Mark Podwal may be best known for his drawings on The New York Times OP-ED page. In addition, he is the author and illustrator of numerous books. Most of these works — Podwal's own, as well as those he has illustrated for Elie Wiesel, Harold Bloom and Francine Prose, typically focus on Jewish legend, history and tradition. Since 1971, Mark Podwal’s drawings and watercolors have been exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide including Yale University, the Israel Museum, Musée des Arts Décoratifs Palais du Louvre, the Skirball Museum in Los Angeles and the Jewish Museum in Prague.
Mark Podwal’s works are represented in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Victoria and Albert Museum, the Fogg Art Museum, The Library of Congress, the New Orleans Museum of Art, among others. Beyond his works on paper, Podwal’s artistry has been employed in an array of diverse projects including an Aubusson tapestry and five torah mantles for Temple Emanu-El in New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has reproduced his art on fourteen items including three ceramic plates, jewelry, a bookmark , color prints and notecards. In 1996, the French government named Podwal an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters. Hebrew College, Newton Centre, Massachusetts, in 2003 awarded him a Doctor of Humane Letters honoris causa. In 2006, he designed sixteen kiln cast windows for the United Jewish Appeal Federation Headquarters in New York. Podwal recently collaborated with Academy Award winning filmmaker Allan Miller on House of Life: The Old Jewish Cemetery in Prague. The documentary, narrated by Claire Bloom, is scheduled by Channel Thirteen and PBS for national broadcast in April 2009. Podwal’s papers are archived in the Princeton University Library. He has exhibited at Forum Gallery since 1977.
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