Jewish style based on the architectural and decorative traditions of local prayer rooms two centuries earlier. Ironically, this seemingly traditional German style originated in Poland at the beginning of the 18th century.
Dr. Zvi Orgad teaches in the Department of Jewish Art at Bar-Ilan University. His PhD thesis focused on the work methods of early modern Eastern and Central European synagogue painters. His research interests are the semiotics of synagogue art, the work methods of the synagogue and Hebrew illuminated manuscript decorators, and Jewish museums. His book, Eliezer-Zusman of Brody: The Early Modern Synagogue Painter and His World, was published by Brill in 2022.