The artist Ben-Zion, who
had been one of The Ten1,
was a special influence in the development of my artistic life.
He had been to the Gargoyles store. We met by chance at the Museum
of Modern Art in 1971. When he heard that I was now a sculptor,
he came to visit my underground studio, and invited me to his brownstone
in Chelsea. His home was a five-floor museum jam-packed with his
art and art collections.
He asked me to assist him with
his sculptures and with projects and repairs around his home and
garden. As a beginning artist, unschooled and unconnected to the
art world, I was thrilled to be involved with Ben-Zion and his wife
Lillian, whose world was so infused with art, antiquities and their
personal creative yiddishkayt.2
I felt as if I had entered an Isaac Bashevis Singer story.
Perhaps the most important
thing I received from Ben-Zion during the 17 years I knew him was
lineage: an intense connection with artistic tradition, and a transmission
not in terms of style or technique, but one of philosophy and attitude,
a heymish3
and insightful understanding of what was valuable and important
in art and life.
During a usual day we
might work on his sculptures, reframe a painting, have a great lunch
and conversation, and afterwards examine pre-Columbian gold jewelry
or Middle Eastern glass seals, then move some Eskimo carvings. Later
I’d fix a leak in the plumbing.
1 A group of expressionist painters who
positioned
themselves against the conservative, academic,
and
provincialist painting prevalent in pre-war New
York
2 Jewish culture
3 Homegrown