Yvette Szczupak-Thomas: Review

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Exhibition: 1956, French embassy, Tel-Aviv

Solo exhibition, French embassy, Tel-Aviv, 1956. Exposed: oils, aquarelles and gouaches.

[click to enlarge]

Digital images © Ariel L. Szczupak 2008

Friday, May 16, 2008

Exhibition: 1955, Bezalel Museum, Jerusalem

Solo exhibition, Bezalel Museum, 1955. Curator: Mordechai Narkiss. Exposed: oils, aquarelles and gouaches (list below).

Israel being then under a regime of austerity, and canvas being scarce and expensive, some of the oils are on plywood or cardboard.

[click to enlarge]

Digital images © Ariel L. Szczupak 2008

Monday, May 5, 2008

Exhibition: 2008, Petah-Tikva Museum

Collective exhibition: "Etchings, Scratches and Scars- Changing Representations of the Israeli Soldier", the Petach Tikva Museum of Art. Curator: Sigal Barkai. 07.3.2008 - 30.6.2008. Exposed: "3rd night, midnight news", a 6-Day War woodcut.

[click to enlarge]

The exhibition explores the connection between artistic printmaking and the representation of soldiers and warfare in Israel. It includes prints from the collection of the Petach Tikva Museum of Art, along with prints by contemporary artists, most of which were created especially for this exhibition. The decision to focus this exhibition on print work arises from the desire to explore a subject, which was usually treated on a grand scale employing official “state” vocabularies, through an alternate mode, featuring products of an artistic process that is more introverted and humble, that grapples with techniques and media that are not readily pliable or compliant. Etching plates are limited in size, which is dictated by the size of the printing press; the acids that eat into the surface of the plate demand a work rhythm that is sensitive and attentive to exacting organic processes; the results of these complex processes do not require large exhibition spaces. The reduction into both the small format of print work and its monochrome schemes enable the artists to refine a personal statement while excavating deeper strata, but also allow space for critical expression to emerge, without these expressions taking on the form of blatant propagandistic declarations. Even harsh claims are transformed by print work into an intimate, interiorized, and understated protest. [...]