Soviet children

It could be a scene straight out of French cultural life in the 19th century. Artists pack a satchel, gather some paints, brushes and a canvas or two, and travel around the country seeking inspiration from the Mediterranean climate and its landscape. It's a romantic notion, but in the case of five Israeli artists, known collectively as “New Barbizon,” it's not far from the truth. Just over three years ago, Zoya Cherkassky, Anna Lukashevsky, Natalia Zourabova, Olga Kundina and Asia Lukin – all hailing from the former Soviet Union – decided to leave their studios and paint modern Israeli life as they saw it. Teeming street scenes awash in bright, garish colors, portraits of ordinary Israeli and Arab citizens, working- class people engaged in manual labor – these were just some of their subjects, all rendered against the backdrop of Tel Aviv's sun-drenched urban sprawl. If this sounds like the stuff of Sunday painters, the group is anything but. Cherkassky and Zourabova studied art from an early age at one of Russia's finest academies. Kundina and Lukin, who also studied in the former Soviet Union, received private instruction from well-regarded teachers, and Lukashevsky studied graphic design in the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design. The group takes its name from the Barbizon school of painters, which was active in France roughly between 1830 and 1870. The “school” was part of a movement toward realism in art, painting scenes from nature and rural life. New Barbizon is currently showing at the Bar David Museum at Kibbutz Bar'am and has an open studio exhibit in a makeshift gallery space on the fifth floor of the Tel Aviv Central Bus Station. Cherkassky is also exhibiting in Berlin, and Zourabova has a solo show in Tel Aviv's Rosenfeld Gallery. The group met in a somewhat haphazard fashion, and initially Zourabova and Lukashevsky were reticent about participating. “Zoya wanted to form a group and was searching for people on the Internet, but it was not clear what kind of group,” says Zourabova. “We started to interact. One day, Zoya and Olga met and went to draw together, although Olga had done it many times before. It was a gradual process, and then it started to become a regular part of our lives.” Lukashevsky's reluctance to join the group was connected to issues of artistic direction. “It's a stereotype that artists who came from the Soviet Union, with the usual academic skills, draw from nature and are often very similar to each other. These artists didn't accept contemporary art and continued to work in the old traditional style. I was searching for a new way, and was not interested in just painting realistic scenes,” she explains. The group began taking painting trips, traveling to various parts of the country. In addition to drawing on the streets of Haifa and Jerusalem, they visited diverse and out-of-the-way locations such as a Bedouin market in Rahat, an army base in the Negev and a refugee camp in Bethlehem. For Zourabova, it seemed like a kind of documentation. “The people in the camp were very friendly. It was surprising – it felt to me like we were doing a kind of peace work,” she says. Although the New Barbizon members are primarily concerned with purely artistic subjects, they have not shirked issues that are part of Israel's political climate. One of their regular haunts has been Tel Aviv's Shapira neighborhood, or more specifically Levinsky Park and the area in and around the central bus station. Members of the group are regularly seen sketching some of the neighborhood's immigrant population and, on occasion, have drawn scenes of the demonstrations that have troubled the area in the past year. Beautiful is not a word that springs to mind when thinking about the area around the central bus station. But Lukashevsky thinks it's possible to find beauty in the most unlikely places. “When you paint from nature, everything becomes interesting. There is a lot of interaction with people. Maybe I go out to paint a landscape and somebody comes along and starts talking to me. This is always happening,” she says. “I usually end up by putting down the landscape and drawing their portrait. This kind of social interaction changes your outlook. I used to run away from places like the central bus station. Now it's my new home,” she adds jokingly. The group's outdoor activities have also extended to leading painting workshops in various parts of the city. In September of last year, Zourabova started an outdoor school called “Schmetzalel.” The name is a pun at the expense of the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, which, according to both Zourabova and Lukashevsky, does not allocate sufficient time for students to master the basic skills of painting, such as life drawing and figure study. “It's an open project. There are regular participants. Students from Bezalel have also taken part, but people who see us on the streets can join immediately. Drawing from observation gives you a connection to life and helps us to see clearly what is happening around us. I believe in the idea very much,” says Zourabova. “You have this completely different dialogue with yourself,” she continues. “In the studio I can work for only a short period of time. In some ways you have to find the answer in your head; a kind of internal dialogue takes place. If I am looking for answers for my work, I realize I should go out.” Although artists generally work in a studio, painting outdoors has helped to bind New Barbizon as a group. Each member maintains her own artistic voice, although the group shares a common ethos. Lukashevsky simply says that “it works. As artists, we are talking about painting all the time.” While the group is aware of accusations that its approach is somewhat out of sync with much of contemporary art, it is quick to note that many people feel frustrated with the art market and about what exactly contemporary art is. The tension between New Barbizon's traditional approach and contemporary art is acknowledged within the group. Referring to both their roots and academic training, Lukashevsky, echoing a conversation she had with Cherkassky on the subject, says, “This is what made us, it's a part of who we are. In some ways we are still Soviet children.” The work of New Barbizon is on display at Kibbutz Bar'am until June 8, and at the Tel Aviv Central Bus Station until May 10. http://newbarbizon.wix.com/new-barbizon#!portraits/ckiy

Soviet children

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Soviet children

New Barbizon, a group of five female artists, paints modern Israeli life ‘in situ’.

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