Legacies & Crossing Points:
For thirty-five years, my husband’s parents, Boris Aronson, and his wife and assistant Lisa Jalowetz, were a collaborative husband-wife team that created extraordinary, inventive sets for the Broadway theater. Yet their legacy extends even further back–to Lisa’s own family, the Jalowetzes, who were at the epicenter of European modernism, and who eventually fled Hitler’s Europe to contribute to the American avant-garde. Heinrich Jalowetz was a conductor who was part of the Second Viennese school, premiering many of Arnold Schoenberg’s works; his wife Johanna would join him at Black Mountain College where he led the music department, and she would teach book binding and voice. Trude Guermonprez (Elsesser), their older daughter was a Bauhaus-trained weaver who survived World War II under a false identity, and also came to BMC, and then onward to become part of the American crafts movement. On Boris’ side, it reaches back, before Broadway, to the Yiddish theater, and the avant garde and constructivist movements in Russia. This is an initial page where Marc and I shall be posting about these rich crossing points of culture, art, and history.
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Recent Exhibitions, Books, Events & Films
Weaving at Black Mountain College: Anni Albers, Trude Guermonprez and Their Students, September 29, 2023-January 6, 2024
On April 11, 2020, the Black Mountain College Museum’s annual “ReHappening” will feature an event honoring Johanna Jalowetz entitled, “Cake by the Lake.”
Doppelhouse Books has recently published a fascinating book, “Jacques and Jacqueline Groag, Architect and Designer: Two Hidden Figures of the Viennese Modern Movement.” Jacques was Johanna Groag’s brother, and thus Marc’s great-uncle and he and Jacqueline became emigres in London. Now available in English, it adds yet another dimension to this cultural legacy.
Marc served as a consultant on and commentator within the documentary film “Fiddler: A Miracle of Miracles,” released in August 2019. He also was a guest commentator on the film at the Rutgers Jewish Film Festival in November 2019.
The Cranbrook Art Museum has an exhibition on view until March 8, 2020, “In the Vanguard,” on the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts where Trude Guermonprez taught.
In 2017-2018 the Wien Museum exhibited Lisa’s student work, when she was a theater design student, creating costumes and sets for Max Reinhardt. While she was a student, the Anschluss occurred and she was forced to flee. Yet Lisa knew enough to take her designs with her–how apt that they were shown back in Vienna, as part of a larger exhibition on refugees, flight, and what we take with us: Lisa Aronson: Fluchtspuren
The exhibition also featured a short film I created, Before Broadway: A European Childhood:
Lisa Jalowetz Aronson: Before Broadway: A European Childhood from Seventh Generation Stories on Vimeo.
A new interview just found of Lisa about her experiences at Black Mountain College:
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Lisa’s Obituary in Playbill.com
Lisa Jalowetz Aronson: A Door Opens (Marina Budhos)
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Lisa was a talented illustrator and designer Lisa in her own right. She chronicled her life with Boris & Marc with a witty, whimsical eye.
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Boris’ earlier Yiddish Theater work was also previously unknown. However, it’s recently been exhibited in Paris, Tel Aviv, and Moscow, London and is now in New York City at Gallery Vallois America:
A series of interviews with Marc by The Yiddish Book Center
Boris Aronson’s Sets for Yiddish Theater Take Center Stage—New York Times
A Yiddish Theater Artist Finally Gets His Due—The Star Ledger
How Boris Aronson’s Designs Came To Life—The Jewish Week
The Works of Yiddish Set Designer Boris Aronson—Tablet
Preparing the Miracle: From the Bronx to Broadway—Playstosee.com
Marc Aronson in Conversation with Paul Meltzer—Playstosee.com
Chance magazine monograph video on Boris Aronson
Exhibition at the Ben Uri Gallery in London
The Avant-garde Theater: Costume & Set Designs, 1917- Kiev – 1929 New York
Video: Galerie Minotaure Opening in Tel Aviv
Marc speaking at the Ben Uri Gallery in June, 2013:
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