Joel Mesler's "The Rabbis" and Eric Firestone's selection of respected but sometimes forgotten Black artists were highlights of last week's Art Dealers Association of America "Art Show" at the Park Avenue Armory in Manhattan.
Mr. Mesler, who works and has a gallery in East Hampton, started painting rabbis as a way of reinvigorating what might be seen as kitsch into something more thoughtful and incisive. Or, as his New York gallery, Cheim and Read, said, to "redeem through oil paint the imagery of Jewish contemplative thought." The aim is "to put Judaica back on the wall and secure its existence in the future."
The subjects, in their full kaleidoscopic beards and bright backgrounds, hung on pristine white walls, would be striking under any circumstances, but much more so in the present state of the world, specifically the Middle East. As protesters on all sides question what is being wrought in the name of religion, these measured yet animated likenesses read like icons from earlier centuries, emanating a sense of tradition, history, and ethical thought.
Each painting was inspired by a portrait Mr. Mesler inherited and had hanging in his studio. They can be read as "renewals of the persons depicted," according to the gallery.
Mr. Firestone, who has a gallery in East Hampton in addition to his New York City spaces, brought the work of Ellsworth Ausby (1942–2011), Joe Overstreet (1933–2019), Anderson Pigatt (1928–2009), Thomas Sills (1914–2000), and Paul Waters (b. 1936) to his armory booth.
He was inspired by the artists' appearance in three historic exhibitions, all taking place around 1970: "Afro-American Artists, New York and Boston" at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, "New Black Artists" at the Brooklyn Museum and Columbia University, and "Black Artists: Two Generations" at the Newark Museum.
These exhibitions all sought to capture what was happening in Black contemporary art at the time, generally or locally. One curator even defined distinct categories of style or intent. Edmund Gaither, who organized the "Afro-American Artists" show, said there were artists who belonged to mainstream art, those practicing "Black art," or didactic, political work, and those working in "Neo Africanism," which was based in traditional African art. The emphasis of these shows was on young artists, typically unknown, and in the case of the Newark Museum show, artists from the area.
Overstreet is known for his oversized, shaped paintings with patterns inspired by African cultures. Ausby also worked with complicated supports for his Afrofuturism-inspired subjects. Pigatt was a self-taught sculptor in wood who addressed political and cultural issues. Waters still lives and works on the Bowery in Manhattan. He made collages at the time with painted silhouettes he applied with his hands.
Sills painted abstractly in response to nature. The gallery described the works as having "a delicate and unusual palette" and synthesizing "the figure/ground relationship with optical equivalencies between colors, and free-flowing outwardly radiating patterns." He had solo shows at the Betty Parsons Gallery between 1955 and 1961.
The "Art Show" opened with a benefit preview party on Nov. 1 and closed on Sunday.
