Is 'Amy Winehouse' Exhibit Too Loving a Portrait?
Posted By richards on October 28, 2014
Family-Curated Show Avoid's Singer's Flaws and Death
Mark Okoh
Published October 28, 2014.
(Haaretz) Amy Winehouse: A Family Portrait, an exhibition originally curated with the assistance of the late singers brother and sister-in-law at the Jewish Museum London, has relocated, almost intact, to Tel Aviv.
In addition to the fact that Winehouse, who died from alcohol poisoning at age 27 in 2011, has won pride of place in terms of Londons Jewish cultural heritage, she was also a superstar who scooped up five Grammy Awards on a single night. Posthumously, her Back to Black album became the 21st-centurys bestselling album in Britain, at least for a time.
In anticipation of exceptional interest in the exhibit here, too, Beit Hatfutsot has also arranged for extended hours for the show, which is on through May 1 of next year.
It has created a real media buzz, and even on a recent weekday morning, the large gallery space was bustling with visitors. On my way out, I was trampled by a group of ninth-graders, eager to make their way inside.
A fairly large sign at the entrance publicizes names of some 10 sponsors of the exhibition, some of them commercial entities. One could be cruel and point out the irony in the fact that one of them is the popular Guinness beer brand, considering the circumstances of Winehouses death. Prominently mentioned at the show is also the fact after the singers death, her family established a foundation dedicated to raising awareness of the dangers of alcohol and drug abuse among young people.
If anyone had preconceived notions about Beit Hatfutsoth as a stogy, irrelevant institution, the Winehouse show offers a good opportunity to say that in recent years, the museums exhibitions have reflected genuine contemporary awareness. Indeed, the major current exhibition at the museum, Mazal UBracha (Good Fortune and a Blessing), also gives the impression of being a show with its finger on the pulse.
Along with my praise for Beit Hatfutsoth for its willingness to host a British invader of the highest order, featuring the most trivial details of pop culture and completely lacking any national-official aura I might be perceived as the responsible adult when it comes to this particular exhibition, taking issue with it not being sufficiently official or detached.
