Andy Warhol: Good for the Jews? Press
EXAMINER
Theater J's 'Good for the Jews' thought-provoking, provocative
By: Barbara Mackay
Special to The Examiner
March 15, 2010
In 1980, Andy Warhol's exhibit of 10 silk-screen portraits titled "Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century" was received with scorn by many art critics and praise by the public who understood and appreciated it. Thirty years later, comic storyteller Josh Kornbluth takes up the issue of the once controversial exhibit and what it means -- to him personally and to the larger community of art lovers.
Produced by Theater J, Kornbluth's one-man show, "Andy Warhol: Good for the Jews?" is in part a rambling discourse explaining how Kornbluth was introduced to the exhibit, how his stage show took shape, how Kornbluth navigates the world as a father, the son of a communist, an atheist-maybe-on-the-way-to-becoming-a-Jewish man. That part is all right. Kornbluth is an entertaining fellow whose low-key comedy is easy to take. CONTINUE READING
DC THEATRE SCENE
Andy Warhol: Good for the Jews?
March 11, 2010 by Tim Treanor
Despite the whimsical title, Andy Warhol: Good for the Jews? is a serious conversation, about serious stuff. It is about art, and – this is the genius of Kornbluth, that eventually he always gets down to the bones of the thing – about love.
Josh Kornbluth (Photo: Stan Barouh)
In 1980, Andy Warhol – he of the fifteen minutes of fame and the giant soup cans – painted, in his own inimitable style, ten portraits of famous twentieth-century Jews (George Gershwin, Sarah Bernhardt, Martin Buber, the Marx Brothers, Albert Einstein, Golda Meir, Louis Brandeis, Gertrude Stein, Sigmund Freud, and Franz Kafka). They were not, shall we say, well received. “[V]ulgar and offensive,” sniffed Hilton Kramer (New York Times), “or it would be, if the artist has not already treated so many non-Jewish subjects in the same tawdry manner.” Artform’s Carrie Rickey sneered that the paintings were perfect for “the synagogue circuit.” CONTINUE READING
WASHINGTON POST
One-man Warhol show too much about the performer
ART HISTORY AND PERSONAL HISTORY: Josh Kornbluth's "Andy Warhol: Good for the Jews?" is playing at D.C. Jewish Community Center. (Stan Barouh)
By Peter Marks
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 13, 2010
The title of Josh Kornbluth's new one-man show -- "Andy Warhol: Good for the Jews?" -- puts you in mind of a topic for a lively guest lecturer. And that's essentially what Kornbluth offers in this amiable if scattershot discourse that places art history and personal history into the genial writer-performer's trademark socio-political blender.
The world-premiere production at Theater J, efficiently directed by David Dower, is Kornbluth's attempt to deconstruct a 1980 Warhol silk-screen installation, "Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century." Standing on a stage before a panel of projections of the Warhol prints, Kornbluth serves up interesting tidbits about the artist's life and how he chose the photographs he would rework to create his gallery, from Golda Meir to the Marx Brothers. CONTINUE READING
METRO WEEKLY
Preview
Jewish Soupçon: The late, gay painter serves as inspiration for a comedic monologue about Jewish identity now at Theater J.
By Doug Rule
Published on March 4, 2010, 2:44am
''I think if one were to ask Andy Warhol about the impact he's had on Josh Kornbluth in finding his Jewish identity, he would be both flummoxed and bemused,'' says David Dower. ''It wasn't the point.''
The late, gay Warhol, raised Catholic, had other intentions for his art. For starters, he was determined to live in infamy, well beyond ''famous for 15 minutes,'' the ubiquitous phrase he coined. In fact, Warhol serves as inspiration for Kornbluth's latest comedic monologue -- Andy Warhol: Good For The Jews? -- developed with Dower, who serves as director. The play is having its world premiere this weekend at Theater J. CONTINUE READING
EXPRESS
Preview
Performance Art: Josh Kornbluth, 'Andy Warhol: Good for the Jews?'
30 YEARS AFTER Andy Warhol painted Albert Einstein, Franz Kafka and other notable Jewish people in "Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century," performer Josh Kornbluth reconsiders the images in "Andy Warhol: Good for the Jews?" In the improv show at the Washington DCJCC, Kornbluth examines how the work affected him, and also looks at the artist and subjects. The portraits are on display at the DCJCC.
» EXPRESS: Where did you first see the Warhol portraits and what did you think of them?
» KORNBLUTH: I didn't think much of them when I first saw them at the Contemporary Jewish Museum of San Francisco a year ago; I thought they looked decorative. I was hoping they would give me a huge connection to Warhol and to my fellow Jews. But at the same time, there was something else about them that kind of freaked me out. What Warhol had done is take these pictures of really interesting people and put them behind glass. It was like he deadened them. It made me want to figure out what he was doing so I could connect to them in some way. CONTINUE READING
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