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Zelig Segal | Vera Gutkina | Uli Bocker | Anatoly Basin
The Divine Image
“And all must love the human form,
In heathen, Turk, or Jew
Where Mercy, Love, And Pity dwell
There God is dwelling too.” 1
If an image of a tree sparks images of trees, what does inspire a portrait of a man? Ideas of time, love, science, fashion, politics? The work of Art, in its actuality, is perception and each image breeds a hundred more.
Once Zelig Segal found three shapes cut out of white masonite and arranged them into the winged sculpture of an Angel. As well a rubber cylinder and a charred log of wood picked up the morning after Lag BaOmer bonfire, turns into a representation of the Devil. Segal does not build his sculptures from scratch. A metal sculpture named “Schizophrenia” has three pieces as the Angel, not two as a Devil. Segal’s “Stuff” is everything. Segal gets his inspiration from found elements which are sometimes materially unrelated and assembles them in a surprising manner to give them new and convincing meaning for creating that sudden magic which gives us sense of an inner revelation about something we were supposed to know through and through. There is a metaphysical portrait of gravitation being presented by two identical metal loops.
“I will not cease from Mental Fight,
Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand,
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England’s green and plea Land.” 2
The actual sword of Uli Bocker is his camera; it’s for hunting the divine images, the divine image of Jerusalem.
“You must become an ignorant man again
And see the sun again with an ignorant eye
And see it clearly in the idea of it.” 3
May be he is hunting after the still lives of streets of Jerusalem. By the way: Jerusalem is female for him.
1 William Blake, “The Divine Image“.
2 William Blake, “Milton”.
3 Wallace Stevens, “Notes toward a Supreme Fiction”, “It has been abstract”, section VI.
Even though Anatoli Basin has been painting nudes all his life, his work is mostly abstract, conventional associations are removed. You will see only lines, spaces, colors. Colors that didn’t exist before, that have yet had no name. Lines that exhibit strong tension.
“Two things of opposite natures seem to depend
On one another, as a man depends
On a woman, day on night, the imagined
On the real. This is the origin of change.
Winter and spring, cold copulars, embrace
And forth the particulars of rapture come.
Music falls on the silence like a sense,
A passion that we feel, not understand.” 4
The nudes who never made any pose, they have to come out like a surprise for the both, for the old men and for Susanna the same way.
When Vera Gutkina painted the self portrait on an industrially printed pattern, the painting starts making sense as a lyric image but only from a certain distance, because of the big respect the artist has gave to the pattern itself. There always has been a place for unfinished dialog between the creator and his creation. She depicts Basin as an angel with a few real buttons. There are thus some points of reality, but also a lot of fresh air in an empty space and in the undulation s of a virgin canvas. Bocker's portrait is as clear as can be a portrait of a photographer. The major abstraction is the idea of man.
“The major abstraction is the idea of man
And major man is its exponent, abler
In the abstract than in his singular,
More fecund as principle than particle.” 5
The four Israeli artists working in three different media: oil painting, photography and sculpture, have something in common, they all have build Jerusalem. Since they all live in Jerusalem.
1 Ibid, section IV.
2 Ibid, section X.
Zelig Segal
Born in Jerusalem in 1933. Studied at the Bezalel Academy of Arts 1949, where he became head of Silver Smith Department in 1964. Has held one-man as well as group exhibitions all over the world and was awarded a few first prices, for designing the logo of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1955), the logo of the 26th Zionist Congress (1964), the coin commemorating the 18th anniversary of the State of Israel (1966), and others. His works are represented in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, at several Jerusalem Museums as well as in others. Had personal exhibition in Israel Museum, Jerusalem and in Tel-Aviv Museum, 1981- 1982. Lives and works in Jerusalem.
  
Uli Bocker
Born in Germany in 1939. In the 1960s he worked as a photographer and correspondent in Algeria, covering the struggle with France. He then moved to Ireland and photographed the fighting there. Later he worked as a fashion and advertising photographer in Germany, Spain and Mexico. Exhibited in Germany, Spain and Germany. Immigrated to Israel in 1977. Worked for the Israeli Foreign Ministry and the Jewish Agency. Lives and works in Jerusalem.
   
Vera Gutkina
Born in Moscow in 1953, she started to study painting in 1974 under Vladimir Schtranich.. Was a member of the Moscow Young Artist's Union. Immigrated to Israel in 1982. Since then has had more than ten one-woman and many group exhibitions in galleries in Jerusalem, Tel-Aviv, New-York, London and Toronto. Was awarded a studio at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. Published a few books. Lives and works in Jerusalem.
   
 
Anatoly Basin
Born in 1936 in Leningrad. In 1956 started painting under Ossip Sydlin. Was a participant of the non-conformist movement and took part in its exhibitions in Leningrad and Moscow. Was a member of the ALEPH Group (Jewish Artists' movement). Immigrated to Israel in 1979. Since then has had more than ten one-man exhibitions in galleries in Jerusalem, Tel-Aviv, St.-Petersburg and Berlin and participated in many group exhibitions. Was awarded the Jerusalem Ish-Shalom Artist's Prize. Was awarded a studio at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, as well as a Jerusalem studio sponsored by the Israel Museum. Published the book “The Gazah Phenomenon” about non-conformist artists living in Leningrad of the post-Stalinist era as well as several others about artistic painting in relation to Judaism. His paintings have been purchased by the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, the Museum of En-Harod, the Beersheba Museum, The Russian Museum??? and the City Museum of St.-Petersburg. Lives and works in Jerusalem.
  
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