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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 28, 2011)
a l L im a g e s ço ijrtesy O f m a x gîn sbor g Above, th efa in tin g “Foreclosure,” by Max Ginsburg, 4 0 ” x 65* oil, 2011, depicts the anguish and frustration o f people in foreclosure. O f this painting, Ginsburg, shown below, says, “It is unconscionable that people are being evicted from their homes, especially when banks and corporations are being bailed out. This injustice is not supposed to happen in America.” Painter Max. Ginsburg records the social condition a n d his own political views withvivid realism To see more of Max Ginsburg’swork,visit www.maxginsburg.com. To order copies of h is - new book, “Max Ginsburg- Retrospective,” visit www.ginsburgretro;çom : BY JO A N N E Z U H L “That wasjthe beginning of m y feelings about theworld, about the sbciai structure, the ideas that T n thejL950s and ‘'60s, when the world of a rt took place,” Ginsburg says of hisenvironment as-a I wehf headlong into the abstract, artist Max | youth, “And that’s thé beginning of why I began to A Ginsburg was bringing his view intojigfiter, paint more like I did.” ~ focus. Ginsburg’s world wasn’t fuzzy around the Ginsburg studied at the legendary High School edges. His was vivid, animated and all. too real. of Music and'Art and then at Syracuse University, ^’Realism is. truth and1 truth is beauty,” Ginsburg holding fast as a student of realism even as the Mas-said, explaining his love of a style, that was not . world went head . over heals for abstract being taught when he was a student, and shunned expressionism and assorted, related ’isms. He when he was a teacher, Even today, the anti-r became a teacher at the High School of Art and? realism sentiment?remains strong in a modettf art • Design in 1960, and he did commercial illustrations world that he says too often celebrates difference from 1980 to 2004. If realism Wouldn’t sellin the . for difference's sake. / gallery, it would on the cover of romance novels, Ginsburg .was born in 1931 in .Paris, but from but only to sellunrealistic concepts. “Duringmy the age of 2 he was raised in Brooklyn, N.Y.; the. years in illustration, I was trying to make a living. son of a painter and a pharmacist. From living Painting these illustrations, required à high degree room labor meetings to growing up Jewish during of skill, but unlike my fine art my personal World War II, Ginsburg was exposed early to social expression of reality was missing.” « turmoil, political activisnrand the hardships of Ginsburg ism realist’s realist, from style to . . poverty and oppression: To view it all, one had to subject. His paintings project a simple honesty th a t1 look no further than the streets of New York, fo\as complex as adyteom ent in time. He paints where Ginsburg’s eyes linger to this day, most the social condition, both beautiful and brutal, recently at th e Occupy Wall Street demonstrations. incorporating his own political views. His “War . He grew up with racial prejudice, anti-Semitism Pieta” scene is rendered through précise Strokes. and the. fear of being murdered by the Nazis. But as a bloodied American soldier dying in his, he was also exposed to left-wing and progressive mother’s arms on an Iraqi battfofield.' The scene « thinking .in reaction to the worldaround him.His expresses Ginsburg’s condemnation of “blood for father, the painter, encouraged his interest in art. oil,” „Using the Renaissance Pieta imagery to make His mother, the pharmacist helped organize a a point. In homage to Caravaggio’s images of union in the hospital where she worked and Christ on the cross, Ginsburg has masterfully, and nurtured Max’s political wilt vividly, illustrated an infamous torture scene from - s t A pf wfutfr Realtors seek state ban on transfer taxes Ballot initiative unpopular with affordable housing advcoates. Page 3 the Abu Ghraib prison* again symbolically "pointing out the hypocrisy of our leaders who claim to be religious followers of Jesus C hrist " In September, Ginsburg came out with a new book, “Max Ginsburg - Retrospective” of his decades of work as a fine artist, teacher and , illustrator. Itincludes more than 150 of his paintings, some of Which are now part of a large retrospective exhibit (1956 to 2011) at the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio. • In a recent conversation with Ginsburg, the See WHAT'S REAL page 4 The council incumbent Another piece of Am anda Fritz sets new goals in run for second term More than 40 years on, People's Park remains an inspiration. Page 8 occupied land Page 12
