The Abstract Expressionist work of Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman were the most original response to the Holocaust because it was not based on overtly anecdotal and figurative art with clear socio‐political messages. For example, many paintings of Marc Chagall have direct references to apocalyptic themes by way of Jewish imagery and iconography. Rothko and Newman also differed from other Abstract Expressionists like Jackson Pollock who represented the chaos of a mid‐century America with his disturbing clash of color and forceful, rapid, impulsive brush strokes and distressed line. Instead, Newman and Rothko chart a different course: they re‐create reality, re‐order chaos, restore a center to the broken universe. Interestingly, the Jews among the Abstract Expressionists chose to assert the restorative intention of their paintings and I believe that this is influenced by the Jewish idea of tikkun olam.

Tikkun olam is a phrase that comes from Kabbalah (the mystical aspect of Judaism) that literally translates as “repairing the world”. Kabbalah offers a mystical explanation for the creation of the universe. The doctrine claims that in creating the world, God used too much energy and benevolence, thus shattering the finite vessels that God had created. (Those “vessels” included all finite beings, inanimate and animate, vegetable, animal, and especially, human.) When Jews fulfill their obligations under God’s commandments, they literally help fix the shattered world. Jews thus have immense power— a comforting message to Jews faced by the horrors of the Holocaust—for even if they are often helpless victims in their lives on earth, in the celestial realm, they can do nothing less than fix God and the world God created.

Barnett Newman was a reader of Jewish mysticism, who gave biblical names to several paintings—Abraham (1949), Covenant (1949), and Joshua (1950)—was most open and most responsive to the events and aftermath of the war. Newman is most famous for his stripe paintings—one or more vertical stripes on a single field of color—that were in part a response to the Holocaust as well as to the founding of the State of Israel (1948) as suggested by the stripes on Israel’s flag. According to Kabbalah, the world was created when God contracted into himself in order to create the space for the world. Then God sent out a ray of light that set “the cosmic process in motion.” One such painting, titled Onement, III, shows a single stripe down the length of the canvas which represents that first ray of light, as well as the first human form. It was the moment of creation. Newman’s biographer, Thomas Hess, described Newman’s thinking: The artist, Newman pointed out, must start like God, with chaos, the void… Newman’s first move is an act of division, straight down, creating an image. The image… reenacts God’s primal gesture… Newman has taken his image of Genesis, of the creative act, of the artist as God.* Newman had given himself the power—godlike, one could argue—to declare himself as the creator of something out of nothing. This was the existential assertion of the power of the self and the act of self‐creation.

Mark Rothko was also quite familiar with Jewish culture and tradition. Mark Rothko, born as Marcus Rothkowitz, was a child of immigrants, and he had several years of orthodox religious training in his hometown in Lativa (He changed his name in 1940 to Rothko to make it less Jewish‐sounding for fear of being deported by the Nazis). When he immigrated to America in 1913, he spent his first years in a close‐knit Jewish community in Portland, Oregon and moved to New York later in life. He taught art at the Brooklyn Jewish Center from 1929 to 1946, which housed a conservative congregation. He also taught at a Jewish school in Queens, in the late 1930s. Mark Rothko, then, was always connected to the Jewish community, so it is impossible to believe that he was unaware of Jewish matters.

Mark Baigel, an art historian, argues that Mark Rothko was so traumatized by the Holocaust that the large, rectangular forms so often seen his work are rather derived from the large open graves that he saw in photographs after the end of the war. One could see, however, that his work still holds a spiritual optimism. My favorite painting of his that I saw at MOCA, titled No. 12 (Black on Dark Sienna on Purple) and dated 1960, offers this optimism. The frameless canvas is heroic in size, as if it would extend itself to the far corners of the universe. It has a very calm, stable sensibility reinforced by his broad bands of hue that recede and approach. The viewer is enveloped into the painting and is drawn to an image that asserts itself as a symbol of oneness, of wholeness. The common theme of his work, the reordering, recreation of the world on the canvas on a heroic scale suggests a visual messianism for a fragmented world. Surely, this restorative sensibility is what prompted to decorate a simple white chapel in Houston, Texas— named the Rothko Chapel—with only a series of Rothko canvases to create a meditative, spiritual ambiance.

The aspirations of Abstract Expressionist painters like Rothko and Newman were messianic, salvational, heroic and humanistic—by working the idea of social responsibility of the artist to a form of pure internal coherence. Their work does not echo the world torn apart by horrifying technologies and exploited by humans. It, instead, echoes the world in its original Divinely created form—and as it can become again only if and when humans direct our efforts to restoring it to perfection as commanded in tikkun olam.

References
* Baigel, Matthew. Jewish American Artists and the Holocaust.
Online References from Wikipedia:
Kabbalah: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabbalah
Tikkun Olam: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tikkun_olam
Mark Rothko: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Rothko
Barnett Newman: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnett_Newman

Primary Source:
Mark Rothko. No. 12 (Black on Dark Sienna on Purple), 1960
Museum of Contemporary Art
Barnett Newman. Onement, III, 1949

On Wednesday, the producers of the Broadway revival of the play “The Miracle Worker,” about the early life of blind and deaf hero Helen Keller, announced that they’d chosen the young actress who will play her on stage this winter: 13-year-old Oscar nominee Abigail Breslin. The decision has unleashed immediate complaints from groups representing blind and deaf actors who feel that an actress from their community should have been considered for the role.

Sharon Jensen, executive director of the Alliance for Inclusion in the Arts, told the New York Times “We do not think it’s OK for reputable producers to cast this lead role without seriously considering an actress from our community.” Jensen recognizes the difficulty Broadway plays are having attracting audiences right now, but says “I understand how difficult it is to capitalize a new production on Broadway, but that to me is not the issue. There are other, larger human and artistic issues at stake here.”

For his part, the show’s producer, David Richenthal, claims that the production was unable to find a blind or deaf child actor with the star power to bring in enough of an audience to justify the show’s large budget, saying “It’s simply naïve to think that in this day and age, you’ll be able to sell tickets to a play revival solely on the potential of the production to be a great show or on the potential for an unknown actress to give a breakthrough performance,” he said. “I would consider it financially irresponsible to approach a major revival without making a serious effort to get a star.” The show will, however, be making an effort to find a blind or deaf actress to play Breslin’s understudy — but they won’t make any promises.

The original Broadway production of “The Miracle Worker,” which focuses on Helen Keller’s relationship with Anne Sullivan, the teacher who taught her to communicate, debuted in 1959 with the actress Patty Duke as its star. Later, movie and TV versions of the play starred actresses Duke, Melissa Gilbert, and Mare Winningham in the role of Keller, none of whom were blind or deaf.

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Rhianon Guiterrez’s take:
Abigail Breslin’s casting as Helen Keller in an upcoming stage production of the acclaimed play “The Miracle Worker” makes me angry that they didn’t EVEN audition deaf and deafblind actors, and I find David Richenthal’s claims to be damaging on multiple levels. Back in the day, there were few roles and visibility for performers with disabilities–and by casting Abigail in this role, this trend will continue. I realize that there are plenty of performers who are deaf and deafblind out there, but they are mostly known in smaller, niche circles. I DO believe that one should cast the best actor for the part in any production large or small, and I am aware of “star power” of larger productions which equals more butts in the seats and therefore more money. Why not just have a star director or star supporting role INSTEAD of a star lead performer? I strongly believe that casting an unknown in a breakthrough role WILL bring in a lot of people–through word of mouth. In my opinion, it’s more powerful to cast an unknown performer with the actual disability because this performer could both deliver an amazing performance while also becoming a new spokesperson for the deaf, blind, and deafblind people.

Helen Keller is too often seen as the wild child who said “Wa wa” and defied all odds. She has been elevated to heroism because of her disability. Helen Keller was a human being like the rest of us–with a brilliant mind and limitations. Her work was more accomplished LONG after the years of “The Miracle Worker” in terms of what she did on behalf of marginalized populations, including people with disabilities and African Americans. She was an important force in the disability rights movement, but she is NOT the only one. NEITHER is Marlee Matlin. It’s time to hear from others in the movement because we are out there.

I know that actresses in the past who were not deaf nor blind played Helen to great acclaim, like Patty Duke. Perhaps Abigail will do the same because she is a fine actress, but I still think that people should strive to not only entertain, but to educate. This is the perfect play because it is so well-known. Why not do a different interpretation, or just finally CAST a person with an actual, documented disability? When it comes to deafness, the continued stereotypes that I see and hear everyday convince me that the public is still uneducated about deafness and deafblindness. One person cannot do everything. Helen could not do everything, and Marlee, Linda Bove, and Deanne Bray (all well-known deaf actors) cannot do everything. We need more voices. Last weekend, I attended the Hollywood Disabilities Forum put on by the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) and Actors Equity Association (AEA) as part of the I AM PWD campaign. Their role is to increase visibility of and to get more performers and artists with disabilities employed in the entertainment industry. They stressed the importance of us speaking up, being confident, and of showcasing our craft.

So now I say: my friends, you know who you are. I’ve heard you and I have seen you, and I want you to speak up. Not once, but again, and again, and again. You CANNOT wait on the world to change.

Good typography is essential in this day and age. For example, today’s typical web visitor will be very savvy and quick at visiting websites and using the search engines. The worst thing you can do is not provide a good navigational system to guide the visitor throughout your site. Without a good user experience, the web visitor will go back to the search results and check out a different website. And so typography plays a major role in accomplishing what you want your readers to do… Without visual hierarchy, your content will be meaningless, no matter how great it may be.

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