Contemporary Art Exhibition Inspired By Leonard Cohen Opens In April 2019

The Jewish Museum will present Leonard Cohen: A Crack in Everything, a contemporary art exhibition inspired by the themes of Leonard Cohen's life and work. This is the first exhibition entirely devoted to the imagination and legacy of the influential singer/songwriter, man of letters, and global icon from Montréal, Canada.

Organized by the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal (MAC), where it debuted, the exhibition is curated by John Zeppetelli, Director and Chief Curator at the MAC, and Victor Shiffman, Guest Curator. Leonard Cohen: A Crack in Everything will embark on a tour, with the Jewish Museum as its first stop, from April 12 through September 8, 2019. Following its New York presentation, the exhibition will travel to Copenhagen and San Francisco.

Leonard Cohen: A Crack in Everything includes commissioned works by a range of International Artists who have been inspired by Cohen's style and recurring themes in his work. The New York presentation will include Kara Blake, Candice Breitz, Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller, Christophe Chassol, Daily Tous Les Jours, Tacita Dean, Kota Ezawa, George Fok, Ari Folman, Jon Rafman, and Taryn Simon. The exhibition will also include a video projection showcasing Cohen's own drawings, as well as an innovative multimedia gallery where visitors can hear covers of Cohen's songs by musicians such as Lou Doillon; Feist; Moby; and The National with Sufjan Stevens, Ragnar Kjartansson, and Richard Reed Parry, among others.

A world-renowned novelist, poet, and singer/songwriter who inspired generations of writers, musicians, and artists, Leonard Cohen (1934-2016) was an extraordinary poet of the imperfection of the human condition, giving voice to what it means to be fully alert to the complexities and desires of both body and soul. For decades, he tenaciously supplied the world with melancholy and urgent observations on the state of the human heart, in songs such as "Suzanne," "Bird on a Wire," and "Hallelujah." With equal parts gravitas and grace, Cohen teased out a startlingly inventive and singular language, depicting both an exalted spirituality and an earthly sexuality. His interweaving of the sacred and the profane, of mystery and accessibility, was such a compelling combination it became seared into memory.

Among the works in the exhibition is I'm Your Man (A Portrait of Leonard Cohen) (2017), a multi-channel video installation by Candice Breitz (South African, b. 1972). The work brings together a community of ardent Leonard Cohen fans to pay tribute to the late legend. Each of the 18 participants was offered the opportunity to perform and record his own version of Cohen's comeback album I'm Your Man (1988) in a professional recording studio. At Breitz's invitation, the album's backing vocals were sumptuously reinterpreted by the Shaar Hashomayim Synagogue Choir, an all-male choir representing the congregation in Westmount, Canada, that Cohen belonged to all his life.

Film director Ari Folman's (Israeli, b. 1962) Depression Chamber (2017) allows one visitor at a time into a darkened room, where they are confronted by the demons of depression, a theme that can be traced throughout Cohen's body of work. After the visitor lies down, Cohen's "Famous Blue Raincoat" plays while the song's lyrics are projected on the walls, slowly morphing into letters and icons that symbolize Cohen's multifaceted thematic universe.

The Poetry Machine (2017), an installation by Janet Cardiff (Canadian, b. 1957) and George Bures Miller (Canadian, b. 1960), is a vintage Wurlitzer organ surrounded by various old speakers and gramophone horns. When a visitor presses an organ key, they hear Cohen's voice reading a poem from his Book of Longing, first published in 2006. Each key on the organ contains a different poem from the book. When numerous keys are pressed at once, a cacophony of Cohen's voice surrounds the visitor.

The exhibition takes its title from Cohen's song "Anthem" from the album The Future1992):
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.
In this song, Cohen suggests that there is always room for redemption and hope, because that very crack is what lets in the light that allows life to grow.

Organized by the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal (MAC), the exhibition is curated by John Zeppetelli, Director and Chief Curator at the MAC, and Victor Shiffman, Guest Curator. The New York presentation is coordinated for the Jewish Museum by Kelly Taxter, Barnett and Annalee Newman Curator of Contemporary Art, and Ruth Beech, Senior Deputy Director, Programs & Strategic Initiatives.

Following its New York showing, the exhibition will tour to Kunstforeningen GL STRAND and Nikolaj Kunsthal, Copenhagen, Denmark (October 23, 2019 - February 16, 2020) and the Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco (September 17, 2020 - January 3, 2021).

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue published by the MAC that details this unique exhibition by tracing the two years of preparation preceding its opening at the MAC in 2017 and includes texts by artists, curators, Leonard Cohen's biographer Sylvie Simons, and author Chantal Ringuet.

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