The Rose Family Seder Books

The Rose Family Seder Books are unique artists’ books, showcasing over sixty years of Passover-themed artwork collected through an innovative annual commission from the Rose family—exceptional friends of The New York Public Library. The first three volumes of the Rose Family Seder Books were presented to the Library’s Dorot Jewish Division by the Rose family in 2005. Artists and approaches represented in this decades-long collaboration range all the way from New York social realist Jack Levine to New York Review of Books caricaturist David Levine, including some of the most prominent American artists of the twentieth century. Many of the contributors were American Jewish artists, often from New York; some, from Saul Raskin and Leonard Baskin to Larry Rivers, were already famous for treating Jewish themes, while others, such as Seymour Chwast and Milton Glaser, were not. Notable contributors also include the New York Spanish expressionist Federico Castellón and the Israeli social realist Naftali Bezem. Materials and techniques employed in these volumes range from a stained-glass window design executed in mylar to several pages of Frank Stella’s sculptural paper puzzle constructions. The fourth volume, recently completed and displayed this spring for the first time, is now also a part of the Dorot Jewish Division’s holdings.