Gilah Yelin Hirsch

Gilah Yelin Hirsch (born 1944) is an artist who works as a painter and writer. She has been a professor of art at California State University, Dominguez Hills in Los Angeles since 1973.

Gilah Yelin Hirsch
Born1944 (age 76–77)
Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Early career 1970-1986

Hirsch earned a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1967, and an MFA in pictorial arts from UCLA in 1970. After graduating she taught at Santa Monica College and the University of Judaism, (now American Jewish University), then in 1973 joined the art department at California State University Dominguez Hills in Los Angeles, and obtained tenure in 1978.

She was a founding member of the Los Angeles Council of Women Artists (1971), the "mother" organization of many subsequent feminist art organizations.[1] She also named and facilitated the Joan of Art Seminars, (originated by June Wayne), teaching artists the business aspects of their professional careers. Since then, (1972), this has become common practice and a regular component of art school curricula.[2][3]

In 1974 Hirsch brought the life and work of Canadian artist Emily Carr to the attention of the American academic community at the College Art Association, Washington, DC.[2][4][5]

Hirsch curated the exhibition, Metamagic, in 1978 at the California State University Dominguez Hills University Art Gallery in Los Angeles. This exhibit was the first held nationally in a major exhibition space to be focused on the spiritual in art and attracted worldwide attention.[6]

Hirsch spent the fall semester of 1979 as visiting artist at Saint Martin's School of Art, London, England. As requests for exhibitions of her work and talks about her philosophy multiplied, she originated a slide presentation of her paintings that reflected both aspects of her work. This unusual presentation was introduced at the Menninger Foundation’s annual conference in Council Grove, Kansas (1982). Hirsch has continued to serve as presenter for numerous Council Grove conferences (sponsored by the Menninger Foundation, Life Science Institute, Center for Ecology and Energy Medicine) and has convened two conferences (1995, 2006). In 1983 Hirsch first presented her theory on the origin of alphabet, Cosmography: The Writing of the Universe, at the Council Grove Conference.[6]

In 1985 Hirsch received a senior artist grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, which – with a sabbatical from California State University – enabled her to travel in Asia. In December 1986 she met Ngawangdanhup Narkyid (Kuno), the official biographer of the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India, initiating a friendship that would prove to be life-changing for the artist.[7]

In 2009 she coordinated Stepping into the Light, an exhibition of work by California State University Dominguez Hills students in aid of sexually assaulted women.[8]

Hirsch has also pursued an interest in architecture, and over a period of 35 years restored a 1900s duplex in Venice, California.[9]

Hirsch has shown work at Hebrew Union College, Los Angeles, CA (2012, 2011, 2010, 2009), and 2011 Vincent Gallery, Moscow, Russia, 2009 Symbol Galeria, Budapest (Hungary), 2007 Piano Nobile Gallery, Kraków (Poland), 2006 Soviart Gallery, Kiev (Ukraine), 2006 Artoteka Gallery, Bratislava and 2005 Limes Galeria, Komarno (Slovakia). Her archives are housed in the Smithsonian Archives of American Art.

References
  1. Wilding, Faith, By Our Own Hands, Double X, Santa Monica, CA, 1977.
  2. Love, Barbara J.Feminists Who Changed America, 1963-1975. University of Illinois Press, 2006. Pages:213-214.
  3. "Oral history interview with Rachel Rosenthal, 1989 Sept. 2-3 - Oral Histories | Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution". Archived from the original on August 4, 2011. Retrieved February 21, 2012.
  4. "College of Arts & Humanities". Archived from the original on April 3, 2012. Retrieved February 21, 2012.
  5. The Feminist Art Journal, Emily Carr,Gilah Yelin Hirsch, Summer 1976, Vol. 5.3
  6. Nelson, Mary Carroll. Artists of the Spirit: New Prophets in Art and Mysticism. California, Arcus Publishing, 1994.
  7. Nelson, Mary Carroll.Artists of the Spirit: New Prophets in Art and Mysticism.CA, Arcus Publishing Co., 1994.
  8. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on February 7, 2011. Retrieved April 12, 2012.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  9. 2010 Cottages in the Sun: Bungalows of Venice, California, Margaret Bach (Author), Melba Levick (Photographer), Rizzoli, Mar. 2; 2007
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