tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6856002762995676099.post6560845123839811252..comments2023-05-02T05:11:05.180-07:00Comments on The (In)humanity Triptych / Sanford Drob: The Accusation - Right Panel of The (In)humanity TriptychSandy Drob (Sanford L. Drob)http://www.blogger.com/profile/09379423751206377930noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6856002762995676099.post-55164549506777564542013-07-27T19:57:06.680-07:002013-07-27T19:57:06.680-07:00Thanks so much, Richard, for your enriching commen...Thanks so much, Richard, for your enriching comments and reccomendation. I very much respect and admire Paul Bishop, though I have not yet read his book on "Answer to Job." Yes, "Too many have fallen asleep ....forgotten.....don't care......don't love." We have forgotten, as Levinas suggests that prior to being, prior to knowing, prior to science and achievement, is the call to live compassionately and take responsibility for the suffering that we see in the face of the other. I believe that in the paintings Eve and Esther are heeding this call.<br /><br />Sandy Drob (Sanford L. Drob)https://www.blogger.com/profile/09379423751206377930noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6856002762995676099.post-72764488061227607312013-07-27T19:47:42.767-07:002013-07-27T19:47:42.767-07:00Merle Molofsky made the following additional comme...Merle Molofsky made the following additional comments on another, psychoanalytic forum, which she has given me permission to reproduce here:<br /><br />"My reading of Sandy Drob's paintings is that the power rests with the female essence, the Shekhina. Mother as resting place, Mother as safety, Mother as defender. Mother as accessible God-imago.<br />In Sandy Drob's triptych painting, there are two anguished dyads. Each dyad is a man and a woman. The first panel of the triptych is an image of Adam and Eve at the moment of expulsion. The third panel of the triptych is an image of two concentration camp people celebrating Purim, dressed as Esther and Ahasuerus, at the moment of accusation. The central panel is of souls/bodies being tortured, an eternity of sacrifice. "The Expulsion", "The Sacrifice", "The Accusation". The male figures turn their faces away from the viewer. The female figures stare directly ahead at the viewer. One side of our nature turns away, flees knowing. One side of our nature holds knowing."<br /><br />The more I think about these paintings, which were consciously produced but in some important measure unconsciously created, I see them as residing in the space between a whole host of polarities, which include: birth and death, creation and destruction, humanity and inhumanity, good and evil, light and darkness, attraction and repulsion, holiness and desecration,royalty and poverty,God and humanity, faith and unbelief; and as you have pointed out, man and woman, and knowing and unknowing. <br /><br />It was really only after I completed them that I fully realized that the women in the painting were resolute in confronting the horrors of the middle panel, and the men turned their face, unable to see "The Sacrifice," which itself is conducted by men.<br />Sandy Drob (Sanford L. Drob)https://www.blogger.com/profile/09379423751206377930noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6856002762995676099.post-14404980921289529282013-07-27T01:29:42.576-07:002013-07-27T01:29:42.576-07:00I have just read Elie Wiesel's 'Day'&#...I have just read Elie Wiesel's 'Day''. Your (our) justifiable questioning is, I feel, brave and<br />necessary. I have also just finished Paul Bishop's Jung's Answer to Job. If you have not<br />read this I can recommend it. Thankyou for your courage and very moving artwork. I<br />agree with James Hillman that society is collectively 'mentally ill'. Too many have fallen<br />asleep ....forgotten.....don't care......don't love. <br /><br />The emotion in your artwork (for me) matches Elie's emotion.........which matches the emotions brought up from a deep place when I listen to the sublime theme music to Schindler's List. I<br />get a similar feeling when I look at the artistic soul-outpourings of Blake and Gibran. <br /><br />Your work on the kabbalah/gnosis is appreciated. I feel 'guided' to these areas too. Thanks<br />for the humanity.<br />Richardrich.1https://www.blogger.com/profile/06040890632176724051noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6856002762995676099.post-76294376900049323162013-07-24T10:39:48.631-07:002013-07-24T10:39:48.631-07:00Merle,
I am deeply grateful and moved by your ap...Merle, <br /><br />I am deeply grateful and moved by your appreciative words and stirring comments on my paintings. You have, I think, grasped their essence and I have learned from your thoughts. <br /><br />Sandy<br /><br /><br /><br />Sandy Drob (Sanford L. Drob)https://www.blogger.com/profile/09379423751206377930noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6856002762995676099.post-78731281407876114992013-07-23T21:15:09.139-07:002013-07-23T21:15:09.139-07:00The structure of your triptych creates meaning thr...The structure of your triptych creates meaning through form. "The Accusation" is a parallel form to "The Expulsion". The two concentration camp prisoners, dressed as Ahasuerus and Esther, echo the pose of Adam and Eve. Both Adam and Ahasuerus turn away, both Eve and Esther face forward, look God in the face. "The Sacrifice" hovers between expulsion and accusation. Expelled from Eden because of a search for knowledge, encountering the horrors of inhumanity, accusing God of abandonment and betrayal, these human beings are in an eternal moment of knowing. Can there be restoration and redemption? "Redemption comes from God." Did God truly redeem Israel from the Babylonian Exile? How much a sacrifice did God require to cause the people of Israel to return to Eretz Israel in 1948? Six million lives? Indescribable suffering? Is "The Accusation" a statement that the Jews have to redeem God? Your paintings are so powerful, your passion so intense, your knowledge truly impressive. I am grateful to you for having raised such disturbing questions. Even if we have tried to repress these questions, if we refuse to taste the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, we feel them anyway. MerleBlackbirdhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16537197525833245668noreply@blogger.com