Torah Ark curtain, Adolph Gottlieb (American, 1903-1974). 1950-51. Velvet: appliqué and embroidered with metallic thread.
A surprising number of commissions for synagogue decoration went to major painters and sculptors in the years following World War II, thus eestablishing the long tradition of using master artists in such projects. Adolph Gottlieb's Torah curtain is an American expression of this revival. He designed the curtain, which was executed by the women of the congregation under the supervision of his wife, Esther.
The forms contained within Gottlieb's compartments, and the meanings of these forms, are related to unconscious expressions associated with African, Oceanic, and Native American art as well as with Carl Jung's writings about symbols and the "collective unconscious." Gottlieb's pictograph style was therefore easily adaptable to the creation of a ritual object using symbols of Jewish collective consciousness. In this curtain, he abstracts such basic elements of religious belief as the Tablets of the Law, the twelve tribes, the Temple, and the Ark of the Covenant. He also includes stylisations of objects developed for synagogue use (Torah mantles and Torah shields) and emblems that have become synonymous with Judaism (the Lion of Judah and the Star of David).
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