Susana Berenstein, noted international architect interpretes the complexities of Jerry's works.
Exhibit Extended through June 26th, 2016
First Friday Reception
Friday, June 3th, 2016 7:00-9:00 PM.
Followed by a Taste of Shabbat, a Traditional Shabbat Dinner beginning at 9:00 PM.
Old City Jewish Art Center
OCJAC, Philadelphia.
About Susana Berenstein
Internationally (Argentina-USA-Spain) noted architect, Susana Judit Berenstein is exceptionally suited to interpret the meaning behind Jerry's collages. With a private practice expertise in both historic property restoration and historically sensitive new construction she continually deals with the arts and curatorial subjects.
Susana Berenstein's website.
Jerry Jofen's Collages.
The Modulor Man, 1967
In the Renaissance, the spirit of the school of intellectual lines was without limits and beyond simple perception, Leonardo, universalized his man of golden proportions, mathematically circumscribed in perfect circle and his quadralateral square (see Figure 1).
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| Figure 1 |
500 years later, Le Corbusier in post-war times,(circa (1946 ) modifies the numerical proportional relationships of architecture, machinery, art. Creating "THE MODULOR" which is a scale of measurements mathematically based on the human scale and the man with raised arm to convey a new way of looking at space and to create standardization.
We see the three intervals that define the series, based on the anthropocentric measurements and simple mathematical variations:The simple, the double and two golden sections
(See Figure 2).
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| Figure 2 |
The man of the Renaissance who is within his circle of perfection escapes to the Modulor with the hand raised in his golden section and reappears in the work of Jerry Jofen in 1967 seeking new proportions in the artists eye.
Blue Print of Desire
the abstract composition of the collage with pieces that suggest different trades surround a realistic photo of a post war immigrant family. They seek a synthesis of collective desire to find their “American Dream”. they aspire to ”the doctor son, architect, tailor, etc. "
Volare, Flying, 1964
Flying in 1964 with Balloons.
A sense of freedom, fleeing the rise of the mechanization of the 1960s.
Here is the idyllic idea of flying without technological assistance. Fleeing with the avant-garde from the invasion in our time and culture of the thought control of social media.
He reminds us with nostalgia and joy of country life paintings by Renoir, but in a revolutionary version incorporating Cubist collage.
In Jerry Jofen's own words.
From 1967
Today someone wrote down an observation of last year - The instant has become a year and transubstantiation of time, a geometrade progressing sequence everything is a millennial event …the sense of everything being eternal of ineluctable redemption.
