The exhibit combines 45 of Judith Weinshall Liberman’s painted textiles with portraits and stories from photographer Herb Ascherman’s 50 Faces. “I wanted the reality of what they were,” says Ascherman of his 1986 work, which documents more than four dozen area Holocaust survivors, POWs, and concentration-camp liberators.
If some of Ascherman’s pieces and subjects seem distant, that’s the point, he says. “I avoided getting into their space. They weren’t lit to be beautiful. We would ask for anecdotes and handwritten comments. Many broke down. For some, it was the first time they ever talked about their experience.”
Tuesdays-Fridays, Sundays, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.; Saturdays, 12-5 p.m. Starts: Dec. 22. Continues through Feb. 18
This article appears in Dec 20-26, 2006.