PORTFOLIO: Carole P. Kunstadt
Carole P. Kunstadt creates exquisite, tactile works, most often from religious materials such as the Bible and related texts. Kunstadt says her background informs her art practice: “Having been brought up Jewish, and having married into a family that fled Europe in 1938, I am most sensitive to the importance of memory and history.” Kunstadt’s careful way with materials demonstrates the respect and awe of the life of these objects and books.
In this issue, we are featuring her Sacred Poem Series, which she made out of the physical material of the book Parish Psalmody, A Collection of Psalms and Hymns for Public Worship, which was published in 1844 and 1849. Kunstadt re-presents the psalmody in stunning, poignant ways. David Revere McFadden, Chief Curator of the Museum of Arts and Design, New York, included Kunstadt’s work in the exhibition “Slash: Paper Under the Knife” at the Museum of Arts & Design in 2009, and he says of her work: “A sense of intimacy and loss pervades the work; fragments of memory and belief are brought together to create a hybrid form that negates the sequential nature of reading, replacing it with suggestive echoes of inner states of praise, worship, and prayer.”
Kunstadt has shown her work widely in many galleries and museums, including the Museum of Biblical Art, The Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, and Minnesota Center for Book Arts. She received her BFA from Hartford Art School, and after graduating, she studied at Akademie der Bildenen Künste in Munich, Germany. Most recently, Kunstadt curated the exhibition “Boundless: Altered Books in Contemporary Art” at the Hill-Stead Museum in Farmington, Connecticut.
In this issue, we are featuring her Sacred Poem Series, which she made out of the physical material of the book Parish Psalmody, A Collection of Psalms and Hymns for Public Worship, which was published in 1844 and 1849. Kunstadt re-presents the psalmody in stunning, poignant ways. David Revere McFadden, Chief Curator of the Museum of Arts and Design, New York, included Kunstadt’s work in the exhibition “Slash: Paper Under the Knife” at the Museum of Arts & Design in 2009, and he says of her work: “A sense of intimacy and loss pervades the work; fragments of memory and belief are brought together to create a hybrid form that negates the sequential nature of reading, replacing it with suggestive echoes of inner states of praise, worship, and prayer.”
Kunstadt has shown her work widely in many galleries and museums, including the Museum of Biblical Art, The Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, and Minnesota Center for Book Arts. She received her BFA from Hartford Art School, and after graduating, she studied at Akademie der Bildenen Künste in Munich, Germany. Most recently, Kunstadt curated the exhibition “Boundless: Altered Books in Contemporary Art” at the Hill-Stead Museum in Farmington, Connecticut.
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