Exhibition open till 6 may 2007
Jewish culture of ex libris in the Netherlands
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(...) Without any doubt, one of the reasons that lead this exhibition to a complete success is the attendance of many ex libris of Uriel Birnbaum, a Jewish artist born in Austria in 1894, son of the famous philosopher Nathan.
Fré Drost, cliché,
1930
Uriel Birnbaum realised many ex libris for his friend Abraham Toncman (1905-1943), a religious teacher who lived in Pekela, in the south-east of the province of Groningen, and who carefully recorded the dramatic deportation occurred in December 1942.
Uriel Birnbaum’s favourite themes are Life and Death, Space and Time, Hope and Fear, Good and Evil, Belief and Unbelief. [2] He was a poet, a novelist (he is the author of Die Errettung der Welt), a painter and an engraver. According to Friedrich Weinreb, Birnbaum took religion into consideration so seriously that he couldn’t accept any compromise. [3]
Cover book by Roel Tieleman
This rigid religious conception probably allowed him to get in contact with Abraham Toncman, who also was the secretary of the Jewish community of Pekela. Furthermore, we must consider that almost all the commitments for ex libris were asked from friends. [4]
Birnbaum moved from Vienna to Holland in 1939. During his life he never became popular despite his huge amount of significant works (thousands of inedited pages are still unknown to the big public).
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The ex libris that Birnbaum designed for Abraham Toncman reproduce his inclination towards everything that was cosmic and mystic. In this context, we can notice that ex libris where Birnbaum cited the Bible (Book of Nehemia): we know indeed how powerful are letters in the Jewish culture and how supernatural is, according to the Talmud, their meaningful combination that produces words and sentences.
Other distinctive traits which can be found in Birnbaum’s works are definitively the long and sharp wings of the angels, the stellar sky and Mount Zion, usually represented in his drawings. [5]
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Almost all the ex libris drawn by Birnbaum are collected in a book
edited in 1957 by Abraham Horodisch, a famous antiquarian
in Amsterdam who was a very close friend of his. [6]
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[2] Anne Cornelis Veth, Over Léon Holman,
Uriël Birnbaum, Theo Ortmann, Leopold, The Hague, 1939, p.
14
[3] Friedrich Weinreb, introduzione a Uriël
Birnbaum, Die Errettung der Welt, Efhag-Presse, Zurich, 1969, p.
8
[4] J. Aarts, F.J. Hoogewoud, C. Kooyman, Joodse
Exlibris Cultuur in Nederland, catalogue of the exhibition, 2007,
p. 9
[5] ibidem, p. 10
[6] ibidem, p. 10
Info:
- Joodse
exlibriscultuur in Nederland
- University
Library - Address and opening hours
Giuseppe Raudino, freelance writer, photographer and journalist. Acting Professor of "Theory and Method of Mass Media"; Acting Professor of "History of New Media". Ministry of University and Research "Rosario Gagliardi" Academy of Fine Arts of Syracuse (Italy). www.freewebs.com/raudino.
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