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Thursday April 17, 2008

Making the cut: Jerusalem artist takes 10 years to craft haggadah

by megan jacobs
jpost.com

Archie Granot wields a scalpel with surgical precision. Each cut he makes is smooth and decisive. With a few strokes, life emerges. And millions of tiny paper scraps litter the floor at his feet.

Working out of a modest combination studio and gallery in Jerusalem, the 62-year-old has been paper-cutting since 1979. Born in London, with an educational background in Soviet studies and political science, he would seem like an unlikely candidate to translate traditional folkloric paper-cutting into contemporary art. But when his daughter came home from first grade in the 1970s with a paper-cut she had made in class, he attempted one of his own, and his parents liked it so much that they asked him to make another for them. An artist was born.

Only a few weeks before Passover, Granot has reached the pinnacle of his artistic career: After 10 years of work, he has finished a paper-cut haggadah, the only one of its kind. The work is 55 pages, with every word of Hebrew text cut by hand.

Granot had dreamed of designing a haggadah since he had made paper-cut versions of his sons’ Haftarah portions for each of their bar mitzvahs more than 20 years ago. He has a particular affinity for the written word, and has designed his own calligraphic font. Twelve years ago, a young girl visited his gallery; a few months later, she returned with her father, Max Thurm of New York, who developed a rapport with Granot.

“I told him of my hope of doing a haggadah,” recalls Granot, “and he basically said, ‘Make me an offer.’ I began working soon after that. It was that easy.”

Since then, Thurm has visited Israel on a regular basis with his wife, Sandy, and the three have become friends. Granot insists that “without empathy, there could not have been a commission.”

Implicit in this friendship was a sense of trust. Though Granot would often discuss new page ideas with the Thurms, he truly had a free hand. He sent each page to them after it was completed.

Unlike a traditional haggadah, Granot’s version is an abstract series. Each page weighs about six pounds, and is not intended to be bound together.

For the past century, most haggadahs have been illustrated, with the text in the center.

“That’s not really my style,” Granot says with a shrug. “I’m more interested in forms and shapes.”

His immense undertaking of creating each page totally different from any other started out simple, but became increasingly difficult as he progressed. Living and working in Jerusalem inspired motifs of the Old City on the page of the Grace After Meals, but at other times necessitated a break during times of intense tension, such as the Second Lebanon War.

“My ideas came from everywhere and from nowhere,” Granot says. “Sometimes something will begin in the synagogue and end in the shower.”

The complete haggadah does not represent 10 years of continuous effort. At times, Granot would take a hiatus of as long as a few months, “waiting for an idea to come to fruition before it blossomed into a final product.”

Traditional paper-cut work is done by folding, though Granot strays from this technique. Without the help of any assistants, he sketches the idea and then traces the sketch to prepare for the paper-cutting. Granot has become a paper connoisseur over the years, using different acid-free papers. The haggadah is made of paper from France, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Japan, the United States and Israel, each valuable for the color variation and weight that it brings to a page. “There is never a trip where I don’t look for paper,” Granot admits.

To preserve the works, each page has been framed “in an ecosystem, of sorts.” The frames, made by an American framer, are climate-controlled so that the humidity does not affect the layers of paper. The Thurms had always planned to show the pages, and will have only a limited number on display at their home at any given time. Yeshiva University Museum in New York will show the haggadah through Aug. 31.

For Granot, seeing the haggadah on display will be his first time seeing it as a complete opus. He also predicts that the moment will also be particularly special for the Thurms, as they have not seen the entire work together, and his wife, who has not seen most of the pages.

“I have quite a feeling of anticipation,” Granot says. “I have not seen some of these pages in nine or 10 years!”

Not one to rest easily, Granot has already begun his next dynamic project — the Book of Esther in traditional Megillah form, but with each page different in its execution.

Granot’s ultimate goal is simple in nature: “I hope to be a lasting contribution to Jewish culture.”

Archie Granot’s paper-cutttings can be seen at www.archiegranot.com.

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