Yeshiva University Museum

In this personally expressive and historically resonant exhibition, contemporary printmaker and book artist Lynne Avadenka engages in a visual dialogue with Rahel Bluwstein, one of the most important poets of pre-State Israel. Through color etchings, a folding screen and a multi-media installation, Avadenka responds to the imagery of Rahel’s poetry and to the landscape the writer lived in and loved in the Galilee, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Translating the poet’s language into visual imagery, Avadenka invites us to feel the emotion of beholding new settings for the first time and to experience the process through which an artist or poet is inspired to transform physical surroundings into art. The exhibition also incorporates photography and ephemera from the early 20^th century, overlapping with Rahel’s life in Israel. How a Poem Begins weaves together themes of artistic inspiration, women’s creativity and the combined power of and dialogue between words and images.

This exhibition was made possible through the generous support of The Covenant Foundation, as well as by patrons and friends of Yeshiva University Museum.