The Art of Wisdom: Proverbs, Adages, and Maxims, and the Images They Inspire

Every culture has traditional sayings that express perceived truth drawn from common sense and human experience. Whether they come from Proverbs and Ecclesiastes in the Hebrew Bible; from Sephardic, Judaeo-Arabic, and Yiddish expressions; or from old English, Chinese, and African folk wisdom, these concise and often profound statements offer insight into human nature and guidance for living a moral and upright existence.

Curator Phyllis Friedman has assembled "Proverbs, Adages, and Maxims" at the Heller Museum at Hebrew Union College in New York through June 24, 2026, featuring 57 artists of diverse backgrounds who offer visual interpretations of familiar sayings and worthy shorthand advice. Ranging from representational to abstract approaches and embracing a broad range of mediums, their art applies age-old maxims to explore interpersonal relationships, environmental concerns, gender stereotypes, Holocaust remembrance, and the impact of trauma on the human psyche.

Contemporary social and political issues inspired Judy Chicago and Donald Woodman's collaborative work, "We're All in the Same Boat" (2000), which depicts diverse passengers pulling together in a sinking canoe to advocate empathy in the face of shared adversity.

Jewish text sources inspired numerous artists' works. Israeli artist Deborah Morag quotes Job 14:7 in "There is Hope for a Tree: If It Is Cut It Will Sprout Again" (2023), conveying the capacity for resilience in her photograph of a thriving avocado grove on the Gaza border six months before October 7^th, whose silver-wrapped trees express both injury and care, a gesture of protection and belief in renewal.

Richard McBee's "A Capable Woman, Who Can Find? Far Beyond Pearls Is Her Value" (2016) layers Numbers 16:1, Talmud Sanhedrin 109b-110a, and Proverbs 31 into a contemporary visual midrash. In the Talmudic expansion of the Korach story, Mrs. Ohn ben Peles saves her husband from joining the rebellion by getting him drunk and sitting at their tent entrance with her hair uncovered so the rebels will stay away, and the rabbis credit her with his salvation. McBee's title echoes the opening of Proverbs 31's "Eshet Chayil," a liturgical poem praising the "woman of valor," linking this little-known heroine to the biblical ideal and highlighting her quiet but decisive moral courage.

The transmission of Holocaust memory inspires Debbie Teicholz Guedalia's "For the Dead and the Living, We Must Bear Witness" (1994), which quotes Nobel Peace Prize laureate survivor Elie Wiesel. The smoldering, furrowed fields of a kibbutz, where Shoah survivors planted new roots, echo the embedded Budapest train tracks that carried their families to the death camps.

The plight of women in Afghanistan after the U.S. and Allied withdrawal is seen in Elizabeth Myers Castonguay's depiction of a woman holding the endangered tree of knowledge in "If You Educate a Man, You Educate an Individual. If You Educate a Woman, You Educate a Family" (2002), quoting the Ghanaian scholar Dr. James Emmanuel Kwegyir Aggrey (1875-1972).

Climate change is the focus of Iris Levinson's "The Writing Is on the Wall" (2025), whose ravaged homes offer a meditation on the January 2025 Los Angeles fires and the rebellion of nature, no longer able to sustain the environmental damage by fires, floods, plastic pollution, and oil slicks.

Several artists convey a broad range of human experiences through their art. Karen Smul's "If the Shoe Fits, Wear It" (2024) immerses us in the inclusive, festive crowd enjoying Pride Month's joyful fashion parade.

Issues of fertility and reproduction are expressed by Jennifer Radin's eggs tumbling off a stunned woman's lap amid the urgency of a kettle whistling and bread rising in "Don't Count Your Chickens before They're Hatched" (2025).

Finally, Judaism's diverse ethnic cultures abound in this exhibition, as seen in Lenore Mizrahi-Cohen's "What's Past Is Dead" (2021), a calligraphic papercut of a Judaeo-Arabic Mattal (popular saying) that honors her Syrian-Jewish heritage.

Susan Kaplow's "There Is Nothing So Whole as a Broken Heart" (2022) is a hand-felted and beaded heart created during the isolation of the COVID pandemic, which quotes the Hasidic Kotzker Rebbe (1787-1859), who lived in seclusion for the last 20 years of his life.

A Yiddish adage is depicted in Debbie Schore's "The Mirror Tells the Truth" (2024). An assemblage of varied convex, concave, and holographic hand mirrors affixed on a full-length mirror offer an exploration of self-reflection, fragmented identity, and ever-shifting truth.

All of these works encourage us to deepen our understanding of the world and others, and to reflect on our own perceptions of our identities and values. From admonitions to consoling commentaries on the vagaries of life, the visual midrash (interpretation) of these proverbs, adages, and maxims imparts wisdom, empathy, hope, and healing.

As always, you can view the exhibition catalogue on HUC's website or visit Heller Museum at Hebrew Union College (New York City) in person.

Heller Museum at Hebrew Union College 
Location: One West Fourth Street, New York 
On View: Now through June 24, 2026 
Hours: Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. - 6:30 p.m. 
Admission: Free
 
Tours/Information: 212-824-2218; hellermuseum@huc.edu 
Free Heller Museum exhibition audio guide at bloombergconnects.org
Exhibition catalog: huc.edu/proverbs