Weisberg exhibition takes the long view

“I learned early on that I was not going to be fashionable,” says artist Ruth Weisberg. In the ‘60s, when she was in art school, fellow students were immersed in Pop and late Abstract Expressionism. She, however, was captivated by the elegant depiction of the human form and by the narrative painting of the Italian Renaissance.

The fascination carries through to today, in drawings, paintings and prints in a career that counts about 70 solo shows, a core of loyal collectors and 12 years as dean of the USC Roski School of Fine Arts.

“I tell my students, ‘Don’t be too concerned about careerism or being fashionable, because it’s a very short-term thing,’ ” says Weisberg, 64. “If you’re in fashion, you’re not in fashion long. You have to work from deeper sources. I try to teach my students to dig deep, because that’s the only source of originality.”

In 1985 Weisberg was invited by Hebrew Union College in New York to create a work for the school’s new gallery. Her practice, then as now, was to work in series around a theme, and she took the opportunity to tell one long narrative on a continuous surface. The result, three years in the making, is “The Scroll,” a mixed-media drawing combining autobiography with Jewish history and tradition. About 90 feet long, the work is anchored by three key themes related to major Jewish holidays: creation (or Passover), revelation (Shavuot) and redemption (Sukkot).

“The Scroll” was eventually purchased by the Skirball Cultural Center, where it is being shown in a specially constructed oval room in the exhibition “Ruth Weisberg Unfurled,” opening tomorrow. On the room’s periphery are about 30 other drawings, prints and paintings from the last three decades of the artist’s career that explore issues of Judaism, community and the cycle of life.

Curator Barbara C. Gilbert calls “The Scroll” a pivotal piece in Weisberg’s career. And art historian Matthew Baigell writes in the accompanying catalog that “ ‘The Scroll’ is one of the most important works ever created in the entire history of Jewish American art.” He also finds it notable for addressing “Jewish subject matter from a Jewish feminist point of view.”

The work begins and ends with teeming masses -- perhaps her ancestors, Weisberg suggests -- and reads from right to left. Creation is represented by a messenger from God pushing the upper lip of a baby, part of Jewish folklore that explains how a child is coaxed into the world. The scroll moves through scenes of adolescence, marriage, celebration and death -- or, more gently, passing into another world.

With Weisberg herself appearing several times, personal and collective history are interwoven. The emergence of the baby from the birth canal is backed by a scene from Exodus -- the escape of Jews from ancient Egypt. Thus, the birth of a child is paralleled to the birth of the Jewish people. Weisberg, a Reform Jew, also incorporated updated scenes: her daughter’s bat mitzvah, ceremonies overseen by Rabbi Laura Geller, head of Temple Emanuel in Beverly Hills.

Three years ago Weisberg moved to a storefront in Culver City, with a studio downstairs and living quarters upstairs. “I can’t tell you how great it is to have my studio here,” she says, looking around the austere space. “I like working late.”

Walls are hung with works on paper and on canvas being prepared for an exhibition next spring at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena. The Simon invited her to select a work from its collection for inspiration, and she chose “Martha Rebuking Mary for Her Vanity.” The narrative painting by the 17th century Italian master Guido Cagnacci shows Martha lecturing a fallen Mary Magdalene, stripped of her lavish gown and jewelry.

“The gesture she’s making in the original looks to me more like a lesson or blessing -- I don’t see it as a rebuke,” Weisberg says.

Two completed paintings -- a combination of encaustic background and graphite drawing -- are on the long wall. In one, the artist herself takes the place of Martha, a figure hovering in a maternal pose over an outstretched Mary. Works in progress are on the other walls.

Weisberg often uses people she knows in her work -- the Mary Magdalene figure is her daughter-in-law; elsewhere a figure of Virtue is her son. This is partly because she enjoys depicting them and partly because she “can just call them up and ask them to come over.”

Asked if she has difficulty reconciling her art and academia, Weisberg responds: “I see myself as an artist who also happens to be a dean.” She clearly takes both jobs seriously. In the last decade, enrollment of majors and minors in her department has doubled, and she was key in arranging a $23-million endowment from Gayle Garner Roski.

“She’s very accessible to student and faculty,” says Phyllis Green, an artist and adjunct USC professor.

“I love teaching,” Weisberg says, but “I do miss teaching studio, which I don’t get to do now.” Administrative demands leave her time to teach one course, a seminar on Jewish culture.

Although the Hebrew Union invitation triggered “The Scroll,” Weisberg reveals another reason for embarking on the magnum opus: “In the mid-1980s I had cancer, which was terrifying. But it also made me feel even more than before that I needed to do the things that were important to me.”

“The Scroll” was a way to review her life and try to face the life hereafter. “I’m painting memory -- the art becomes a vessel for my meanings,” she says. “Once you go down this path of being an artist, it’s very difficult to comprehend people who don’t have a place to put their meanings in life.”