{"id":11491,"date":"2018-06-03T12:57:39","date_gmt":"2018-06-03T16:57:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=11491"},"modified":"2018-06-03T12:57:39","modified_gmt":"2018-06-03T16:57:39","slug":"episode-272-irvin-ungar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-272-irvin-ungar","title":{"rendered":"Episode 272 – Irvin Ungar"},"content":{"rendered":"

Virtual Memories Show 272:
\nIrvin Ungar<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/virtualmemories\/Episode_272_-_Irvin_Ungar.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div>

Podcast: Play in new window<\/a> | Download<\/a><\/p>

Subscribe: Spotify<\/a> | TuneIn<\/a> | RSS<\/a> | More<\/a><\/p>\n

“My rabbinic training taught me: care about who you are and who your people are, and use the best of that tradition to make the world a better place. Szyk was an artist who articulated all those values.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>Arthur Szyk<\/a> was once one of the most popular artists in America, but after his untimely death his art vanished from public discourse. How did Szyk achieve and lose such renown? Irvin Ungar<\/a> has spent the last 25 years championing Szyk’s work, most recently publishing the National Jewish Book Award-winning Arthur Szyk: Soldier in Art<\/a>. We talk about his introduction to Szyk, the impact of Szyk’s work in his native Poland, the UK and the US, the way Szyk’s work in so many forms — illuminated manuscripts, Persian miniatures, political cartooning, and more — may have contributed to his posthumous decline, and why Syzk’s Haggadah<\/a> is like Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling. We also get into Irv’s dayenu moments promoting Szyk’s legacy, the curious story of how Irv entered the rabbinate as an alternative to serving in Vietnam, left to become an antiquarian bookseller, and how his rabbinic training let him recognize Arthur Szyk as an upstanding man. Give it a listen!<\/a> And go buy Arthur Szyk: Soldier in Art<\/a>\"\"!<\/p>\n

(Check out some of Szyk’s art at szyk.com<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n

“Szyk wanted to use his art to move history from one period to another, from the 13th century to the 20th, through the use of illumination.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n