The art of distinguished painter and colorist Nathaniel Jacobson will be on diplay this June, thanks to the efforts of the HC Arts Committee and chair Miriam Gilman.

The Arts Committee—comprised of Me’ah graduates Susan Ain Me’ah’02 (currently enrolled in HC’s M.A.J.S. program), Deborah Feinstein Me’ah’99, MAJS’06, and Joe Wertheim Me’ah’01—plans to organize two art shows per year at Hebrew College. With the advice of artist Joshua Meyer, former Creative Director of Marketing and Communications at Hebrew College and a consultant to the committee, they have organized a retrospective of Nathaniel Jacobson’s work, slated for viewing during the 2007 graduation ceremonies.

Detail from Nathaniel Jacobson Painting "The Survivors"

Nathaniel Jacobson (1916–1996), the late father of Dr. Joshua Jacobson, founder and Director of the Zamir Chorale of Boston, was commissioned by Hebrew College to paint portraits of several HC presidents. He was famous as a colorist, and known for his own paintings and murals in various media as well as designs for mosaics, stained glass and tapestries. His paintings have received honors in national exhibitions and have been featured in one-man shows internationally.

Jacobson maintained a deep interest in Jewish scholarship while pursuing an active career in art. He worked as a teacher, a painter, a muralist, and a designer of sculpture, mosaics, stained glass and synagogue interiors. A 1937 graduate of the Massachusetts College of Art, he began his lifelong study of color there, and continued at Yale, where he studied under the accomplished color theorist and artist Josef Albers. The author of The Sense of Color (Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1975), Jacobson was a research affiliate at the MIT Media Laboratory. He died in 1996.

"I see the art exhibits as an opportunity to open Hebrew College to a wider community, as well as an opportunity to educate the public about the arts, about Judaism, the Holocaust, Israel – whatever the focus of the exhibit may be, " says Gilman. She hopes to include speakers and lectures as part of the opening reception program-ming to encourage learning about the arts.




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