The presentation will take place beginning at 1 p.m. at Temple Beth Sholom.
Monica Zimmerman, director of museum education at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, will give a special presentation at Temple Beth Sholom Hazak on Thursday, Jan. 19 at 1 p.m.
Zimmerman’s presentation will talk about an exhibition on World War I and American Art. The exhibition will be the first devoted to exploring the ways in which American artists reacted to the First World War. Artists had a leading role in chronicling the impact of the war, crafting images that affected public opinion, supporting the U.S. government’s mobilization efforts, and helping to shape the way soldiers were remembered in its wake. Some artists showed the efforts of the Red Cross and other relief workers, or the effect that the war had on women and families on the home front. Others witnessed the devastation brought by the war on cities and on bodies, producing work haunted by the experience. Once the war finally ended, artists produced major paintings that commemorated Armistice celebrations or memorialized its human toll.
World War I also unfolded when modernist art was being digested, adapted, and transformed by the American art world. Images made during the war reveal American artists in transition, using more experimental forms to capture the apocalyptic tenor of the conflict but also drawing on a straightforward realist manner to make the human experience accessible to their audience. This talk on World War I and American Art will revisit a critical moment in American history through the eyes of artists in order to show how they responded to what was an unprecedented global experience.
All members of the community are invited to attend this event. The cost is $5 for the general public. Hazak members can attend for free. Refreshments will be served. For more information, call (856) 912–7317.
