I did not understand what had happened to bring on the idea I drew with a pen, working slowly, calmly, and with ease, the segment from Michelangelo’s Last Judgment of the boat beached on the Styx and Charon striking at his doomed passengers with an oar, forcing them onto the shores of torment and hell.
His controversial use of Christian crucifixion imagery in these paintings alienates him from both his family and his Ladover community, and in the end, he is exiled and leaves Brooklyn to move back to Paris.
After graduating from college, Asher spends a year in Paris struggling to come to terms with his mother’s lifelong suffering and the tension between himself and his parents, and he finally expresses himself through the Brooklyn Crucifixion paintings. After Asher starts college, Anna Schaeffer begins arranging exhibitions for Asher he receives much positive critical attention, and his work is purchased for high prices. As Asher continues to hone his skill as a painter, he still struggles between his conservative religious upbringing and his desire to portray the truth of his subjects-even if that means the final product is uncomfortable or provocative. After Asher’s bar mitzvah, the Rebbe gets Jacob Kahn, a well-known Jewish sculptor, to mentor Asher in painting, and Asher spends many summers with Kahn and his wife Tanya. As a boy, Asher befriends Yudel Krinsky during Aryeh’s frequent travels to Eastern Europe to help persecuted Jews. Asher’s mother Rivkeh is often caught between him and his disapproving father. Though he doesn’t dislike his yeshiva studies, Asher struggles to have enough energy for both school and his art. The Ladover community, and Asher’s father in particular, believe that art is from the sitra achra and is therefore demonic in nature. Throughout his life, these two commitments create conflict in Asher’s mind, as well as between Asher and his parents and yeshiva teachers. From the time he is a little boy in Brooklyn, New York, Asher has ingenious instincts and a talent for drawing. He is the son of Aryeh Lev and Rivkeh Lev. Asher Lev is a Hasidic Jew and a gifted artist, a member of the somewhat insular and highly observant Ladover sect.
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