Page 333 - The Legacy of Abraham Rothstein - text

Genre: modern

51 Seated man
Wood
16” x 6.25”

This familiar figure, a man sitting in a stern, rigid, authoritarian
pose, harkens back to AR’s childhood and Moshe Itzel (see
narrative). However, this is not a shtetl type: although he leans
on a cane, he has no beard and wears a European shirt, tie, and
topcoat. Thus it may represent nothing more personal than any
old man sitting in a chair—but the piece is more likely a
transposition of imagery into modern dress.

56 Standing man
Wood
19.25” x 3.75”

This static although dignified “modern” Jew, if not
representing a specific person, may be a generalized type of
respectable American or European religious intellectual. His
clothing, sketchily incised, is the conservative shirt, tie, topcoat,
and pressed trousers of a successful man of the world—but his
yarmulke, neatly-trimmed pointed beard and pensive expression
locate the man’s inner concerns with his ethnic identity. AR
could, therefore, have been carving an image of a Zionist, a
man whose thoughts and deeds are directed toward the
material welfare of Jewry. The figure’s arms are folded, possibly
indicating determination and self-control, but could just as
easily be a consequence of the limitations of the raw material (a
cylindrical section of tree limb).

77 Standing man
Wood
6.75” x 1.75”

329