Page 243 - The Legacy of Abraham Rothstein - text

REMINISCENCES

In the summer of 1990 I gathered the reminiscences of many
family members who knew Abraham Rothstein. The composite
picture of the man emerging from these personal recollections
complements his written self-portrait, and adds to an understanding
and appreciation of his sculpture. After so many years, memories dim
and details become vague; thus, the alert eye may detect discrepancies
in the various accounts of AR’s life recorded here. Were this a
“serious” biography of the man, a good deal of space could be
wasted on resolving minor points of dating or nomenclature; happily,
my intention is to reveal complexity and contradiction without any
resolution. A personality, like the elephant examined by blind men,
each of whom palpated a different part of the pachyderm, is manifest
variously to its varied observers, none of whose locally-accurate
reports should stand alone.
Most of these memories are the edited result of six hours of taped
interviews I was able to conduct, thanks to the patience and good
nature of the interviewees. It is not an easy thing suddenly to be put
on the spot in front of a microphone and asked to remember events
and conversations occurring thirty or forty years in the past. The
reminiscences appear in order of the person’s first acquaintance with
AR; perforce, his grandchildren are sequenced in descending age. My
own contribution appears least spontaneous, a consequence of its
composition rather than transcription.

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