Page 329 - The Legacy of Abraham Rothstein - text

Genre: shtetl

In this curious piece, AR presented an odd juxtaposition of
coarse humor and respect for learning, reminiscent of his
pranks in the Pelcovizna bet hamidrash. A very studious
Talmudic scholar with a long tapered beard and a yarmulke has
been “caught” by the artist sitting on an old-fashioned toilet
seat, his coat rolled up in back—reading a book. And such a
studious Jew could only be reading the Talmud. One hand with
extended index finger, in the traditional yad position, follows
the text. For reasons unknown, the work exists today in two
pieces joined by a metal peg (actually a finishing nail); perhaps
AR had second thoughts about the subject matter, and
temporarily severed the upper innocuous dignified torso from
the lower scandalous exposed buttocks and toilet seat. In any
event, the amount sectioned may be no greater than a saw cut,
and both pieces were worked on and lacquered after the
division.

70 Old man comforting a child *
Wood
16” x 5.5”

Lacking AR’s own explication of this scene, the viewer is
forced to assemble one from visual clues. Like no. 2, the
figures portrayed are a man in a chair and a child at his knee.
In this case, the child is a boy in shorts (legs truncated below
the calf, to stay within the circumference of the base), and the
man has the look of an Old Testament patriarch, with a huge
head, long spade beard and bare feet. But he wears a tallit and
sits in the familiar barrel-back armchair. The boy is reaching
up, as if for reassurance, while the man stares straight ahead:
the embarrassment of eye contact in an intimate situation, in
AR’s sculpture as in his life, is avoided. But—unlike no. 2—the
setting is biblical, lending credence to another interpretation:
Isaac’s blind blessing of Jacob instead of Esau. The old man’s
hand is on the boy’s head, supporting this view; however, the
child’s upraised arm is clearly in a supplicating gesture, working
against it. The best guess may be that both images were active

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