A MOSAIC OF ARTISTRY AND CHASSIDUS

R’ Michoel’s artwork is sold all over the world as unique creations that depict the world of Torah and mitzvos in bas-relief mosaics. * Few know the famous artist’s personal story. He became involved with Chabad in the 70’s and received detailed guidance from the Rebbe regarding his art. * In a fascinating conversation with Beis Moshiach, R’ Michoel tells about the inspiration he got from the Rebbe and about the artistic ideas that he derives from sichos and maamarim

By Moshe Shlomo 

It was 5741 when the Chassidic artist, R’ Michoel Muchnik, went to South Africa for an art exhibit. He experienced problems with his visa there. When he asked for the Rebbe’s bracha, the Rebbe told him to extend his stay there, remaining two weeks longer than planned. Maximizing his time there, he arranged additional exhibits in nearby towns.

One of the exhibits took place in Cape Town, by the shliach R’ Mendel Popack. Along with the exhibit he planned a special gathering for his community.

In Cape Town there lived a wealthy man that the shliach knew, but for some reason he had been unable to be mekarev him to Chabad. The shliach, who knew that this man loved art, invited him to emcee the event. This was the first time that the man agreed to enter the Chabad House. The event was successful and the wealthy man got involved and began taking an interest in Chabad.

“Eighteen years later,” says R’ Michoel, “I went to visit my daughter who was in seminary in South Africa and I met the chairman of the board of the Chabad House; it was that wealthy man who did not want to hear about Chabad.”

THE YECHIDUS WHICH SHAPED THE YOUNG ARTIST’S LIFE

At his first yechidus, the Rebbe saw a great future for the Lubavitcher artist and took a great interest in his paintings. At this time, Michoel had finished learning in yeshiva and decided that the time had come to go back to that which he thought he had been created for, art. He did not want to do this without getting the Rebbe’s approval. Michoel was only twenty-one when he had his first yechidus. He brought some of his artwork with him. The Rebbe took an interest in various details and even told Michoel to start publicizing his art in and beyond the Jewish world.

During the yechidus the Rebbe, surprisingly, asked that he leave the paintings with him. Michoel of course agreed. The Rebbe asked, “Are these original paintings?” When Michoel said yes, the Rebbe said he could not take the originals but asked him to photograph them and send them through the secretaries. From this incident, Michoel understood how much the Rebbe cared about the work of artists and took it as a green light to continue. He went back to his studio, put on his smock, and with paintbrush in hand began to paint. That first yechidus, which shaped his life, was eight minutes long.

CHASSIDUS AS A SOURCE OF ARTISTIC INSPIRATION

Michoel Muchnik was born in 5712 in Philadelphia to a Conservative family. He would attend Hebrew School now and then where he got a little Judaism.

At bar mitzva age, and even before that, he began painting, not in a professional capacity but as a hobby. The hobby made significant progress when he turned seventeen, when he began getting more involved in the world of art. To his disappointment, after several years he did not find his place in the art world and wasn’t all that pleased with his creations.

“In general,” says Michoel, “to succeed in the world as an artist is quite a challenge. In every branch of art, in order to be successful, you need to put in a lot of work and be extremely dedicated and mainly, you need siyata d’Shmaya.”

Because of this and other reasons, Michoel decided to put down his paintbrush. He began going around to try and find the right place for himself. Knowing that he was a Jew, he began looking in this direction. He became interested in Judaism in general and Chabad Chassidus in particular, with the help of his friend, R’ Meir Abehsera a”h (the Rebbe’s “whistler”), who was also searching at the time.

Upon discovering Chassidus, Michoel decided to focus on learning, especially Chassidus. He spent the following years in yeshiva in Morristown. He acclimated well and enjoyed the lifestyle and he especially connected to the mashpia, R’ Avrohom Lipsker.

When he decided to go to back to painting, he received permission from the Rebbe to do this on condition that it would not disturb his studies in yeshiva. “Today,” says Michoel, “after years of learning Chassidus, and connecting to the depth of the world of Kabbala, my art takes on a whole new meaning. The work today is far more elevated. Every painting contains a hidden message; nothing is done without a reason. Even the colors I choose have a reason.”

Colors, as explained in Kabbala, have significance. Red is the color that represents g’vura. As we see, every child knows that red means stop. White represents chesed. The combination of the two is pink, which corresponds to tiferes, rachamim.

“Even the inspiration for a given painting usually comes from something I learned in Chassidus that day or previously,” he says. “Sometimes I see something in a sicha of the Rebbe, I hear a point from a maamer, and I get the inspiration from that. That leads to all sorts of ideas and images that I paint.

“As the Chassidic aphorism goes, from whatever I see and hear I try to learn a lesson; what does it say to me as a Chassid, and then, as an artist. This usually generates ideas for my work.”

R’ Michoel recently held a special event for artists in the spirit of the year of Hakhel, in the course of which he explained, with the help of a slideshow, that before learning about Chassidus, his artistic works were much darker and incomprehensible. They lacked color, which meant they lacked joy. Once he started learning Chassidus, his art became full of color and joy and mainly, feeling.

“My paintings,” explained Michoel to his fellow artists, “are meant to depict Jewish life, and how can that be done without colors? Without joy? Without chayus? And without Jewish-Chassidic emotion?” In his paintings, Judaism becomes something alive and joyous that is worthwhile to take part in.

THE SOUL IN ART

Michoel’s special craft is unique and is called mosaic art. R’ Michoel assembles pieces of stone that together comprise a work of art. The stones are placed in some material that holds them together. Mosaics are sometimes just designs with no images and sometimes shapes and images are depicted. The quality of the mosaic is determined by the size of the stones that are used (the smaller the stones, the more complicated the design can be). He can give weight to the images and designs (with the use of light and shadow) by using mosaic stones.

In order to understand the uniqueness of his work, we attended an exhibit and met with some of his friends and employees.

Shloimy Rabin, Michoel’s personal manager, shared his experiences of working with Michoel. “When I walk into Michoel’s studio, I am amazed every time. The words ‘who renews in His goodness, every day, constantly,’ takes on additional meaning and I always feel as though this is the first time I am looking at Michoel’s three dimensional art, and feel as though I am in it. I’ve never been to the Old City of Yerushalayim but with Michoel’s art, I feel as though I am walking around there. With his art you can really live it.”

Michoel has many stories to share:

“In 5741, I sent the Rebbe a painting of the Jewish shtetl in which I depicted the old Jewish way of life. I got detailed feedback from the Rebbe. For example, I drew all sorts of enterprises in the town and the Rebbe wanted me to add a facility for the manufacture of Shabbos and Yom Tov candles.

“There were buildings of chesed organizations and I drew them on the left side. The shul was on the right. The Rebbe pointed out that based on what is explained in Chassidus and Kabbala, it should be the other way around. T’filla, which mostly corresponds to g’vura, should be on the left, and those things associated with chesed should be on the right. The Rebbe added that the world stands on three things, the pillar on the right is chesed, the pillar on the left is t’filla, and the pillar in the center is for Torah study. Based on this, something having to do with Torah study should go in the center.

“Since then, when I use the three pillars, they are always in this order.” (see sidebar)

One of the most famous instructions that Michoel got from the Rebbe has to do with Shabbos candles. This horaa pertains to every shliach and every Lubavitcher. When the candle lighting campaign began, Michoel designed a pin with two candles. When he submitted the sample to the Rebbe, the Rebbe asked him to add another small candle to indicate that a little girl should also light a Shabbos candle. On another occasion the Rebbe told him that the small candle should be in the center, between the two larger ones, not on the side.

I asked Michoel, where does the passion for painting come from and where does the desire to work in such a difficult field come from. He didn’t have to think much to answer me; I suppose this isn’t the first time he has been asked these questions.

At the end of the 50’s there was an exhibit in Philadelphia by the artist, Jacques Lipchitz. In honor of the exhibit, the Rebbe sent a letter in English and when Michoel saw a copy of it many years later it was a source of great inspiration for him.

This is what the Rebbe wrote, “Those who have been Divinely gifted in art, whether sculpture or painting and the like, have the privilege of being able to convert an inanimate thing, such as a brush, paint and canvas, or wood and stone, etc., into living form. In a deeper sense, it is the ability to transform to a certain extent the material into spiritual, even where the creation is in still life, and certainly where the artistic work has to do with living creatures and humans. How much more so if the art medium is used to advance ideas, especially Torah and Mitzvoth, which would raise the artistic skill to its highest level.”

The Rebbe went on to say that by artists showing the beauty of Torah and mitzvos, they have the ability to influence the Jewish people and draw them closer to their Father in heaven.

For R’ Michoel, his work is his shlichus. It is his way of drawing Jews closer to Torah and mitzvos; it is his way of preparing the world for Moshiach. In his creations, he includes motifs of Geula and in depicting Yerushalayim you can see the Beis HaMikdash which arouses yearning for the future Geula.

Although he does not personally know most of his “mekuravim,” he makes an impact on thousands. Many became involved in Torah and mitzvos thanks to his art, whether through his books for children or one of his exhibits. Sometimes, the Jewish concepts that come to the viewers are totally new for them and sometimes they serve as reminders. When they see a mitzva in his art, they are reminded of how they used to do that mitzva at home.

THE REBBE INSTRUCTED THAT PEOPLE ATTEND THE EXHIBIT

While preparing this article, we tried to understand what art is altogether, what is painting, and what did the Rebbe think of it.

For Michoel, art is his form of expression; the way he chooses to express his feelings, feelings that sometimes are difficult to express verbally. Michoel says, “Art is something within you and you bring it out to those around you. The Rebbe once said to a painter who brought the Rebbe a gift of a painting he drew, that he was giving a part of his neshama to the Rebbe. Indeed, art comes from a deep place in the soul. When you convey this to others, you are giving them a part of your neshama.

“In 5737, I did an exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum. At the time, there was a large group of people from France who had come to see the Rebbe. In the middle of one of the farbrengens, in front of everyone, the Rebbe asked the group to go and see my exhibit. If I ever had doubts about whether the Rebbe liked my work, well, after that, any doubts disappeared. The Rebbe was asking them, in front of all the Chassidim, to go view my exhibit!

“What this event did for me and my work, I cannot express in words. All my doubts about whether this was really my shlichus, were resolved. Who would have believed?

“From what I saw and experienced, the Rebbe really enjoyed what I do. On another occasion, the Rebbe even asked me to design pushkas, something that wasn’t so popular at the time. After that, I heard from one of the secretaries that the Rebbe left the pushka I designed in his office. My pushka on the Rebbe’s desk!”

Aside from the influence Michoel has via his art, he also has a lot of influence on other artists that he deals with. He often comes across drawings of a mitzva done by non-Jews. They sometimes make mistakes in details of the mitzva. “For example, I have come across quite a few paintings of menorahs in which they drew five or some other number of branches other than eight. Someone who is not frum and sees this painting can easily become confused regarding this mitzva. When I see this, I take the opportunity not only to get it corrected but to convey to the artist a little more Judaism, a little more Chassidus.”

ART AS A KIRUV MEDIUM

When I asked Michoel to share some stories about Jews who became interested in Torah and mitzvos through his artwork, he laughed and said that there are many. He agreed to tell a few.

“At the beginning of the 80’s, a woman wearing a wig knocked at my door who looked like someone raised Lubavitch. She wanted to tell me her story. She was from Tulsa, Oklahoma. A few years earlier, two bachurim visited her city on Merkos Shlichus. They brought kosher food and st”am and books for children that were illustrated by Michoel. The woman, who knew nothing about Judaism, bought her son a set of these books that tell children about Jewish life. Her son really liked the books and he got his parents to do things as depicted in the books. So without knowing any halacha, they began to keep mitzvos based on what it said in the books. They slowly began lighting candles for Shabbos, keeping kosher, and when the bachurim returned the following summer, the family contacted them and learned more about how to do mitzvos.” Today, the family is Lubavitch in every respect thanks to the artwork he did for those books.

R’ Michoel has another story about a girl who attended an exhibit he did in Chicago. She loved his style and after a long talk he referred her to the local Chabad House where she became more Jewishly involved and then went to Machon Chana in Crown Heights.

Michoel ended off with a story about how his paintings helped shluchim too:

“On one of my visits to Uruguay, I had problems entering the country and they did not let me enter with my paintings. After a few attempts at persuasion, the shliach remembered a certain senior government person that had a connection with the customs authorities. That man had come with him to the Rebbe for a bracha before the elections and was very favorably impressed. The shliach contacted him and within a few minutes, I was allowed into the country with all my paintings! The shliach told me that since then, every time they ran into trouble with customs, usually before Pesach when they import huge quantities of matzos and wine, that politician arranges everything for them without their even having to ask.”

THE ARTIST’S DREAM

I asked Michoel whether he had any message to convey to our readers. He said, “Before, we spoke about horaos I got from the Rebbe that should be publicized. The Rebbe once told me, after I turned to him in a difficult time, that I need to think about divine providence and everything would work out. In my experience, this has helped me tremendously in stressful times.”

As for Michoel’s dream, “My dream is to prepare a new painting about the future Geula but not like my other paintings that are the products of my imagination. I want to draw from my personal experience of the actual Geula.”