Published on: October 31, 2024
When the Montana Jewish Project reacquired historic Temple Emanu-El—with the generous support of so many of you—we knew how important it was not to have Montana’s first synagogue be a museum of what was. We wanted a home rooted in history that is also a place for living Jewish connections, living Jewish arts and culture, and our living community.
Over the past two years, we’ve hosted literary readings, community gatherings, film screenings, and opportunities to learn together about Judaism and Jewish life in Montana. We’ve not yet been able to showcase visual arts anchored in Jewish values and experience, so, we are incredibly excited to be hosting the opening of Paul Blumenthal: The Language of Landscape on Friday, November 15 at 5:30 at Temple Emanu-El. Everyone is welcome.
Paul is almost always the first person to volunteer for much of what we do. He is funny and warm, self-effacing and generous. He also happens to be an exceptional artist. His work is displayed in the Agora Gallery in New York, and he has been an artist in residence around the world, from the Arad Arts Project in Israel to Reedsport, Oregon, where he recently worked with the Oregon Coast School of Arts to guide students in creating a twenty-foot mural. Paul is almost always the first person to volunteer for much of what we do. He is funny and warm, self-effacing and generous. He also happens to be an exceptional artist. His work is displayed in the Agora Gallery in New York, and he has been an artist in residence around the world, from the Arad Arts Project in Israel to Reedsport, Oregon, where he recently worked with the Oregon Coast School of Arts to guide students in creating a twenty-foot mural.
On show at the Montana Jewish Project will be Paul’s landscapes, both real and imagined. In these works of different media and size, of locations ranging from the Judean Desert to the Rocky Mountain Front, Paul brings place to life in a new way. These are not cliched views. In fact, they aren’t even what a casual visitor would see from a Montana hiking trail or from a café overlooking the Damascus Gate. Instead, by repeatedly observing, revisiting and working over his original studies, he searches for, and then captures, their essence. “Art can help us see something we haven’t seen before.”
After the horrors of October 7, 2023, Paul found a new landscape to explore—that of language—both Hebrew and English. While three of his works on show contain words, these magnificent oils are so much more than letters on canvas. His gestural painting brings to life the resilience of the Jewish people and our connection to others. His emotion and his struggle to come to grips with the feeling that “no place is safe” is tangible in these works. The words feel chiseled onto the canvas. “I carved and crafted those letters,” he said, explaining how he did some of the painting with a palette knife. He is grateful for Tova Barnea Kamlarz’s help and inspiration with these works.
Trusting himself to take up this new landscape of language is part of Paul’s ongoing process of learning to trust his artistic instincts. “I am driven to create compositions following my intuition and learning to do what the painting tells me to do,” he said. “By making multiple studies that “retain the rawness and power of initial impression, my goal is to maintain the freshness of the composition throughout the process.”
Emotion and instinct are balanced in Paul’s work with his thirty-five years of work as an architect. “Oil paintings, like places or buildings, can have transparency, mass, depth, texture, and gesture.” Paul is consumed by the spaces between objects, and the power that negative space can convey.
When I stand and lose myself in Paul’s art, I feel the power of his work in my bones. In “Israel Lives,” the words עם ישראל חי (‘the people of Israel live”) appear to go on forever. The letters—and spaces between—form each other. There is balance. When I look at his landscapes, I feel as if I am encountering these places from my mind and heart before my eyes can even take them in. In all his work, I feel the manifestation in color and shapes of the idea of Makom (literally “the place” in Hebrew), both physical and metaphorical.
Like all good art, though, there is an underlying universality in Paul’s paintings. What you see and feel will be different than my experience. What you see and feel will be equally true. Please join us on Friday, November 15. At 5:30, we can enjoy wine, cheese, and Paul’s homemade hummus, as we take in Paul’s art. At 6 PM, Paul will give a short talk on the values and ideas that inform his work. For those not living in Helena, register and join us for the livestream of this. We can learn to see our landscapes—our own special places—in a new light. At 7 PM, we will say the blessings for Shabbat together, over candles, wine, and Dear Potato’s amazing challah bread.
As with all our programs, this is free, although we always welcome your generous contributions to help us defray costs. We do require registering in advance whether you attend in person or join us by Zoom. We are honored to have these works hanging in historic Temple Emanu-El. They are part of our living Montana Jewish community and our broader Montana world. We welcome Jewish and non-Jewish folks to come visit historic Temple Emanu-El and view some extraordinary art, as we gather in community.