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About
the Artist
As a youth in rural Fayette County, Kentucky, Jay Bolotin made sculpture from
fallen trees and experienced the work of artists like Henry Moore through illustrated
magazines. Wanting to “make things that expressed what was otherwise without
expression,” he studied art, first at the Rhode Island School of Design, and then as
an apprentice to the late sculptor Robert Lamb. In the early 1970s, he pursued his
interest in music, working as a songwriter with Kris Kristofferson, Merle Haggard, and
Dan Fogelberg.
AN ANIMATED OPERATIC FILM REINTERPRETING THE STORY OF ADAM
AND EVE, AND THE WOODCUTS ON WHICH THE OPERA IS BASED
The personal and narrative quality in Bolotin’s work as a musician is paralleled in his
visual art. The viewer encounters characters who are embroiled in psychologically
intricate dramas, and these characters appear—and reappear—in multiple pieces,
created in a variety of media. This interdisciplinary approach to his art has provided
the foundation for Bolotin’s multilayered, performance-based works that include
plays, operas, films, and a music-theater-dance collaboration.
At the suggestion of his friend and long-time gallerist, Carl Solway, Bolotin began
making prints in the early 1980s. Although he tried different media, the directness
of woodcut appealed to him, and it has been a major component of his visual art
ever since.
VIEW PROGRAM UPDATES + BECOME A MEMBER: www.smith.edu/artmuseum
C Printed on recycled paper with vegetable based inks and 50% hydroelectric power.
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SCMA is pleased to participate in the
NEA’s Blue Star Museums Program this summer, providing
free admission to active military and their immediate
families between Memorial Day and Labor Day 2012.
IMAGES All works by Jay Bolotin, American, born 1949. Unless otherwise noted, all works purchased with the Carol Ramsay Chandler Fund and with the fund
in honor of Charles Chetham; photographs by Petegorsky/Gipe. [COVER] Jack and Eve on Stage, still from The Jackleg Testament Part I: Jack & Eve,
2004-2005. Woodcut motion picture. [Jay Bolotin in gallery] Jay Bolotin installing exhibition at Carl Solway Gallery, Cincinnati, OH, 2010. Photograph by
Anita Douthat. 1 Audience at the Play, still from The Jackleg Testament Part I: Jack & Eve, 2004-2005. Woodcut motion picture. 2 The Puppeteer, test
sequence from the film The Jackleg Testament Part II: The Book of Only Enoch, 2012. Lent by the artist, courtesy of Carl Solway Gallery, Cincinnati, OH.
3 Jack’s Entrance into Eden from The Jackleg Testament Part I: Jack & Eve, 2005-2007. Woodcut. 4 Nobodaddy from The Jackleg Testament Part
I: Jack & Eve, 2005-2007. Woodcut. 5 The Narrator & The Willing Girl, 2009. Graphite on illustration board. Collection of Laura Lee Brown and Steve
Wilson, 21c Museum, Louisville, KY. Photograph by Tony Walsh. 6 Only Enoch, 2012. Woodcut and relief etching. Lent by the artist, courtesy of Carl Solway
Gallery, Cincinnati, OH. Photograph by Tony Walsh. [Jay Bolotin] Jay Bolotin, 2012. Photograph by Rachel Heberling. 7 The Puppeteer in His Labyrinth, test
sequence from the film The Jackleg Testament Part II: The Book of Only Enoch, 2012. Lent by the artist, courtesy of Carl Solway Gallery, Cincinnati, OH.
[MAILING PANEL] Puppet Show with Ostrich Vision, 2010. Graphite on illustration board. Collection of Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson, 21c Museum,
Louisville, KY. Photograph by Tony Walsh.
Elm Street at Bedford Terrace
Northampton, MA 01063
413.585.2760
Bolotin’s art work is represented in the collections of The New York Public Library;
Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; Seattle Art Museum; Cincinnati Art
Museum, and numerous other public and private collections. He resides in Cincinnati,
Ohio.
June 29–September 9, 2012
www.smith.edu/artmuseum
Myths are not things that are relegated to
the past, they’re around us every day.
The need to tell stories drives the work of contemporary artist, composer, and performer
Jay Bolotin. Raised on a farm in rural Kentucky, Bolotin remembers his childhood as one
that was filled with storytelling and music. Both of these creative influences are evident in
the artwork on view in this exhibition.
Based on a series of woodcuts, The Jackleg Testament Part I: Jack & Eve is an animated,
operatic film – the first known woodcut motion picture – that reinterprets the story of
Adam and Eve as a dark, provocative tale in which Eve is lured from the Garden of Eden by
a Jack-in-the-Box. Bolotin’s complex, ambiguous work references German Expressionism,
American folk art, prints from the Northern Renaissance, and medieval religious imagery.
In addition to the woodcuts and video that comprise Part I of The Jackleg Testament,
the exhibition also includes a preview of work-in-progress on The Jackleg Testament
Part II: The Book of Only Enoch, the second part of the planned trilogy. During a four-day
residency to oversee the installation of this exhibition, Jay Bolotin will annotate the drawings
included in Part II, writing directly on the walls of the gallery. These notes will remain on view
throughout the run of the show.
The Jackleg Testament
KBDLrMFH (adj.)
incompetent, unskillful, dishonest; makeshift
Part I: The Story of Jack & Eve
The genesis for this operatic film was a series of woodcuts produced by Bolotin in the late
1990s that prominently featured the figure of Eve. In the past, Bolotin’s woodcuts served
as inspiration for works in other media (paintings, sculpture, and set designs); this time he
wanted to “…make a piece that used the woodcuts directly, rather than being interpreted
into some other form.”
Bolotin worked on The Jackleg Testament Part I: Jack & Eve for over five years, allowing the
story to evolve gradually as he cut each block for the woodcuts, simultaneously working on
the prints and the film. Therefore, the prints that make up The Jackleg Testament Part I are
the source material for, as well as the visual diary of, the film’s creation.
The film begins with the figure of Nobodaddy (William Blake’s name for the God of the
Hebrew Testament) who has made a mess of the world he created. He determines that the
only way to set things right is to stage a play in the Theater of the Western Regions. Using
Tarot cards to divine the future—and with the help of his sidekick the Serpent—Nobodaddy
sends a Jack-in-the-Box (Jack) to lure Eve to Nobotown to participate in the play. As Bolotin
says in his summary of the plot: “Disaster ensues.”
Images of the characters are broken up into their parts, which were scanned and animated
digitally to make the movie. The prints include hand-colored narrative scenes and fragments
of text, creating a compelling document of a rich and complicated story.
Related
Programming
Thursday, June 28 2–3 PM
MEMBERS’ EXTRA: Art Insight
Exhibition Preview with Jay Bolotin
Join artist Jay Bolotin and curator
Aprile Gallant for a private preview
of the exhibition, including the artist’s
gallery annotations accompanying his
newest work in Part II.
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Space limited. Reservations required.
Reserve by June 25: 413.585.2777
or scmamembers@smith.edu
Members: $5 / Student Members: FREE
Part II: The Book of Only Enoch
In 2008, Bolotin began work on the second film in The Jackleg Testament trilogy. The
materials driving production of Part II include drawings, prints, and text. The drawings
came first, providing a way for Bolotin to develop the characters, their relationships, and
a possible narrative trajectory for the story. The film has grown organically from these
drawings, a written script, and further detailed studies of various figures in the story,
settings, landscapes, and objects.
In Part I, the movement of the characters is limited by their structure: the arms and legs
swing back and forth like paper dolls, and the opening and closing of the lower and upper
jaws simulate speech. In Part II, character animation will be more multi-layered and complex,
evoking more rounded, three-dimensional forms.
The artist’s handwritten gallery annotations will give exhibition viewers a sense of the
progression of the storyline, inspired in part by the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, (books
of the Old Testament not included in the accepted version of the text). One of these
versions includes the figure of Enoch, a man “who went to Heaven and lived to tell the
tale.” Bolotin reimagines and rechristens this figure “Only Enoch,” the son of the only Jewish
coal miner in Kentucky. The narrative for The Book of Only Enoch continues to evolve.
For further information about this exhibition please visit
www.smith.edu/artmuseum/On-View.
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Friday, July 13
FREE
4–8 PM
Entire Museum and
Museum Shop open, plus:
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4–6 PM Hands on! Art-making for
ages 4+ w/adult (while supplies last)
Informal reception
6–6:30 PM Open Eyes: Informal
guided gallery conversation
7–8 PM Artist lecture by Jay Bolotin
Stoddard Auditorium (across Elm Street)
PLEASE BE SEATED: Members reserved seating
available for this event. Reserve by July 11:
scmamembers@smith.edu or 413.585.2777
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All programs, exhibitions, dates,
and locations subject to change.
Visit www.smith.edu/artmuseum for updates.
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This exhibition is supported by the Judith Plesser Targan,
Smith class of 1953, Art Museum Fund.
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