November Artful Thursday: Looking Up and Looking Down: The Spiritual Worlds of Mark Rothko and Roman Vishniac with Dr Robert Abzug

Holocaust Museum Houston presents “Jewish Identity in Art,” with Dr. Robert Abzug (pictured) Thursday, November 5 at 6:30pm. Location Brown Auditorium, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Caroline Wiess Law Building, 1001 Bissonnet, Houston, TX 77005.

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston presents its November Artful Thursday program Looking Up and Looking Down: The Spiritual Worlds of Mark Rothko and Roman Vishniac. Presented by Robert H. Abzug, Audre and Bernard Rapoport Regents Chair of Jewish Studies, professor of history and American studies, and founding director of the Schusterman Center for Jewish Studies, University of Texas at Austin.

In conjunction with the exhibitions Mark Rothko: A Retrospective and Roman Vishniac Rediscovered, Robert Abzug explores the historical, cultural, and spiritual universes of both artists.

Mark Rothko, one of the 20th century’s greatest nonrepresentational painters, and Roman Vishniac, a compelling documentary photographer known best for his depiction of Eastern European Jews in the 1930s, may seem strikingly different in their artistic pursuits.

However, there is consonance in their Jewish backgrounds, spiritual hunger, and the broader historical context of their endeavors as each wrestled with ultimate questions of creation and existence in the cruelly broken world of modernity.

About the Speaker
Robert H. Abzug, a University of Texas faculty member since 1978, held the Eric Voegelin Visiting Professorship at the University of Munich in 1990 and 1991. His work centers on the creation and evolution of moral and ethical sensibilities in American society, and his books deal with religion, pre-Civil War reform, and America and the Holocaust.

His abridged edition of William James’s The Varieties of Religious Experience was published in 2012, and he is working on a biography of psychologist Rollo May.

About Artful Thursdays
Artful Thursday is a monthly program related to the Museum’s art collections and exhibitions. At lectures and performances, the visual arts cross paths with other disciplines—dance, music, prose, poetry, fashion, film, science, psychology, and more. Each event is followed by a brief Q&A.

This event is cosponsored by Holocaust Museum Houston and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.