Jewish Museum Nicole Eisenman Seder Plate

The Passover table bears a number of symbolic items including a plate with special foods that celebrate freedom and recall the bitterness of slavery. The tradition of a special plate for these Seder foods originates in a reference in the Mishnah (first-second century CE), recording older customs, but there is no record of how it was decorated. In Europe beginning in at least the 18th century, artisans began making Seder plates with scenes from the Passover story, or showing the table and its guests. In many plates, the decoration details the order of the Passover service and the placement of the symbolic foods. The museum's renowned Judaica collection includes numerous Seder plates.

 

This reproduction Seder plate is an adaptation of one in the Jewish Museum's collection created by Nicole Eisenman in 2015. The original is hand painted on unglazed terracotta; the reproduction features a clear glaze on terracotta, making it food safe. Terracotta is a porous material, so please allow for some minor flaws within the glaze. The Seder plate arrives in a coordinating cotton drawstring pouch for storage.

 

Nicole Eisenman was born in Verdun, France, and received her bachelor's degree in fine arts from the Rhode Island School of Design. In 2005 she and the artist A.L.Steiner cofounded Ridykeulous, an artist-run collective that focuses primarily on queer and feminist art and produces exhibitions, performances and publications. She was awarded the Carnegie Prize in 2013 and a MacArthur Genius Grant in 2015. Eisenman lives and works in New York.