California

Ori Sherman was an artist and illustrator in San Francisco. He left the security of a job creating frames at a high end department store and started lettering and painting Jewish marriage contracts. Later he started to publish children’s books about Jewish holidays and texts. One of the last series he worked on while he was dying of AIDS was a series illustrating the creation as told in the first chapter of Genesis. The paintings were later bought by a collector who eventually donated them to the Magnes Jewish Museum in Berkeley, Ca.

The opening of a show of these paintings was on October 20, 2022. Richard Schwarzenberger, an old friend from our Kansas days, and Ori’s partner, gave a talk about Ori and the making of these images. The paintings were made over two years, 1986-88 and were published with text for children by Robert Alter in 1990. During the creation of these works, Ori was very sick, but whenever he felt well enough to work, he did so, even if it were the middle of the night. I knew Ori through Richard. He was very funny and kind and I have fond memories of hanging out with them both.

The paintings are a visual Torah. The flatness of the perspective and the rich colors hark back to illuminated manuscripts of pervious centuries, but the playful flora, fauna, fantastical beasts, angels and the cosmos give the images a very modern feel.

Ori Sherman was born in Jerusalem, 1934 and died in San Francisco, 1988.

Here is the link to most of the images and their verses in Genesis on my web site. And I hope you enjoy them. Scroll down the page to see the gallery.

California 2022