Art Review: The Jewishness is in the Details

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Ken Johnson

Elaine Reichek (American, b. 1943) Sampler (Laura Engel), from A Postcolonial Kinderhood, 1993 

NEW YORK---This is the story of a Jewish family so determined to assimilate into American high society that it almost entirely erases evidence of its own ethnic heritage. The implicit lesson is that there is a price to pay for hiding certain parts of yourself. What is repressed on the outside may come back to haunt you and your descendants on the inside. Identity understood from this perspective verges on the sacred. Twenty years ago, the Jewish Museum commissioned Elaine Reichek, the artist known for embroidered and knitted social commentary, to create an installation about being Jewish. What she produced and exhibited in 1994 was “A Postcolonial Kinderhood,” an exceptionally savvy and elegant instance of identity politics in art. Now, with “A Postcolonial Kinderhood Revisited,” the museum is reprising that exhibition with some minor additions.  [link]

The Jewish Museum: “Elaine Reichek: A Postcolonial Kinderhood Revisited” (Ends Oct. 20), 1109 Fifth Avenue, at 92nd Street; (212) 423-3200, thejewishmuseum.org

Furnishings at Elaine Reichek’s installation at the Jewish Museum
are adorned with embroidered quotations about Jewish identity.