Gilded Lions and Jeweled Horses: The Synagogue to the Carousel

Welcome to this preview of the groundbreaking exhibition Gilded Lions and Jeweled Horses: The Synagogue to the Carousel, on view at the American Folk Art Museum,
New York, from October 2, 2007, through March 23, 2008.

We invite you to discover a little–known aspect of American carousel history and its connection to Jewish visual culture through the artwork of immigrant artisans who were inspired by their memories of the symbols and forms they left behind. Some of the same Jewish artisans who arrived in America at the turn of the twentieth century and carved for
their local synagogues also found work carving horses and other animals for the flourishing carousel industry. Inspired by the majestic Torah arks, gravestone carvings, and papercuts from their homelands in Eastern and Central Europe, they helped transform carousel art into a powerful sculptural expression of dynamic and animated forms. Although fanciful carousel animals have long been exhibited in museums, the religious carvings by these artisans have primarily been appreciated within the setting of the synagogue. Until now, the important historical and aesthetic link between the synagogue and the carousel has never been documented.

Gilded Lions and Jeweled Horses is the first major study of this important aspect of the Jewish contribution to American folk art. Organized by Murray Zimiles, guest curator, and coordinated by Stacy C. Hollander, the American Folk Art Museum’s senior curator and director of exhibitions, the show will feature approximately one hundred artworks on loan from public and private collections from the United States and Israel.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalog copublished by the American Folk Art Museum with Brandeis University Press, an imprint of the University Press of New England.