Helène Aylon was a good Jewish girl raised in orthodox Brooklyn, married to a rabbi, and mother of two when her world split apart. A widow at thirty, she broke free of tradition to become an eco-feminist artist whose work deals in transgressive images about war and peace, women's bodies, women and god, and the deeply religious world that continues to influence her work to this day.
This memoir is a charming dash through the years of a structured orthodox life and the artistic life that freed her to question the misogyny of her beloved religion. It is also a tell-all about the art world, with fascinating details about luminaries such as Ana Mendieta, Ad Reinhardt, Mark Rothko, and Betty Parsons.
Examples of Aylon's work included are her early doors for the Jewish chapel at JFK airport, her peace pillowcases (including one worn by Grace Paley), and her current search for the links between feminism and Judaism.
Helène Aylon is a visual, conceptual, and installation artist and eco-feminist whose work has been exhibited at the Whitney Museum and the Jewish Museum in New York, the Aldrich Museum in Connecticut, and the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, among many others. She has upcoming exhibitions at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh and the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia. Aylon turned eighty this year.
