Mark Podwal: Jewish Ritual Art w/ a Twist of Whimsy& Humor w/ Abby Schwartz

In 2017, world-renowned Jewish artist Mark Podwal created 18 acrylic and colored pencil drawings inspired by Judaica from the Skirball Museum. Join Skirball director Abby Schwartz to see these deceivingly whimsical drawings and the ritual objects that inspired them and learn about both the original works and the profound and nuanced commentary on Jewish customs and history that Podwal brings to his work.

Abby Schwartz has served as the director of the Skirball Museum on the campus of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion since July of 2013. She is the former curator of education at the Taft Museum of Art. She has lectured widely on Jewish art, notably at the Melton School and the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute of the University of Cincinnati. While at the Taft, she co-curated an exhibition of Jewish and Christian devotional objects with the Skirball Museum and served as general editor for the publication Artistic Expressions of Faith in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, first place winner of the 1998 Ohio Museums Association Visual Communications Award in the book/catalogue category. She has written exhibition catalogues and brochures, and was involved with gathering photographic illustrations for the 4-volume catalogue of the Taft Museum of Art collections. Schwartz earned her bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Rochester, where she graduated cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, and a master’s degree in art history from the University of Cincinnati. Her thesis topic was Hague School painter Jozef Israels, with a special concentration on Sewing School at Katwijk. She is the recipient of the 2000 Museum Educator of the Year award from the Ohio Art Education Association and was a Wyoming Citizen of the Year in 2001. She was also the recipient of the 2003 National Art Education Association’s Museum Educator Award for the Western Region.