Artist Joshua Meyer finds light in Hanukkah-themed work at Worcester Art Museum exhibition

WORCESTER — Hanukkah, also called the Festival of Lights, is observed for eight nights and days. Cambridge artist Joshua Meyer's “Eight Approaches," an intriguing abstract work of eight panels currently being exhibited at the Worcester Art Museum, is tied into complementary concepts about light and Hanukkah.

"Eight Approaches" went on exhibition Sunday at the museum's free all-day "Hanukkah at WAM" event and will stay on display through Jan. 7. Meanwhile, Hanukkah, 2023 begins at sundown Thursday and ends the evening of Dec. 15.

Meyer has said, "I was thinking about the overlaps between my art and my Judaism and how does Judaism approach light and time, and suddenly I realized that Hanukkah was already doing that. Every day we light one candle so we're marking time with light. So the next question is, how do we paint that?"

Hanukkah commemorates the ancient Israelites trying to resanctify their temple after a period of oppression. They found there was not enough sacred oil to light the temple lamp for the prescribed eight days. Although equipped with only enough oil for one day, the menorah miraculously stayed lit for eight days.

The eight almost life-size (each one is 40 inches tall and about a foot wide) rectangular panels of "Eight Approaches" depict thickly layered and changing abstract images, colors and light.

"You can see the layers. How I put one thing down and change it. I want you to be with me painting in real time," said Meyer, who speaks gently but intently, during an interview.

"I think art illuminates a dark place," he said. With "Eight Approaches, " "We're talking about being in a really dark place and searching for light. The panels tell the story of searching for something that has a core of light and truth. We have to be to be able to look for light and I hope that art can help people to find a voice."

In the story of Hanukkah, Meyer sees light as a metaphor, he said. "The story is about being in a dark place and in that place you find a glimmer of light."

Meyer said his art has circled around two themes: Light and time.

"I think a great painting makes you experience time differently. It slows you down," he said.

By saying time, Meyer said he also means change. "The way we change." With his art, "my paintings aren't narrative in the traditional sense." The eight panels of "Eight Approaches" do not go "in one direction of the other." They may not have even been painted in the sequence seen at the exhibition. "I don't want a fixed story. I want them (people viewing) to be thinking about light, change and creation. I want each one of these panels to tell a different story. Art has the ability to hold competing truths and Judaism does this with parables."

More: A sewing Renaissance: Swanson's Fabrics in Turners Falls eyes mending community

More: Local favorites set to perform on the annual 'Folk Revival' holiday show on WICN

Some of the panels seem to have the image of a man, at times distant, then closer, and then further away again from panel to panel. Asked who the figure is or what it represents, Meyer said, "because I want the paintings to stay universal, I want them to sort of be any man. It could be me. It could be you. It could be anyone. I want you to fill in."

The Hanukkah menorah has nine candles — eight that will gradually be lit one by one on each of the eight nights and the shamash candle which is used to light the other eight. Meyer said that the viewer is the shamash for "Eight Approaches."

"That's the role the viewer has to play. When you come up to the painting it changes again because it has a new person to have a dialogue with," he said. "I want the painting to change the person. I want the person to change the painting."

The Worcester Art Museum was a busy place during "Hanukkah at WAM" shortly after noon Sunday with lots of families taking in the various displays and participating in activities. That was certainly true of the Lancaster Room (near the Lancaster Street entrance to the museum) where "Eight Approaches" was on display. Before Meyer was scheduled to give a talk, there was a latke-making demonstration going on in the room, with latkes to eat afterward. The tables and chairs were full of people and there was a sort of latke buzz. But some people could also be seen approaching "Eight Approaches" and standing in front of the panels. Meyer cheerfully acknowledged he was competing with the latkes as he took a microphone for his talk.

Born in Lubbock, Texas, Meyer was raised in Central Connecticut and contemplated law school but also found himself in a painting studio for many hours at a time, he said. He studied art at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem and Yale University, and has exhibited in galleries and museums internationally. During Hanukkah last year, "Eight Approaches" exhibited at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts.

When Meyer was working on "Eight Approaches" in his studio in early 2022, a 44-year-old British Pakistani armed with a pistol took four people hostage in the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville, Texas. Meyer said he asked himself how does he deal with evil and anti-semitism and thought about the oil in the temple and how it rededicated space. "Can we use art as a way to rededicate our temples?" he asked.

Meyer also recalled that a few years ago a friend was killed by a terrorist bus bomb in Israel. "All I could do was paint all day. I realized that was my primal language," he said of his reaction. "It brings us unfortunately up to current events."

"Eight Approaches" is the first time Meyer has had a work exhibited at the Worcester Art Museum.

"I couldn't be more excited. It's such a rich collection. To be hanging down the hall from Rembrandt (WAM's exhibition “Rembrandt: Etchings from the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen”) is mind blowing to me," Meyer said.

He praised the Worcester Art Museum for exhibiting "Eight Approaches" during Hanukkah. "It's not just lighting up a menorah. They're taking the audience seriously and asking them to think and engage," he said.

"I hope the art can be something that will help people search for light in the darkness. My whole language is visual and without light that goes away. So although it's a metaphor, it's art at the core of my being."

The Worcester Art Museum is open Wednesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Joshua Meyer's 'Eight Approaches' lights Hanukkah themes at WAM