This Week in Culture
Dr. Michael R. Hayden: The Wild Goose Chase for Missing Family Heirlooms
Dr. Michael R. Hayden, a distinguished geneticist at the age of 71, holds an impressive career as the founder of five biotechnology companies, the recipient of many admirable awards in the field of medicine and a professor at the University of British Columbia. Born in South Africa, Dr. Hayden earned his medical degree and a PhD in genetics before completing his studies in internal medicine at Harvard Medical School. Renowned for his expertise in Huntington’s disease and Lou Gehrig’s disease, he is the chief executive officer of Prilenia, a clinical treatment centre for neurodegenerative diseases. On top of that, he is on the board of 89 Bio, a company dedicated to developing new treatments for liver and lipid diseases.
Despite his busy lifestyle, Hayden manages to set aside four to five hours each week to focus on a personal endeavour of his: the recovery of his family’s silver Judaica lost during World War II to the Nazis.
The search began in 1986 when a curator from the Gottingen City Museumgranted him access to explore the basement where he stumbled upon a significant family relic. It was a wimpel, a long thin cloth that had once wrapped his great-grandfather, Max Raphael Hahn, during his circumcision. After a lengthy process, he successfully reclaimed this cherished heirloom and later used it during his third daughter Jessica Raphaela Hahn’s baby-naming ceremony, paying homage to his great-great-grandfather. Decades later, Haydn began another search – for his grandfather’s Judaica collection which had been stolen by Nazi soldiers.
It was the tenth of November in 1938, the night of Kristallnacht, when Nazi SS men broke into the home of his grandfather, Max Hahn, a prosperous businessman and synagogue chairman at the time, and arrested him and his wife, Gertrud. Max was incarcerated for seven months during which time his valuable collection of silver Judaica was confiscated. Following his release, Hahn and his wife fled to Hamburg in hopes of escaping the wrath of the Nazis. However, in 1941 they were deported to Latvia and put on a train destined for a concentration camp. Gertrud was believed to have died on the train ride and Max was killed in a mass shooting in 1942. Fortunately, their two children, Hanni and Rudolf had been sent to safety in England in 1939.
The aforementioned collection of silver Judacai was among the finest with pieces dating back to the 17th century, which included ceremonial lamps, candlesticks, kiddush cups, and spice boxes. Dr. Hayden has already managed to recover dozens of household items stolen from his family during the WWII era along with a few religious artefacts, housed in a German museum. However, the collection of silver Judaica remains elusive, despite the support of a German organization that has funded two years of his research. He did succeed in reclaiming one of the 166 missing items, a kiddush cup, but his work is not done.
“The objects are important, not in terms of their value, but in terms of their significance. For me, it’s a step forward toward trying to close what is a deep and painful wound that stays with me every day. And trying to move forward to a new reality, of new relations, new acknowledgements, and some peace.”Dr. Michael R. Hayden on NYT
Haydn is not the only one trying to recapture art and other household items confiscated from his relatives. In fact, he represents a large number of Jewish families that have invested decades in pursuit of their lost family heirlooms that were either stolen or sold under duress during the Nazi era.
HBO Boss, “Lieutenant” Bloys, Admits to Creating a “Secret Army” for Attacking TV Critics.
Casey Bloys, the CEO and chairman of HBO, has responded to a report alleging that he used employees to engage in online attacks against TV critics under fake accounts. The report he was referring to was one made by Rolling Stone that highlighted alleged text messages between Bloys and Kathleen McCaffrey, HBO’s senior vice president. They allegedly conspired to create a “secret army” to counter negative reviews of HBO’s shows from TV critics.
The report also sheds light on an incident that occurred in 2022 involving Kathryn VanArendonk, a Vulture TV critic, who wrote a subtweet about Perry Mason: “Dear prestige TV. Please find some way to communicate male trauma besides showing me a flashback to the hero’s memories of trench warfare.” Casey Bloys did not take kindly to this and drafted a response to the comment over text intending for Sully Temori, a former employee, to post it on Twitter. The draft read: “A somewhat elitist take. Is there anything more traumatic for men (and now women) than fighting in a war? Sorry if that seems too convenient for you.” Ultimately, the tweet was not posted, however, it did inspire the idea of creating a “secret army” on Twitter.
Bloys decided to address the issue during a presentation for HBO and Max’s upcoming programming, stating that he was and forever will be passionate about the shows HBO decides to produce and that he wants viewers to love them just as much as he does. “When you think about that, and then think of 2020 and 2021, I’m working from home and doing an unhealthy amount of scrolling through Twitter. And I came up with a very, very dumb idea to vent my frustration.” He admitted that his idea of attacking TV critics on Twitter was “not very effective” and was sorry to anyone who had been involved.
Sully Temori, the aforementioned employee, is currently filing a wrongful termination lawsuit against HBO, claiming that he had been harassed subsequent to his mental health diagnosis. He also named Abel Tesfaye and two producers for The Idol for which he also worked as a script coordinator. He claims that he faced similar discriminatory behaviour there as well.
Mushroom Heads: A Satirical Approach to Fashion Through the Ages
Ewa Juszkiewicz had been captivated by a particular portrait of Katarzyna Starzeńska, a Polish aristocrat and “19th-century influencer”, completed in 1804 by Francois Gérard. The small painting is of Starzenska in a black dress and red shawl and was once exhibited at the Royal Castle in Warsaw which had once been the home to Polish monarchs.
Juszkiewicz, a surrealist painter, painted her own retention of the portrait, drawing inspiration from the original. Her version is much larger and depicts Starzenska’s head wrapped in white, black and red fabrics with leaves sticking out of the top. She entitled her work “In a Shady Valley, Near a Running Water (after Francois Gérard)” and is one of the nine oil paintings by Juszkiewicz featured in an exhibition that opened on the third of November this week at the Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills. The entire collection consists of recreations of previous paintings depicting women from the 18th and 19th centuries.
What sets Juszkiewicz’s style apart is her deliberate obscuring of the faces of the women in her portraits. Some are concealed in fabrics while others are hidden beneath plants, such as mushrooms, or illusory and intricate hairdos. Juszkiewicz says that her portraits are a satirical approach to highlighting “the absurdity” of portraiture of women in the 18th and 19th centuries and how they were constantly portrayed with polite eyes, pink cheeks and porcelain skin. The portraits are so indistinguishable that they all look like they are depicting the same woman. The same pale-white skin, same stature and indisputable elegance. She described those features as a sort of “mask” that emphasised uniformity rather than individuality. By covering the heads of the subjects, Juszkiewicz encourages viewers to see the women as individuals and more than just pretty faces.
In her pursuit of these unique portraits, Juszkiewicz delved into the study of fashion throughout various historical periods, referencing materials such as a century-old copy of “The History of French Women’s Costume: Fashions of the Middle Ages.” She also examined contemporary fashion, carefully studying the intricate details and silhouettes of modern runway clothing.
Derek Blasberg, the executive editor of Gagosian Quarterly, suggests that Juszkiewicz’s portraits have the same satirical approach to historical interpretations as Sofia Coppola’s film “Marie Antoinette” and the Netflix series “Bridgerton.” Making her exhibitions of thought-provoking portraiture worth a visit.
