All stone lithograph prints are for sale.
The original images, 23.6 x 31.4 inches (60 x 80 cm) were created directly on stones, and accomplished by using six separate colours on 310 gr Fabriano lithographic sheet.
£250 for one, £200 each for two or more.
Further
details are available from the
BEN URI ART SOCIETY
Telephone +44 (0)8349 5724
Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer, known as the Baal Shem Tov, was born in 1698 in Okup in the Carpathian mountains in Podolia. Orphaned at a young age, he was cared for by the community. At that time there were many groups of kabbalists in Eastern European Jewish society. According to Hassidic tradition Israel ben Eliezer became a member of a society of secret mystics. Their goal was to help others, while concealing their mystical knowledge. Thus Israel ben Eliezer became an assistant teacher, bringing the children of the town to school.
At the same time he had another life: as a profound scholar, with great knowledge of all aspects of Jewish teaching and particularly its mystical, kabbalistic dimension. Eventually he revealed his knowledge and his power to heal and to help others. He became known as the Baal Shem Tov, the "master of the Divine Name". Living in Miedzyboz he was leader of a circle of mystics with a wide influence. He taught a new path in mysticism: not to remain aloof from the people, seeking only to climb higher oneself; rather one should use one's knowledge for the benefit of all.
The kabbalah (literally: "that which is received, handed down") is not just a matter of study. It concerns experience. The Baal Shem Tov entered this experiential aspect of Jewish thought. Using an ancient technique he was able to accomplish an 'ascent of the soul', in which his soul ascended to higher realms while his body remained inert in this world.
On one such occasion he entered the Palace of the Messiah. The Baal Shem Tov asked him: "when are you coming?". The Messiah answered: "when your teachings are spread throughout the world, when your fountains burst through to those who are outside..."
This was a new idea. Previously it was felt that all mystical knowledge should be reserved for a small elite. How could it possibly be transmitted to those who are "outside"? The Baal Shem Tov taught a new approach to mysticism: the Hassidic dimension rather than the kabbalistic. This reached the essence of Jewish spirituality, the point where all is connected together and
is one. Since it reaches the point where all is joined together, it can also be taught to all without fear.
Kabbalistic teachings often seemed to draw the person away from the world and away from life. Hassidic teachings draw the person back into the world: for at every step one can discover the Divine, and in every detail of existence.
The teachings of the Baal Shem Tov help a person connect with the Divine, and also with other people. In addition they help the individual connect with his or her own self, dissolving away the barriers within. Their effect is to arouse joy, humility and love, revealing the radiance which is present in every detail of life.
The Baal Shem Tov’s uniquely joyful approach to prayer, to study, to observance of the Commandments and to love of one's fellow led to the rise of a new movement, Hassidism. In the 18th and early 19th centuries this swiftly spread throughout Poland and Belo Russia, into Lithuania, Galicia and eventually Hungary. A new kind of Jewish leader came into being, following the charismatic example of the Baal Shem Tov. In the 20th century this movement spread through the West. Today it is global, carried particularly by the Lubavitch brannch of Hassidism, who bring the message of the Baal Shem Tov to every corner of the world.
Three centuries after his birth, as post-modern thinking dissolves away many kinds of barrier, we discover that the Baal Shem Tov is speaking to us. He is explaining an inclusivist way of looking at life, and is helping each man, woman and child to find his or her place in it. The Baal Shem Tov helps us realise that each human being has infinite potential: one good deed can transform the world.
Ferenc Flamm ’s lithographs are inspired by stories about the Baal Shem Tov: recounting such stories is itself part of Hassidic tradition. Now Ferenc Flamm shares this tradition with us in graphic form, helping us too have a glimpse of the spiritual in life.
Dr. Naftali Lowenthal
Lecturer in Jewish Spirituality,
University College London
and Director of Chabad Research Unit
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In his book "Souls on Fire", about the Hassidic masters, Elie Wiesel writes that his grandfather was "a fabulous storyteller, (who) knew how to captivate an audience. He would say ‘Listen attentively, and above all, remember that true tales are meant to be transmitted – to keep them to oneself is to betray them.’"
The artist Ferenc Flamm seems to have accepted this charge with his series of inspired lithographs "The Legends of the Baal Shem Tov", completed in May 1997. In a curious way, Flamm's life can be said to resemble one of these Hassidic legends.
'The 15 lithographs in "The Legends of the Baal Shem Tov" series represent a journey of two years, during which the artist studied Hassidic philosophy and legend and the writings of Martin Buber. The stories of the Baal Shem tell of small villages, simple peasants, rich men and learned rabbis, shepherds and angels. They provide the dramatis personae for Flamm’s images, recreated as semi-abstracted fluid shapes in dream-like poses, whose shifting colours seem to move like clouds, now revealing, now obscuring.
Born in Budapest to parents who had been saved by Raoul Wallenberg, Flamm studied there at the Art College and the Hungarian Academy of Applied Art. As the child of survivors living in the anti-Semitic atmosphere of post-war Hungary, he and his two brothers were taught to keep their Jewish identity secret. But even when very young, Flamm was aware that he owed his life to Wallenberg. "We have almost inserted him into our prayers at home", he says, "I had learned early on that that which is Swedish means hope and life." That may explain why, in 1976, Flamm emigrated to Sweden, where he now lives with his wife and four children.
In 1987 Flamm suddenly came face to face with his Jewish past. That year both his parents died in Budapest, and his brothers sent him a small package which his mother had hidden away: his murdered grandfather's kipah, tallit and siddur, together with a pair of old Sabbath candlesticks, his mother’s yellow star, and the two Wallenberg protection passports. In a startling foreshadowing of the Baal Shem Tov’s tale "The Prayer Book" which Flamm had not yet read, these precious pieces emerging from years of obscurity became for Flamm what he calls his "baggage for the journey back to the Heritage" – his passport "to a new perspective" – the world of 17th century European Jewry.
Flamm began his spiritual expedition by organising a group of art lovers in his hometown of Gothenburg, 300 miles from Stockholm, with a Jewish population of about 2,000, one of a few outposts of Jewry in northern Scandinavia. Its Jewish community began over 200 years ago as Jews from other European communities migrated there. The art group that Flamm organized agreed to study Jewish religion and philosophy and to create art works based on themes drawn from Rabbinic literature.
Flamm created the sketches and compositions for the lithographs in his studio in Gothenburg, but asked his brothers in Hungary to seek out a fine quality art printer there. They found one in the small city of Vac, near Budapest. When Flamm arrived there, he discovered that the street where the print shop was located had been the Judengasse at the turn of the century, and the print shop itself had been part of the ghetto during the Second World War. Flamm regards this as a special divine gift – that he has been granted the opportunity to create his art in an old Jewish quarter in the heart of Hungary.
Upon completion of "The Legends", Flamm realises how much his life and the lives of his family and friends have changed since he began his spiritual odyssey. The artist himself believes he has come full circle: "I was permitted to recover images from the dusts of Jewish life and convert them to living witness of a vanished time."
Sylvia Axelrod Herskowitz
Director, Yeshiva University Museum
February 1998
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The Prince of Fire  |
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The Werewolf  |
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The Revelation  |
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The Holies and the Revenge  |
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Jerusalem  |
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The Prayer-Book  |
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The Soul Which Descended  |
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The Psalm-Singer  |
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The Conversion  |
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The Threefold Laugh  |
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The Return  |
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The New Year Sermon  |
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The Disturbed Sabbath  |
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The Language of the Birds  |
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The Last Consideration  |
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