judith greengus

Artist Statement

Judith Greengus
Artist Statement

“I think a painter paints what he thinks about the most.” Walter Tandy Murch

Diane Arbus, Benjamin Disraeli, Heddy LaMar, Michaelangelo’s Moses, and (my maternal
grandmother) Nina Bellows. These are some of the portraits in my Zionist Wallpaper Trim, an
installation that simulates and challenges various conventions of the 20th century bourgeois
experience through interior details like paneled baseboards and wallpaper. Every element is made by
hand, and irregularities multiply, unsettling our expectations of genteel stability. Portraits are
designed into a wallpaper pattern and depict Jews and Israelites from different centuries and lore. The
portraits detach from the border and drift across the walls and rooms, a genealogy of anonymous and
recognizable individuals, scattering back and forth and defying chronology or origins.

The loosening of order is a reoccurring theme in my work as is attention to historical details. I have
designed for decades in a luxury market paradigm, and this experience has left me with a
combination of expertise and curiosity about established systems of aesthetic value. My work is in
dialogue with decorative history, industrial design, and the tensions inherent in expressions of
influence, refinement, and commerce.

Materials are never a given; they too have historic traditions, aesthetic integrity, and commercial
authority. Lately, I have been inspired by painting with Flashe on the smooth synthetic weave of
Tyvek (insulation layer used by the building industry); these materials allow me to create detailed
work and/or transparent layers on a parchment-like surface.

I want my work to be an invitation, somewhat formal, sometimes beautiful, and somehow revelatory
regarding the juxtapositions and anomalies that confound me and occupy my imagination; a
seduction of design, experienced room by room.