NASHVILLE, TN - The Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery and the Sarratt Gallery at Vanderbilt University are pleased to announce the exhibition, Jay Bolotin: The Jackleg Testament. The two galleries will present the film and print work of Jay Bolotin,a prolific writer, composer, performer, set designer, visual artist, and now filmmaker. Sarratt Cinema will screen Bolotin’s film (running time: 67 minutes)Beginning Friday, February 23, the film will be shown in the Fine Arts Gallery concurrently with the print exhibition. On View through 22 March, 2007.

The Fine Arts Gallery is located in the Fine Arts Building, also known as the Old Gym, at the corner of 23rd and West End Avenues. Sarratt Gallery is located in the main lobby of the Sarratt Student Center on 24th Avenue South. All events are free and open to the public.

 

The Jackleg Testament, which made its debut in May 2005 at the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati, is an animated, operatic film in which Bolotin reinterprets the book of Genesis as a dark, provocative tale around the central godlike but unforgiving figure of Nobodaddy. Nobodaddy lures Eve from the Garden of Eden, not with a serpent, but with a jack-in-the-box. Bolotin’s imagery reflects influences from German Expressionism, Maurice Sendak, Pieter Brueghel, and medieval religious imagery. The script is inspired by texts from the Bible, Shakespeare, William Blake, and Franz Kafka, among other sources. The story is advanced with Bolotin’s score and libretto, a unique fusion of modern classical and folk music, not unexpected coming from an artist described by Kris Kristofferson as one of the “three best songwriters working in America today.” Key roles are sung by British tenor Nigel Robson and American pop singer Karin Bergquist of the band Over the Rhine.

To craft this spectacular woodcut motion picture—perhaps the first in the history of filmmaking—the artist used his woodcut prints as source material. These prints are a catalog of parts of characters, clothing, architecture, landscapes, and props. Bolotindrew from this visual library and then used digital photography and motion picture software to add textures, atmospheric effects, sound, and movement to create The Jackleg Testament. The Sarratt Gallery will exhibit two portfolios of Bolotin’s woodcuts that inspired The Jackleg Testament, and the Fine Arts Gallery will exhibit the final prints that he used to create the images in the film. Each of the pieces in both exhibitions demonstrates Bolotin’s continued interest in weaving Judeo-Christian creation stories and personal mythologies as a means to better understand the human condition.

Jay Bolotin was born in Fayette County, Kentucky, near Lexington in 1949. He attended the Rhode Island School of Design for two years and then apprenticed with sculptor Robert Lamb. His first solo exhibition was at Solway Gallery in Cincinnati, Ohio. Bolotin’s artwork can be found in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Cincinnati, Cleveland and Seattle Art Museums; the New York Public Library; and the Australian National Museum in Canberra. As a musician, Bolotin performed for years as a full-time singer/songwriter and guitarist. Bolotin has worked with Kris Kristofferson, Merle Haggard, and Dan Fogelberg, whose recording of Bolotin’s song, “It’s Hard to Go Down Easy,” reached No. 6 on the Billboard singles chart.

The Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery in Nashville, Tennessee, is a leading collegiate art gallery. The permanent collection consists of more than 5,500 works, including Asian and African art; nineteenth and twentieth-century European and American paintings and sculpture; Egyptian, Greek, and Roman art; medieval sculpture; early Italian Renaissance paintings; and an extensive collection of historic andcontemporary works on paper. The gallery is located on the first floor of the Fine Arts Building, also known as the Old Gym, at 23rd and West End Avenues, Nashville, Tennessee. For more information, please visit the gallery’s website at www.vanderbilt.edu/gallery