A Gift of 47 Photographs by Neil Folberg to the Everson Museum of Art

Written by Crystal Wasserman Tuesday, 19 July 2011 00:30

Syracuse,NY - The Everson Museum of Art recently received a gift of 47 black-and-white photographs by Neil Folberg entitled Celestial Nights: Visions of an Ancient Land. Celestial Nights is a stunning portfolio of nocturnal landscapes and star-filled skies set in ancient ruins found in the Middle East. A selection of these photographs are exhibited at the Everson from July 16th through September 18th. The artist skillfully captures a spectacular world of nocturnal landscapes in Israel and the Sinai where the horizon is not always definitive. The earth and heavens are mingled in this series of arresting images, which to Folberg represents a blurred division between present and eternity, substance and spirit, and knowledge and imagination.

Folberg writes, “In landscape I see a revelation of how pure spirituality has descended into physical existence… These are the scenes, on the human edge of the cosmos, that I am showing in these photographs.”

Neil Folberg was born in San Francisco and grew up in the Midwest. He was a student of Ansel Adams in 1967 and enrolled at the University of California at Berkeley the following year. In 1976 He moved to Jerusalem, a place that has become the subject of much of his work.

He has exhibited widely and published several photographic books including the internationally acclaimed In A Desert Land (1987), a series of color photographs of Middle Eastern landscapes and architecture. His second book, And I Shall Dwell Among Them (1995) featured synagogue architecture throughout the Jewish Diaspora. Celestial Nights, published in 2001, became a major traveling exhibition organized by Aperture.

When the Everson Museum of Art opened its present quarters in 1968, it was dubbed "a work of art for works of art." As the first museum design by internationally-acclaimed architect I. M. Pei, the Everson's design has been credited with launching Pei's world-famous career and putting the museum at the forefront of contemporary architecture. Today, the museum is more than just a "work of art." It has assumed a vital role in the reinvigoration of downtown Syracuse through artistic programs designed to maximize community involvement. Visit : http://www.everson.org/home.php

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