“13 Days + 13 Nights, 1962: The Cuban Missile Crisis,” an exhibition by long-time D.C.-based painter Judy Jashinsky, is a fascinating personal voyage into a time of epic world turmoil. A noted painter of history, over the past several years Jashinsky has created more than forty works on paper, canvas and wood of landscapes, portraits, and personalities key to her memory of the time. She has also collaborated with artists in Chicago and Washington to create a sound installation and a signature video symbolizing the cultural climate in the U.S. during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The date of the public opening at Civilian marks the date President John F. Kennedy received a private letter from USSR Premier Nikita Kruschev. The letter wrote of Kruschev’s willingness to remove the nuclear missiles from Cuba in exchange for an American pledge never to invade it. Although the crisis would end two days later, this day noted a secret thawing, a coming to the senses of a world power capable of green-lighting or halting untold destruction and consequence.
Fifty years later, the Cuban Missile Crisis continues to be re-examined. In his book “One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War,” Michael Dobbs states the crisis is “far from being an example of ‘matchlessly calibrated diplomacy’" and is, instead, "better understood as a prime illustration of the limits of crisis management and the importance of the ever-present screw-up factor in world affairs.” According to Jashinsky, the relevance of this statement is upheld by the actions -- and at times inaction -- of our government to the plight of Americans and the rest of the world.
In high school at the time, in rural Wisconsin, Jashinsky can never forget the impact of the event and has spent years studying the Crisis. Including images of President Kennedy and his advisors, portraits of the players, and a younger generation who watched their parents stockpile food and board up the windows preparing for nuclear war, Jashinsky proves no stranger to communicating carefully studied moments in history. A "history painting that analyzes the past for lessons to use in the present and the future" inspires Jashinsky's unfolding of the Crisis through a rich, visual narration.
Her exhibition is an informed, human story and shares an artist’s re-examination of something not yet entirely understood but profoundly transforming. Portraits of cultural icons, including Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan, hang alongside images of close friends and noted Washingtonians. These portraits are enhanced by representational imagery of satellites in outer space, missiles launching into the sky, and beautiful Cuban beaches just after a hurricane. A 1960’s telephone emits Kennedy’s recorded voice as a TV console repeats advertisements and excerpts of sitcoms, setting the stage for a critical moment in American history.
Jashinsky's work has been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions including the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, The Corcoran Gallery of Art, The National Museum of Women in the Arts, and The Drawing Center, NY. She is represented in many collections including the National Gallery of Art, The Art Institute of Chicago, Cranbrook Academy of Art Museum, The University of Palermo, Buenos Aires, among others. In 2002 she was awarded the Visual Artist Support Grant by the Samuel and Adele Golden Foundation (Ceres Project Space) in New York.
October 26 - December 1, 2012
Opening Reception: Friday, October 26th, 2012, 7-9pm
13 Days + 13 Nights, 1962: The Cuban Missile Crisis is a fascinating personal voyage into a time of epic world turmoil. A noted painter of history, over the past several years Judy Jashinsky has created more than forty works on paper, canvas and wood of landscapes, portraits, and personalities key to her memory of the time.
