MASONIC ART
PRESS RELEASE
Ari Roussimoff’s film “Shadows In The City” at MoMA
Craftsmen Online is pleased to announce that Bro. Ari Roussimoff of Consolidated Lodge No.31 will have his horror film “Shadows In The City” shown at MoMA from October 5-11, 2023.
PRESS RELEASE: SHADOWS IN THE CITY
Not seen in 30 years. MoMA, the Museum of Modern Art in New York is presenting international painter/filmmaker Ari Roussimoff’s 1991 Expressionist-Surreal-Horror-Art movie “Shadows In The City”. The film will run from October 5 to 11, 2023 at the museum, 11 West 53rd Street, New York, NY 10019.
MoMA has recently acquired Shadows In The City for its permanent collection and will be restoring it for preservation. The cast includes the final performances of legendary filmmakers Jack Smith and Emile de Antonio. The film also features Andy Warhol’s comedic superstar Taylor Mead, Annie Sprinkle, Valerie Caris, Clayton Patterson, Joe Coleman, Nick Zedd, Kembra Pfahler, Bruce Byron, Hollywood Horror Movie Scream Queen Brinke Stevens and many luminaries of the underground movements, art world and hard-core Biker culture.
Filmed over a seven year period in black and white on location throughout New York in Times Square, Coney Island and other locations, Shadows in the City follows a suicidal former freak show barker and Korean War Veteran’s emotional decline as he wanders the streets of the city, searching in vain for some type of salvation. As his daily routines involve experiences with prostitution, motorcycle clubs and urban crime, he is plagued by troubling memories and haunting visions from the past and from within.
See link below for MoMA website description:
https://www.moma.org/calendar/film/5630
Masonic Art
Ari Roussimoff’s first major Masonic painting, “Hiram’s Apron” made its debut at the Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Masonic Library and Museum of New York. In subsequent years, the Library exhibited numerous other of his Masonic artworks, such as “King Solomon’s Vision”, “Masonic Melody” and “A Ladder Through Life” which is currently on display at the Library.
Roussimoff’s Masonic triptych “Parable of Light and Dark” was on display at the Livingston Library for eight years. The triptych consists of three paintings which together are a symbolic depiction of Freemasonry from its legendary beginnings through to the present and into the future. The individual titles of each painting, chronologically, are 1. “Foundations”, 2. “Eclipse”, 3. “Rebirth”.
In March of 2013, the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the State of New York sponsored a large retrospective exhibition of Roussimoff’s paintings in Masonic Hall (French Doric Room). The artist has given lectures both at the Livingston Library and at Mariners Lodge on the meanings of symbols as they appear in his Masonic themed paintings.
In around 2012, he together with his partner Vivian Forlander directed and produced a short promotional video for the library. As for motion pictures, Roussimoff has been contemplating doing a full length feature docu-drama film on Freemasonry.
Written by: Craftsmen Online
