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July 24, 2009
Frimer combines history, art
Jewish museum hosts new exhibit at the Zack Gallery.
OLGA LIVSHIN
Once a year, the Jewish Museum and Archives of British Columbia has the right to use the Sidney and Gertrude Zack Gallery for its own exhibition. This year, the museum invites everyone to view the paintings of renowned Vancouver artist Linda Frimer.
"We could have chosen an exclusive historical exhibit," said Laura Moody, director of the museum, "but we've decided to combine history and art. Linda Frimer's paintings are an outstanding example of such a combination. Each of her paintings tells a story, often with an historical context. Her work is a perfect marriage to our institution."
For Frimer herself, the current exhibition – Returning Home, A Visual History – is a journey back in time, tracing her artistic roots and Jewish connections. Some paintings date as far back as 1992, while others were created only a couple of years ago.
Frimer spent her formative years in Wells, a small B.C. community surrounded by forest. "I painted my first tree when I was 12 years old," she recalled. "It was so magnificent I wanted to be part of its beauty."
Ever since, trees and forests have remained recurring elements of her art, granting her strength and tranquility. When she discovered Judaism much later in life, it also became inseparable from her worldview. She has created murals for many synagogues and hospitals, and her paintings are part of the art collections of several environmental organizations. "For me, nature and culture are the same. Both have to be protected," she insisted.
As an artist, Frimer yearns to bring back her people's dignity and culture, much of which was lost during the Holocaust. "I want to recover what was lost through my visual stories," she said. In 1998, this goal led her to become one of the facilitators of the Gesher Project, an undertaking of Holocaust survivors, child survivors and adult children of survivors now living in Vancouver to examine through art the impact of the Shoah on their lives.
All the paintings in Frimer's current show are in one way or another dedicated to the victims of the Holocaust and the entire history of Jewish persecution, interwoven with the tales of the artist's own family. One such story is "Ether," with a cheerful multicolored bouquet that illuminates the dark background of the composition. The piece is both sad and educating: after six months of being engrossed in the Gesher Project, in the painful memories of the other participants, Frimer was able to pursue her own story. "I drove to Granville Island and bought myself the most beautiful bouquet," she remembered. "I painted it to find myself."
She also found herself in "The Redemption of Synagoga," a striking self-portrait of mystical power, interlaced with femininity. The black-and-white photographs of the artist's female friends and family members dot the dress of the main figure, veiled by the purple tulle of time. She holds a menorah in her hand, her eyes passionate and wise, while Jerusalem shimmers in the firelight above her head.
Another multilayered, sophisticated self-portrait, "Grandfather, Father and Me," incorporates the photos of Frimer's father and grandfather. The painting reflects her heritage, as a subtle reminder of generational interconnections, simultaneously personal and universal. The moon shines down on the pearlescent world, surrounded by a night forest, enveloping the viewers in a foggy cloak of fading recollections. "It was a courage piece for me," confided Frimer.
The artist often uses the moon in her work. Glowing in the forehead of "Heldegard of Bingen," the moon symbolizes pure light in the medieval world of bigotry and intolerance. In "Great-grandmother in the Moon," the stern woman's face inserted in the moon circle serves as a witness to the millennia of cultural oppression: the Warsaw cemetery below is a melancholy memory of war; the bare tree branches stretch to the dark sky in sorrowful lamentation.
Another echo of Jewish history, "Zeta in the River of Fire," vibrates with tragic energy. Framed by the flowing notes of Brian Cherney's "River of Fire," the old woman, Zeta, gazes at viewers with teary eyes. Frimer met Zeta, the sole Jewish survivor of Vorna, the village where Frimer's grandmother was born, during a trip to Europe. Unable to forget the old woman's accusing eyes, Frimer created a unique portrait that is a juxtaposition of peace and suffering, music and weeping, sun and gravestones.
The affinity between reverence and renewal represents one of the newest themes in Frimer's art. On the backdrop of blue cosmos of "Creation," a shining menorah rises out of the swirling ocean, a symbol of harmony between the ancient and the modern. The same magical realism highlights "Above the Rainbow," where an angel carries the old and the new on its wings toward the light. The artist strives to ascend to new heights through her paintings, inspiring meditation and deep spiritual warmth, beckoning us to follow.
Returning Home, A Visual History opened at the Zack Gallery on July 16 and runs until Aug. 28.
Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer.
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