kirshenblatt/main

Mayer Kirshenblatt is a self-taught artist living and working in Toronto. Born in Apt (Opatów in Polish) in 1916, he arrived in Canada in 1934 at the age of seventeen. After apprenticing to an electrician and cobbler in Poland and working in a sweatshop in Toronto, he painted houses and eventually opened his own wallpaper and paint store. He retired in 1977.

In 1990, Mayer began to paint everything he could remember about his hometown and his childhood there. Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, his daughter, began interviewing him in 1967 and has continued to do so until the present. She is University Professor and Professor of Performance Studies at New York University.

In this exhibition you will be able to see forty of Mayer's works, as well as read, see and hear him talk about Jewish life in his hometown of Apt (Opatów).

Instructions for optimal viewing: You can view this exhibition in either of two ways. You may choose to left-click on any of the thumbnail photographs below to see the larger representation of each selected image, along with the title and description of each piece, or you can may proceed from one painting to the next by simply left-clicking on the "next ►►" found at the bottom right of each page.

This exhibition also contains a good number of short audio and video clips. When audio is available, you will see a earphones icon at the end of the text. Simply click on the words "Listen to it" and the sound will begin to play. The videos will begin only when you click on the ► arrow. The exhibition ends at the "daughter's afterword."

Courtesy Mayer Kirshenblatt and Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, They Called Me Mayer July: Painted Memories of a Jewish Childhood in Poland Before the Holocaust (University of California Press and Judah L. Magnes Museum, 2007).

http://www.mayerjuly.com

http://www.thejewishmuseum.org/site/pages/mayer-july-onlinefeature.html
To see a related exhibition of Mayer's works about Shabbat and the Jewish holidays in Opatów, please click here.

Soon you will be able to see a trailer of the film about Mayer's work entitled "Paint What You Remember." Please revisit this page in the near future for an announcement.