Hallelujah! A special exhibition about music icon Leonard Cohen opens next week at the Jewish Museum with his music and poetry, plus artwork by artists inspired by his life, work and legacy.
Leonard Cohen: A Crack in Everything, was organized by the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (MAC), before he died, and received his personal approval.
The exhibition was on display in Montreal last year – Cohen’s hometown – before moving to New York City, where it will be on display through Sept. 8, 2019.
It’s a truly mixed-media exhibition combining visual art, virtual reality, self-portraits and poetry by the multi-talented Cohen, plus, of course, kiosks with his music, including covers of his music by other famous entertainers.
Leonard Cohen: A Crack in Everything also includes a collection of new works created by international artists who have been inspired by Leonard Cohen’s life, work and legacy.
Although this is a special exhibition, no special tickets are required, as there were for the recent David Bowie exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum.
Description of the Leonard Cohen exhibition by the Jewish Museum
A world-renowned novelist, poet, and singer/songwriter who inspired generations of writers, musicians, and artists, Leonard Cohen (1934-2016) was an extraordinary poet of the imperfection of the human condition, giving voice to what it means to be fully alert to the complexities and desires of both body and soul.
For decades, he tenaciously supplied the world with melancholy and urgent observations on the state of the human heart, in songs such as “Suzanne,” “Bird on a Wire,” and “Hallelujah.”
With equal parts gravitas and grace, Cohen teased out a startlingly inventive and singular language, depicting both an exalted spirituality and an earthly sexuality. His interweaving of the sacred and the profane, of mystery and accessibility, was such a compelling combination it became seared into memory.
Leonard Cohen: A Crack in Everything is the first exhibition entirely devoted to the imagination and legacy of the influential singer/songwriter, man of letters, and global icon from Montréal, Canada.
The exhibition includes commissioned works by a range of international artists who have been inspired by Cohen’s style and recurring themes in his work, a video projection showcasing Cohen’s own drawings, and an innovative multimedia gallery where visitors can hear covers of Cohen’s songs by musicians such as Lou Doillon; Feist; Moby; and The National with Sufjan Stevens, Ragnar Kjartansson, and Richard Reed Parry, among others.
After the showing at the Jewish Museum, the exhibition moves to Copenhagen, and then to the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, next year.
The Jewish Museum is at Fifth Ave. and 92nd St.
Admission is FREE on Saturday.
Leonard Cohen artwork by Claude Gassian
An exhibition developed with the approval of Leonard Cohen
“When we came up with the idea for this exhibition, we went to seek the agreement of Leonard Cohen, who accepted because of the angle we were proposing. It was important for him that this exhibit would not be of a biographical nature. From the start, the project was conceived as a contemporary artistic exploration of a life’s work, and in that sense, he was thrilled to be able to inspire other artists through his art. Given his recent death, our exhibition has taken on a new meaning. It has also become a tribute to a local icon and a global star,” explained John Zeppetelli of Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (MAC).
The exhibition, which ran five months, was accompanied by a series of five concerts.
A major catalogue— the 400th published by the MAC since the creation of the Museum in 1964—details this unique exhibition by tracing the two years of preparation preceding its opening. It includes texts by curators John Zeppetelli and Victor Shiffman, artists, Leonard Cohen’s biographer Sylvie Simons and author Chantal Ringuet.
The tour schedule:
The Jewish Museum
New York City, April 12, 2019 – September 8, 2019
Kunstforeningen GL STRAND and Nikolaj Kunsthal
Copenhagen, Danemark October 23, 2019 – February 16, 2020
Contemporary Jewish Museum
San Francisco, United States September 17, 2020 – January 3, 2021
What do you think about this? We welcome your comments.