Heavy sculpted bronze panel, composed in a high-relief style.

GORDON, BERNARD.

n.d

Consisting of three, seemingly disconnected narrative sections: At top, pair of bearded angelic-styled figures; below, pair of worshippers each wearing a Talith and rolling an open Sefer Torah. Large central register features a religious man with book propped open upon a synagogue-lectern and flanked by two petitioners, one of whom is a younger man wearing a traditional Polish-Jewish cap. Titled in Hebrew: Am Keshei Oref (“A stiff-necked people”).

A most atmospheric piece created by an artist comfortably familiar with Orthodox Jewish ritual and character. And yet it is difficult to determine for what purpose this artwork served, or indeed what the narrative is behind the three component parts. Nonetheless, all in all, this is a handsome and well designed piece. Philadelphia sculptor Bernard Gordon studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. This sculpture appears on the front cover of the first issue of “Yom Tov Blatter,” edited by Joseph L. Malamut, New York-Philadelphia, April, 1943. (Accompanying the lot).