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Kaifeng Jews Help Art Dealer Finish Four-Decade Trip to China
Sept. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Gallery owner Norman Tolman's debut collection in Shanghai brings to mind one of those travel quizzes that tease with an unidentified photo and ask, ``Where are we?'' One painting shows a towering gate with a Chinese idiom declaring the city blessed by the nation and heaven. In the crowd below are men wearing Jewish yarmulkes atop their queues, the traditional imperial braided ponytails. Another depicts a synagogue at Rosh Hashanah, the congregation in long robes and white shawls, the rabbi reading from the Torah. Carved mahogany screens and a Chinese incense burner complete the scene. The exhibit of 21 paintings takes us to Kaifeng, along the Yellow River 375 miles southwest of Beijing, starting around the 11th century. Jewish merchants from Persia traveling the Silk Road passed through the city, capital of the Song Dynasty (960-1279).
Fashion Week | Candy colors bloom in spring
After a season of gray, expect spring fashions to pop in technicolor. The runways at New York Fashion Week were awash with color Thursday, from candy-hued magentas and yellows to muted shades of blush pink, light tan and dusty blue. It's a far cry from the gray that dominated the fall lines. Sunny yellow and candylike pink and blue created the palette for Miss Sixty (where the skinny jean lives on), while standouts at Bill Blass came in blush-colored silk-satin and gunmetal silk organza. At Nicole Miller late Wednesday, stained-glass prints and earthy colors dominated. Michael Fink, fashion director at Saks Fifth Avenue, said it wasn't yet clear what the big color story will be: candy-colored brights, subdued cosmetics colors or black and white. The only mistake, he said, would be to wear any of them head to toe.
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