Description
The Jewish Museum, New York, Published 1988. Wraps, 128 pp.; 27 cm; illustrated throughout with black-and-white and color reproductions.
Rare, out-of-print & unusual books · Since 1997
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Catalog notes
Condition & notes
In Very Good condition. Blue and black pictorial paper covers with a small (quarter-inch) nick to the paper at the foot of the spine, light bumping and creasing to the edges and corners, and mild shelf wear with a hint of color loss along the edges and spine. Binding tight. Interior pages unmarked.Catalogue for the 1988 exhibition at The Jewish Museum, New York, surveying the golem, the artificial humanoid of Jewish legend, from its roots in the Talmud and medieval mysticism through its appearances in modern art, literature, and film. Emily D. Bilski's text and the accompanying essays trace the golem from the Kabbalistic creation traditions of the medieval Ashkenazi Hasidim, through the legend of Rabbi Loew of sixteenth-century Prague, to Paul Wegener's silent films of 1915 to 1920 and the contemporary artists who have taken up the figure. With a foreword by the Nobel laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer (a portion of which first appeared in The New York Times in 1984) and essays by the Kabbalah scholar Moshe Idel and the film historian Elfi Ledig. Illustrated with film stills, historical material, and color reproductions of work by contemporary artists, and including a full checklist of the exhibition. The cover reproduces a detail from a still of Wegener's 1915 film Der Golem.Contents: Acknowledgments; Foreword / Isaac Bashevis Singer; The Golem: An Historical Overview / Emily D. Bilski and Moshe Idel; The Golem in Jewish Magic and Mysticism / Moshe Idel; Making Movie Myths: Paul Wegener's 'The Golem' / Elfi Ledig; The Art of the Golem / Emily D. Bilski; Checklist of the Exhibition; Notes; Lenders.