DESCRIPTION: King David, author of Psalms, composed many songs of joy and praise on his seven-stringed harp. The number seven represents a natural world in which times of joy are mixed with times of sorrow.
This lithograph depicts an eight-stringed harp which will be played in the Holy Temple in the rebuilt City of Jerusalem shown in the background. The harp is for the new songs that will be composed at this joyous time when Moshiach, a descendant from the House of David, comes. The number eight symbolizes a miraculous world in which the Divine Presence is revealed and celebration and rejoicing will be eternal.
ARTIST INFORMATION: : Today's renaissance of the traditional Jewish lifestyle has been accompanied by the blossoming of a multi-faceted Chasidic art movement. Michoel Muchnik, among the foremost Chassidic artists, has gained prominence with his joyfully imaginative renderings in acrylics, watercolors, and original lithographs. He frequently combines his delicate use of color and fine line work into a story book motif. Even at its most mystical, a Muchnik painting is inexplicably familiar.
Born in Philadelphia in 1952, Muchnik received his artistic training at Rhode Island School of Design. He later studied at the Rabbinical College of America, in Morristown, New Jersey.
Muchnik has staged exhibits of his original paintings, bas-relief mosaics and lithographs throughout the world. His originals have been displayed at the Brooklyn Museum, the Goldman Arts Gallery in Washington, D.C., Yeshiva University Museum in New York, Dansforth Museum in Massachusetts, the Sydney Jewish Museum and the Sharei Tzedek Collection in Israel.
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