cover image Ruth Weisberg

Ruth Weisberg

Ruth Weisberg. Feminist Press, $15 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-935312-96-6

Weisberg remembers that her art professors at the University of Michigan emphasized `` drawing and seeing .'' In her paintings, drawings and prints, the superb draftsman and contemplative observer of life and history proves herself true to that creed. This catalogue for the first major exhibition of her work (now traveling in the United States) offers two insightful essays and a sampling of her compositions. Exhibit curator Jackson of the University of Michigan School of Art writes of Weisberg's early concern with ``themes of human justice and issues of social and political import'' and her turning inward to interpret her Jewish roots, her experience as a woman and her relationships with friends and family. Thalia Gouma-Peterson of the College of Wooster, Ohio, pens the second essay, which explains how Weisberg's ``feminist visual texts'' have addressed specifically female concerns and critiqued patriarchal institutions. There are only 16 reproductions of Weisberg's works included herenot enough to show the full range of her subject matter and her talent. But the selectionslovers reflected in a mirror, shtetl children playing, a mother and infantillustrate the subtlety, gentleness and emotional depth of Weisberg's art. (September)