The Israeli art world reflects the fusion of worldly influences in Israeli society and thousands of years of Jewish tradition, to which some artists feel deeply connected, while others are completely detached from it. This world is vibrant and colorful, but it has also expressed conflict with the difficult Israeli reality.
Quoting Amitai Mendelsohn, senior curator for Israeli art at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, “It has always developed in a complex context of socio-political tension, war, and bloodshed – a context in which it is impossible to separate everyday individual life from the historical and the mythical.”
The modern Israeli art scene started 100 years ago when Reuven Rubin, among other Jewish artists, began to create here; that was over two decades before the modern state was officially established. I always found it fascinating that the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel was held at the Tel Aviv Museum (now known as Independence Hall), proving how art and culture were always essential to our society.
Also, during the ongoing war, Israeli artists don’t stop working. Almost every week, there are new openings and shows in many art galleries and museums.
Three Israeli artists whom I have chosen to interview for the Magazine, each with a very different approach, agreed to answer my three questions:
- What inspires you?
- What do you call art?
- What, in your opinion, makes your artwork different from that of other artists?
Andi LaVine Arnovitz
Andi LaVine Arnovitz is a conceptual artist who uses etching, digital information, and various printmaking processes, as well as fabric, thread, and even porcelain, to create print series, artists’ books, and large-scale installations. Arnovitz has been living and working in Jerusalem, where she moved after making aliyah from the United States 25 years ago. She holds a BFA from Washington University in St. Louis.
In her work, she shows sensitivity and explores various tensions that exist within religion, gender, and politics.
Arnovitz has exhibited all over the world. Her work is included in many private collections in the US and Europe, as well as at major universities, museums, and institutions, such as the US Library of Congress, the Israel National Library, the Smithsonian Museum, and the Museum of the Diaspora.
Currently, Israeli viewers can see some of the charming and very nostalgic watercolor collages created for the project The Future of Italian Jewish Cooking at a group show titled “Eat with the Eyes” at the Tel Aviv Artists House. At the beginning of March, two of her completely different pieces will be featured at the Jerusalem Biennale: What We Bring at the Italian Museum; and Vest of Prayers at the Museum on the Seam.
- Inspiration: “I get inspired by the gritty flashpoints where religion, politics, and gender meet. As this country often struggles with these issues, I have plenty to work with. I am inspired by situations where human beings are ultimate heroes or utterly misbehave. I am inspired by broken places that need healing, correcting, and redeeming. I am inspired by raw human emotion – things we all experience.”
- Meaning of art: “I think art is anything that elevates our reality, whether it is sorrow, pain, ecstasy, or grace. It can range from a simple sidewalk chalk drawing to a Rembrandt painting. I deeply believe that a picture paints a thousand words. For me, this is the ultimate, exquisite experience of an artwork: something that celebrates the human condition with anyone and everyone, without words; crossing boundaries of language, ignoring levels of education, money, gender, and all those hierarchies, actually. Art unites people; it gives them a universal experience that is shared.”
- Arnovitz’s artwork: “In my art, I try very hard to create awareness of things that I think are begging for our attention. Or I create works that make people feel that their experiences are shared; they are not alone. I like to seduce the viewers visually with something that fascinates or attracts them with the materials used, with texture, with craftsmanship, and then, slowly, I reveal another, deeper purpose to the art: to address a problem or a situation in need of repair. I feel I have succeeded when an image is seared into the viewers’ consciousness, haunting them. Anyone who experiences my website can see that I tend to shift materials depending on what the concept needs, but the foundation of my work almost always begins with paper. Whether it is a large-scale paper dress, a print, or an artist book, generally there is some form of paper manipulation. I am not a painter, and so that immediately sets me apart from many other artists. My work is conceptual, and the materials I use must align perfectly with the concept.”
andiarnovitz.com/
Gil Zablodovsky
Gil Zablodovsky, from Bat Yam, is a multidisciplinary artist mainly engaged in video art and installation. He is a member and a founder of the artists’ collective Grosso Modo Tel Aviv, with which he is preparing his new solo exhibition with the temporary name “Gil Zablodovsky: The concern manufacturing plant,” opening April 4. He is working on it with curator Gili Sitton.
A significant part of his work is the study of sound visuals and building the installations’ voice-based and site-specific projects. His background in design – he studied at the Higher School of Design and Seminar Hakibutzim College, where he obtained a bachelor’s degree in visual communication and education, and received a master’s degree in integrated design from the Holon Institute of Technology – adds a special touch to his work. The space he has chosen for his solo shows engages the audience and provokes their participation. For instance, in 2019, Zablodovsky’s exhibition “The Whole World” included the natural architecture of Tel Aviv, which was shown at an underground parking space and an elevator. Each parking space invited the viewers to a different world.
He has also presented his works at many group exhibitions and festivals in Israel and abroad, such as the Jewish Museum in Berlin; the New York Jewish Museum; the Zebra Festival in Germany; and Tel Aviv’s Grosso Modo Gallery.
- Inspiration: “Sounds of life and music. Music is like a safe, individual space where you set your boundaries and are the only one who can understand and feel what you hear. And I always believed that you have to have a muse in your life – someone in your mind who is like a star in the sky, and you are trying to reach for it. For me, the star is the singer Madonna, who has always invented herself and never lets anyone get in her way; she always believes in herself.”
- Meaning of art: “I’m a multidisciplinary artist, which means I’m working in several mediums: sound, light, visuals – physical and abstract. For me, the most important thing is that one can come to my exhibition and detach himself or herself from the outside world; in a way, it is like entering my point of view on life.”
- Zablodovsky’s artwork: “It comes from a very emotional space, and I always leave a doubt for the visitors about what they have seen, and I let them choose the way to connect to my art. There is always a big question in my art that I let visitors [answer] from experience and from their point of view.
My last exhibition was “Dancing with Tears in My Eyes.” I got to work with curator Sofie Berzon Mackie, which was on the themes of “How do you feel when you face reality?” and “How do you see the world through your eyes?” The meaning of the title of the exhibition was: Do you dance with tears of joy or sadness?”
On Instagram: @zablocreate
Shimon Pinto
Living and working in Jerusalem, Shimon Pinto is a painter and sculptor with over 30 years of experience, and in his art he is faithful to his memories. His paintings were shown in multiple solo and group shows and are in the collections of the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.
In February, he donated some of his paintings to the fundraising exhibition for the families of the reservists, who have been suffering in the current war. The show is held at the Sheetrit & Wolf Gallery’s new art house in Neveh Tzedek, Tel Aviv.
A self-taught artist (later in life, he studied at Tel Aviv’s Visual Art Center and Ben-Gurion University), he started drawing and painting at a very early age against his father’s will; he wanted his son to have a practical profession. He was the only boy in his religious Jewish family of Moroccan origin. They lived in Arad, a city in the middle of the desert, and his gaze on the desert is ever-present in his art. He combines memories with observations of the present. Some of his creations appear supernatural or remind the viewer of children’s book illustrations; but, as he explains, what at first might look like a landscape could have a second meaning. For example, what may seem like flowers in the hands of a bride is a heart. Pinto also incorporates symbols of Judaism in his work, like in the series “The Midrash.” He paints in oil on canvas.
Israeli art is like schnitzel in a pita – inside a simple Middle Eastern bread, there is a European dish, Pinto told the Magazine. He makes an important contribution to this mix of culture.
- Inspiration: “My childhood memories. I am observing my memories. Inside of me, there are a lot of fragments of the memories [built] until now. That explains the space in which I come from and my motivations.”
- Meaning of art: Art is breathing the way that I walk, the way that I speak. My art is honesty. Art is ethics; art is the way you raise your children (I have eight children, and all of them spent lots of time in my studio from an early age); art is hugging society; and art is a visual document.”
- Pinto’s artwork: “My art comes from my very intimate space – the way I grew up in Arad, in the Middle East, in a religious Moroccan family – in a particular space and, at the same time, a universal space. All the celebrations of color. There are double meanings; the field in my painting is also the stomach of a woman. I have had over three decades [of experience] in art; I had 18 solo exhibitions and many group shows. I get up early in the morning. I have my regime. I go to synagogue to pray Shaharit [the morning prayers]; I come back home, help my wife, and go to my studio to paint what I remember from my childhood – the desert, the donkeys of my Bedouin neighbors and friends, the children from my school, and some creatures [that look like angels or birds]. I just wonder still – I don’t know if the paint is female or male; what is its gender?” [Pinto smiles.]
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