LETTER FROM THE CO-EDITORS-IN-CHIEF

  Letter from the Editors | Molly Gosewich and Jefimija Vujcic

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Hello Musings readers! Editor-in-Chiefs (Molly and Mia) sat down to chat about our respective summers and what we’re looking forward to this school year.

MOLLY: How was your summer, Mia?

MIA: Very busy, but very good! From May to June, I completed the summer course MSL2303H: ‘Difficult’ Heritages and Precarious Times with Prof. Shiralee Hudson Hill. Despite the heavy nature of the topics we were covering (especially the ones which were simultaneously hitting front-page news), I feel much better equipped to tackle these issues with care and accuracy in my research and work. 

Since June, I have been working at the Ontario Heritage Trust as an archaeology collections technician. I began my internship working from home, reviewing and editing records for collections which will be going online very soon! Later on, I also got a chance to visit some of the Trust’s sites, to work in the lab, and even at a fieldwork site – processing artefacts and cataloguing associated documentation. 

Finally, I wrapped up co-curating an exhibit at the Oshawa Museum (Leaving Home, Finding Home in Oshawa: Displaced Persons and Stories of Immigration), which I started working on over three years ago! 

And what did you get up to?

Ashbridge Estate (a property of the Ontario Heritage Trust).
Photo courtesy of Jefimija Vujcic.

MOLLY: That sounds great. I was also quite busy... it was quite the summer – I worked as a Research Assistant with Dr. Anna Shternshis on projects relating to Jewry in Soviet Russia and Central Asia. I learned a lot about the Jewish presence in specific places like Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Romania, and Ukraine. I’ll definitely have to write an article about it...

I also completed my German Level A1, took an elective course called Managing AudioVisual Material, volunteered at the Ontario Jewish Archives, and finally submitted my thesis proposal. I hear you also submitted yours. What was like that?

MIA: Looking forward to reading that article! Yes I did, back at the end of May; so much has happened since then that I almost forgot! It was definitely exciting to finally pass that milestone.

MOLLY: And work aside, how was your summer? Anything fun?

MIA: Nothing terribly exciting! I finally went to the theatre again – I watched R + J, a production of Romeo and Juliet, at the Stratford Festival. Getting to see the Andy Warhol exhibit at the AGO was another highlight! I also chipped away at my current novel writing project and started learning a bit of Italian for fun. 

What about you? 

MOLLY: I hung out a lot in parks and tried to soak up the sunshine, I did a little day-trip to Thornbury which was LOVELY and the house where we stayed was absolutely bursting with Canadian art... and of course, I started writing for Musings! It has been great so far, I get to explore my favourite topics. My most recent article is on Marc Chagall and the School of Paris exhibition that is wrapping up at the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire du Judaïsme in Paris. He is one of my favourite artists and the mahJ is one of my favourite museums ever so it just felt right.

MIA: I’m also excited to get writing for my column Museum Mysteries again! What else are you looking forward to this year?

MOLLY: OMG... getting into writing our theses will be fun. I’ll (fingers crossed) be going to Germany in March to do some archival research so I seriously can’t wait for that. And of course, being able to actually be on campus is quite nice – I’m loving the Inforum. Who can forget seeing my cohort IRL. Happy to be back!

MIA: Yes, totally agree, can’t wait to get started on writing itself! So far this year, I’ve also been loving popping into the library to get some work done, just like old times. I’m also looking forward to finally meeting everyone in person and to exploring museums together (with people who just 'get' it!).

WHAT EVEN IS JEWISH ART? MARC CHAGALL AND THE ÉCOLE DE PARIS AT mahJ (PART 1)

Musings Abroad | Molly Gosewich

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How long has it been since the world effectively shut down? As restrictions loosen (and I say that loosely), jabs administered, and life begins to show some signs of normalcy, I cannot be the only one who has been plotting (more like pining for) their return across the Atlantic. 

For Musings Abroad, continuing this year, I’ll continue to spotlight the goings-on of international museums/galleries with a deeper dive into specific exhibition topics, and to hopefully provide some travel inspiration for when we can step foot inside international museums again.

To start us off, we have the mahJ – formally known as the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire du Judaïsme (Museum of the Art and History of Judaism) – which I was fortunate enough to visit back in 2019. 

Photo courtesy of the author (2019)

Located in the Marais District, once the Jewish hub of Paris, the mahJ is home to the largest collection of Jewish art and antiquity in France – documenting the rich history and culture of Jews across Europe and North Africa, from the Middle Ages to the 20th century. Among other stunning Judaic objects, archival manuscripts, and works of art, the mahJ’s collection includes pieces by the legendary Marc Chagall and Amedeo Modigliani, which are conveniently on display until October 31 in an exhibition focusing solely on Jewish artists within the “École de Paris” (School of Paris). The term coined sometime before 1925, was in fact tinged with antisemitism, due to the tendency to lump foreigners together in this way (Fayard, 2001). Many Jewish émigré artists from major European cities and the Russian Empire (plus Asia and Africa) belonged to the cosmopolitan generation of the School of Paris (or Paris School), one without a common style but with a shared desire for freedom amid pogroms and creative internment (see Entartete Kunst for how art was stifled under the Nazi regime). As we know, Paris was the artistic epicentre of Europe — from La Ruche (“The Hive”) building or on Cité Falguière, in the streets near the Boulevard Raspail to the cafés of Montparnasse. 

La Ruche et Montparnasse

                                                                        Marc Chagall

Sotheby’s posits that the School of Paris first appeared at the turn of the century and ended roughly after the conclusion of World War II. However, this “school” was completely abstract, including luminaries associated with several assorted avant-garde movements (such as les Nabis or Fauvism, Cubism, and Surrealism). Because of the diversity of abstract genres part of the School of Paris, it begs the question: what is Jewish art? 

Of course, there are many other Jewish artists within the Paris School (Jules Pascin, Otto Freundlich, and Chana Orloff to name a few) that are captivating in their own right. But, especially to me, as a student in the Jewish Studies Collaborative Specialization, Marc Chagall is of a particular interest to me. Why you may ask? His artistic archive and legacy is deeply imbued with Jewish signifiers and signals a certain collective memory.

A prominent figure in the School of Paris, the Jewish artist Marc Chagall had lived in the city from 1910 to 1914, and quickly absorbed many of the stylistic influences of the avant-garde working in the French capital. Chagall’s “Bride with Fan” of 1911 is simply enchanting and is indicative of the very delight and radiance typical of his work at this time. Naturally, he became a leading artist of the School of Paris during this time and after his exile from Russia in 1923. In the School of Paris, around 200 artists, most of them being foreigners, had occupied La Ruche at the beginning of the twentieth century. It was a legendary building in the Passage de Dantzig where Yiddish (the language of the Central and Eastern Ashkenazi Jews) reigned supreme. 

When Marc Chagall arrived in Paris, he settled there with sculptor Zadkine and artists Michel Kikoine and Chaïm Soutine. It is said that Soutine, the native of a small village in Belarus, knew only Yiddish and it was in La Ruche that he learned a few new words in Russian, perhaps in conversation with Chagall (Levin, 2021). Essentially, there was an obvious Jewish influence on a movement that encompassed many Jewish artists, though not calling itself outright a "Jewish" School of Art. Below you will be two of Chagall's paintings, one of a praying man and one of a shtetl, which both evoke a collective Jewish memory that would have been understood by the Yiddish speakers in the movement.

                                                                  Source: artsy.com

To understand the full extent of Chagall’s contribution and participation in the School of Paris scene, and his contribution to Jewish art — we have to look back into his earlier days, before he became (to many) one of the greats of art — that'll come in Part 2.

IN THE DARKROOM: EXPLORING TOM OF FINLAND'S ENDURING INFLUENCE

Musings Abroad | Molly Gosewich

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"Whenever I was depressed or disgusted, I would feel him, that spirit inside, urging me back to living, back to drawing, I believe there is a lot to the world that can’t be seen or touched, and if you turn away from that — especially if you are an artist — you are avoiding an important part of life, maybe the very heart of it.” - Tom of Finland

Tom of Finland aka Touko Laaksonen 
Collage credit to Worldcrunch. Photo source.

Museums, be it local or international, are considered the arbiters of culture, keepers of history, and especially systems of representation. As an extension of such, exhibitions have become increasingly important to engage with many existing intersections of identity and to, in good faith, seek to advance conversations surrounding LGBTQ2+ iconography and representation in particular.

Fotografiska

My first grasp with queerness in the field of Museum Studies was with persons, both historical and contemporary: theorists like Judith Butler and artists such as Keith Haring, Mickalene Thomas, Catherine Opie, and my personal favourite, bisexual painter Tamara de Lempicka (I have a tattoo inspired by her work). The ArQuives, which was established to aid in the recovery and preservation of Canadian LGBTQ2+ histories, has also been a key window into queer museological knowledge, agency, and identities.

However, an artist I’ve always found to be equal parts seductive and intriguing throughout my experience as a Master of Museum Studies student is Tom of Finland (born Touko Laaksonen, 1920-1991). Though fairly characterized as graphic, provocative, and pornographic through his tangible association with kink and eroticism, his work is a refreshing reprieve from the puritanical Western art often kept by mainstream museums. Highly stylized and recognizable by muscled bodies, bulging appendages, leather fetish gear, and uniforms inspired by blue-collar workers and military men, Tom of Finland occupies a distinct, subversive space in the queer visual culture canon.

As someone with both an academic and personal interest in portraiture, I was even more enthralled with The Darkroom, a current exhibition (located in New York City, from April 30-August 20, 2021) that serves as an intimate look into the prolific artistry of Tom of Finland, curated by Berndt Arell of Fotografiska in collaboration with the Tom of Finland Foundation. As Pride 2021 celebrations looked a little different this year, The Darkroom is a fascinating way to engage with Tom of Finland’s 100 year legacy of queer art and never-before-seen, boundary-pushing, sexually powerful, homoerotic photographic portraits that served as references for his drawings.

Oppressed by the persecution of queerness in his native Finland, Laaksonen clandestinely photographed his muses/models as references for his drawings. They were kept under the cover of darkness and would become highly-coveted works in underground gay subcultures and communities. With the increasing openness found in the West, he would spend time in Los Angeles, where both freedom and his art were able to flourish. There, he would draw inspiration from American bodybuilding and develop a burgeoning interest in depicting Black men (some of his later illustrations would feature Black men and interracial sex scenes). This inclusion is doubly interesting, if not slightly problematic: Laaksonen had the general tendency to depict cis, white men, and more and more academics have touched on the hypermasculinization/hypersexualization and presence of Black men in visual culture. Though, it can be noted that, to some, he had helped to increase the visibility of "black gay male subjectivity" towards the culmination of the 20th century, the end of his career, to which critics characterize this period as his most overtly political. With Tom of Finland, all men were created equal.

Untitled, 1989. From Tom of Finland Foundation

Untitled, 1984 (Val Martin); Untitled, 1986, Untitled, 1986 (above), Untitled, 1986 (below).

Tom of Finland Permanent Collection

A statement from exhibition producer Jessica Jarl says, “To Fotografiska, this is a brilliant example of how photography – besides standing on its own – often plays a part in many different kinds of creating. The story of The Darkroom – the first art exhibition where Tom of Finland's photographs are also being shown – is in many ways a journey through time. From dark hidden rooms or parks, to open, well-lit salons. In some places, strong forces are now pushing this art – and the lifestyles it reflects – back into the darkness. One more reason to lift the importance of free art. And it feels right to have Tom's voice be heard.”

The very premise of this exhibition is born out of the sexually repressive environment of 1950s Finland. Laaksonen set up a darkroom in a closet of his home in Helsinki to develop the photographs he took. Not only racy and homoerotic, they were outlawed. The Darkroom displays his portraits on black walls with red accents; they are the star of the show, featuring hyper-masculine hunks, clad in uniforms or leather gear, all distended muscles and members. They act to fearlessly confront a system that even today continues to deny freedoms, legality, and basic rights to queer, gay, and trans communities — bringing to light the current relevancy of their struggle for liberation. 

Tom of Finland: 'The Darkroom'
Wallpaper

Even during the height of the AIDS crisis, Laaksonen continued to create positive images of gay culture, and in 1987, made a now-famous drawing encouraging the practice of safe sex. The title of the exhibition The Darkroom just feels so apt. To end off, here is a quote by longtime Whitney Museum curator Richard D. Marshall (Quoted in Ferguson, 2019) that illustrates the impact and significance of not only Tom of Finland's work, but also of the very concept of The Darkroom:

“Tom of Finland emerged in the 1950s to deliver us from the repressive, fearful, and disguised sexuality of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Tom made the idealized male beauty of the Greek gods become contemporary, real living gods, with no judgmental distinction between active and passive sexual roles. Tom made the artificial Roman breastplate into lively skin and muscle; Tom made Christian sado-masochism positive, desirable, and enviable; Tom made Michelangelo’s saints naked and aggressive; Tom brought honest, ribald, consensual, enjoyable, and delirious male sexuality back into twentieth century art. (1997, p. 252)”

Suffice to say, as travel restrictions begin to lessen, I recommend visiting this exhibition if you’re interested in studies and imagery of sex positivity, masculinity, countering heteronormativity, queer culture, and unapologetic art. If you find yourself in New York City, go see for yourself.

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Sources Referenced and Further Reading

Alan Sinfield (2004). On Sexuality and Power. Columbia University Press, https://doi.org/10.7312/sinf13408.

Leena-Maija Rossi (2019). From arousing drawings to art to behold: Tom of Finland’s long and winding road to the art world, Porn Studies, 6:4, 459-463, DOI: 10.1080/23268743.2019.1580450

Michael Ferguson (2019) Tom of Finland, Journal of Homosexuality, 66:6, 857-862, DOI: 10.1080/00918369.2018.1514206

Nicholas Boston (2021). The Photography of Tom of Finland. Gay City News, https://www.gaycitynews.com/tom-of-finland-photography-art/.

Thomson Reuters Institute (2020). Out of the Shadows: Remembering ‘Tom of Finland,’

https://www.thomsonreuters.com/en-us/posts/legal/tom-of-finland/.

WHAT EVEN IS JEWISH ART? MARC CHAGALL AND THE ÉCOLE DE PARIS AT mahJ (PART 2)

 Musings Abroad | Molly Gosewich

MUST BE THE SEASON OF THE WITCH (AND THE OCCULT AND MAGIC)

Musings Abroad | Molly Gosewich

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October occupies a special place in the Gregorian calendar and in our hearts. As soon as September 30th becomes October 1st, you must watch Hocus Pocus while drinking Black tea. I don’t make the rules… But, ever since I can remember, I have been a sucker for every type of media that has to do with witchcraft, magic, and general spook.

So just as Halloween is impending, we travel to Cornwall in south-west England to steal a look at the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic, the perfect amalgam of the aforementioned and the occult. Cecil Williamson, a British Neopagan Warlock, founded a Museum of Witchcraft in Stratford-upon-Avon but later moved to the Isle of Man after local opposition in the 1940s. In 1951, The Folklore Centre of Superstition and Witchcraft opened with Gerald Gardner, the founder of modern Wicca, who was featured as the ‘resident witch.’ As time went on, Williamson returned to the mainland to set up a succession of witchcraft museums. Eventually, he settled in the Cornish village of Boscastle and opened the Museum of Witchcraft in 1960.

This brings us to today. With a selection of beautiful and mysterious objects ranging from shamanic amulets, talisman and ouija boards to grimoires and genitalia-shaped vessels, the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic is quite incredible. As a meaningful site for practitioners of Wicca, Paganism, and other esoteric traditions – the non-practicing public is welcomed too, including those interested in folklore, like myself.

In the spirit of Spooky Season, I present you with the most curious objects present in the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic’s collections.

Incense Stick Holder

Brass

Source: MWM

Poppet of a Vicar

Wax, hair, metal, paper, wood, glass

Source: MWM

This puppet pictured above is equally creepy and cool. Copyright information states that it is likely from Battle, East Sussex and Victorian, although a slightly later date of c. 1920 seems more likely. The Museum's Director has tried and failed to identify the church depicted in the painting attached to the back of the box. I would not want to be the guy inside the box, someone definitely had it out for him.

Photograph

Source: MWM

Perhaps the creepiest object I found is a photograph of a woman named Joan Wytte aka the Fighting Fairy Woman of Bodmin. According to folklore, she was a witch and clairvoyant who lived in Bodmin, Cornwall at the end of the 18th century. Her nickname, the Fighting Fairy Woman of Bodmin, is in reference to her short stature and her even shorter temper. According to Strange Remains, "The legends of Joan Wytte state that she was born around 1775 in Bodmin... She was infamous for her tendency to pick fights. During a particularly nasty fight, she injured a couple people pretty bad and was arrested. She became ill in 1813, while in jail, and died at 38 years-old."

The photograph above was taken prior to her burial in 1998, as her bones had been interred for some time. They were also used for seances and other practices, and were eventually hung on the wall of the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic. Her bones are pictured here within a fleece lined blanket, along with a headstone and dish containing a clay pipe, tobacco, brandy, oils, herbs, and incense. It is alleged that while her skeleton was on display, they started to experience disruptive poltergeists... very spooky. 

You can check out the MWM Collections for more photographs of her skeleton. If you're brave enough!