Norman Raeben (1901 – 12 December 1978) was an American painter. He also taught painting.

Life

He was born in the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

, the youngest of the six children, four girls and two boys, of

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

author Sholom Aleichem. Aleichem's most famous character, Tevye the Milkman, gave the blueprint for the musical ''

Fiddler on the Roof ''Fiddler on the Roof'' is a musical theatre, musical with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and musical theatre#Book musicals, book by Joseph Stein, set in the Pale of Settlement of Russian Empire, Imperial Russia in or around 19 ...

''. Raeben's father's name, Sholom Aleichem, is a pen-name that means "peace unto to you". His father's name at birth was Solomon Rabinowitz. Raeben modeled his own pseudonymous last name on "Rabinowitz". In his native Russia Rueben was known as "Numa". Raeben moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

with his family in 1914. He studied painting from

Robert Henri Robert Henri (; June 24, 1865 – July 12, 1929) was an American painter and teacher. As a young man, he studied in Paris, where he identified strongly with the Impressionists, and determined to lead an even more dramatic revolt against A ...

George Luks George Benjamin Luks (August 13, 1867 – October 29, 1933) was an American artist, identified with the aggressively realistic Ashcan School of American painting. After travelling and studying in Europe, Luks worked as a newspaper illustrator a ...

and

John French Sloan John French Sloan (August 2, 1871 – September 7, 1951) was an American painter and etcher. He is considered to be one of the founders of the Ashcan school of American art. He was also a member of the group known as The Eight. He is best know ...

, who all belonged to the

Ashcan School The Ashcan School, also called the Ash Can School, was an artistic movement in the United States during the late 19th-early 20th century that produced works portraying scenes of daily life in New York, often in the city's poorer neighborhoods. T ...

. His studio was on the 11th floor of

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhattan), 57t ...

. His student, Carolyn Schlam, a painter and author, studied with Raeben five days a week for seven years in the 1970s. In her book ''The Creative Path: A View from the Studio on the Making of Art'', she describes in detail his studio, his teachings, and the experience of being one of his students. She describes "riding up the in the elevator and hearing the voices of the opera singers, echoes of violins and pianos, and the myriad sounds" of artists working in the building’s many studios. Raeben was a "robust lion of a man" with a "commanding personality". Raeben's studio was not large, and had windows on all sides. The weekly schedule began on Monday, when he taught still life, then on Tuesday and Thursday a live model was provided. Raeben was a very involved teacher, and would demonstrate or lecture passionately. He would move about the room, often stopping at a student’s canvas, and calling the other students over for an impromptu lesson. He taught his students not only how to draw and paint, but also the meanings and philosophies underlying what they were doing, what it meant to be an artist, and Raeben's Ten Commandments. His other students included

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan; born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Described as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his nearly 70-year ...

, Bernice Sokol Kramer, Andrew Gottlieb, Janet Cohn, John Smith-Amato, Diana Postel, Lori Lerner, Rosalyn (Roz) Jacobs and the photographer, Larry Herman. Raeben's mission was to teach the art of painting through intuition and feeling, instead of through conceptualization. During the seventies, his inspiring lessons ran counter to the then prevalent conceptualism of contemporary mainstream art. Early in 1974, Bob Dylan studied painting with Raeben five days a week from 8:30 am to 4:00 in the afternoon, for two months. This was when he was composing his album ''Blood on the Tracks''. Dylan said that Raeben "put my mind and my hand and my eye together, in a way that allowed me to do consciously what I unconsciously felt." Dylan said that Raeben "didn’t teach you so much how to draw … he looked into you and told you what you were." Raeben taught Dylan how to create narratives that placed "yesterday, today and tomorrow all in the same room." Dylan's song "Tangled Up in Blue" took its title from a comment that Raeben made regarding one of Dylan's paintings. Bob Dylan was mystified, at first, by Norman's didactic insistence on perceptual honesty, i.e. on not exaggerating the truth of what was seen, when first learning the basics of drawing. "Bob", Norman said, "look at that round coffee table. Now, show me how you would paint it." Raeben was a chess prodigy. His father once claimed that if he earned millions from Hollywood, he would buy his son a gold chess set. He died of a heart attack in the lobby of his apartment. He was survived by his wife, Victoria, his son, Jay Raeben, president of the Physicians Radio Network, and his sister–the author, Marie Waife‐Goldberg.
"Norman Rueben, 77; Last Surviving Son of Sholom Aleichem". ''The New York Times''. Dec. 13, 1978

Available Academic Studies

A first contribution on Raeben's influence on Bob Dylan was published by scholar Alessandro Carrera in his book ''La voce di Bob Dylan. Un racconto dell'America'' in 2011.More recently, his works and teachings have been collected and studied by scholar Fabio Fantuzzi in the book ''"All the Way from New Orleans to New Jerusalem": Norman Raeben e Bob Dylan'' (2020), which offers a comprehensive analysis of his life, art career, and influence on Dylan. Other contributions on his art and influence can also be found in the book ''Bob Dylan and the Arts. Songs, Film, Painting, and Sculpture in Dylan’s Universe'' (ESL, 2020), which collects essays and first-hand stories by academics, artists, songwriters, and music critics.

References

Bibliography

* Carrera, Alessandro. ''La voce di Bob Dylan. Un racconto dell'America.'' Milano: Feltrinelli, 2011. * Fantuzzi, Fabio. "I dieci comandamenti dell'arte: Bob Dylan e l'eterno dilemma tra genio e plagio", ''Musica/Realtà'', 105, 2014. * Fantuzzi, Fabio. "Cenni di ermeneutica ebraica nelle teorie di Norman Raeben, figlio di Scholem Aleichem e maestro di Bob Dylan", in ''Tales of Unfulfilled Times. Saggi critici in onore di Dario Calimani'', ed. by Fabio Fantuzzi. Venezia: Edizioni Ca' Foscari, 2017: 53–77. * Fantuzzi, Fabio. ''"All the Way from New Orleans to New Jerusalem": Norman Raeben e Bob Dylan''. Ph.D. thesis, Roma: Università degli Studi Roma Tre, 2020. * Carrera, Alessandro, Maria Anita Stefanelli and Fabio Fantuzzi (ed. by). ''Bob Dylan and the Arts. Songs, Film, Painting, and Sculpture in Dylan’s Universe''. Roma: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 2020.

External links

* * Fantuzzi, Fabio. "Cenni di ermeneutica ebraica nelle teorie di Norman Raeben, figlio di Scholem Aleichem e maestro di Bob Dylan", in ''Tales of Unfulfilled Times. Saggi critici in onore di Dario Calimani'', ed. by Fabio Fantuzzi. Venezia: Edizioni Ca' Foscari, 2017: https://edizionicafoscari.unive.it/en/edizioni4/libri/978-88-6969-157-7/cenni-di-ermeneutica-ebraica-nelle-teorie-di-norma/ * Fantuzzi, Fabio. "All the Way from New Orleans to New Jerusalem: Norman Raeben e Bob Dylan", Università degli Studi Roma Tre, 2020: https://arcadia.sba.uniroma3.it/handle/2307/40804?locale=so * Carrera, Alessandro, Maria Anita Stefanelli and Fabio Fantuzzi (ed. by). ''Bob Dylan and the Arts. Songs, Film, Painting, and Sculpture in Dylan’s Universe''. Roma, Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 2020: https://www.academia.edu/45079386/Bob_Dylan_and_the_Arts_Songs_Film_Painting_and_Sculpture_in_Dylans_Universe {{DEFAULTSORT:Raeben, Norman 1901 births 1978 deaths Students of Robert Henri 20th-century American painters American male painters American people of Russian-Jewish descent Jewish Russian artists 20th-century American male artists Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States