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The Czestochowa Museum goes back more than 100 years.
2005 marked its 100th anniversary.
The period following WWII is most specifically
remembered as a period of its exceptional development.
The museum has multiple departments such as -
Archeology, Ethnography, Art and Environment.
- Polish and Jewish papercuttings,
particularly in the 19th century
and early in the 20th century,
existed here concurrently.
Both of these,
boast exquisite aesthetic and decorative qualities,
which go way beyond their content.
The idea of exhibiting them in juxtaposition,
in our exhibition,
seemed to us like an interesting idea.
Thanks to Professor Mrs. Goldberg,
we made contact with a number of Israeli artists
who sent us some of their work.
- This is already the fifth contest
for folk art that we have organized,
and the third that we are dedicating
to a specific medium only.
This is the first time we focused on one particular technique,
namely - papercuts,
and on artists from two different cultural regions.
This is especially important, because art of this kind - papercutting -
is currently vibrant in both cultures,
both in Polish culture, as well as in the Jewish one.
It is ever developing,
and for this reason,
for future contests,
we wished to draw attention to this important field.
- There are fascinating pieces,
set out in an intriguing way.
This exhibition has attracted many visitors from Czestochowa.
One can easily notice the excellent works on display here,
like the ones behind me,
created by a Jewish female artist.
- Ayala's work is of particular interest to us -
They fit nicely into the Jewish papercutting style,
in their traditional interpretation,
notwithstanding,
the artist took a very modern approach,
we can find elements containing deep symbolism,
which can be understood
by deciphering the artist's intentions.
But more than anything else, they are simply beautiful,
and were made with the utmost sensitivity,
and bear significant artistic traits.
We fell in love with them at first sight
and for this reason we chose one of them
to appear on the cover of the exhibition catalog
as well as on the promotional material -
pamphlets, posters, invitations.
Technique and composition are clearly visible,
as is the style of decoration.
They also contain
original elements,
which are quite surprising.
And so with the greatest pleasure we have put them on display here,
and I do hope that some day,
in future, and maybe even the near future,
we will be able to organize for this artist
a solo exhibition in our museum.