Canvas is unlimited
Artist brings items hidden in plain sight back into view
Israeli artist David Gerstein says he works to bring art closer to daily life and to delight people.
The 73-year-old Jerusalem native’s cutout sculptures don’t express serious social critiques.
Rather, he focuses on the “touching details in one’s life and memories that have been overlooked”, such as flowers, ponds and butterflies.
“I want to create art that will accompany people all their life — from the moment they wake up to bedtime, whenever they see my works, they will cheer up,” Gerstein says.
His debut exhibition in China, Layers, shows his paintings and sculptures at Beijing’s Today Art Museum. It lays out the dynamics of his half-century career.
“It (the current show) is the most important exhibition of mine in a decade,” he says.
“But it is not a retrospective. It isn’t the time yet.”
Gerstein has brought his figurative paintings from the 1970s and ’80s.
Many of these works feature an unvarying, dull palette. Not only do they examine the solitude of urban dwellers but also they reveal Gerstein’s struggle to form his own style.
Gerstein studied art in Paris, New York and London. He persisted with the figurative style, which was less popular than minimalism and conceptual art in the ’70s. He believed figurative painting’s potential was still worth exploring.
He began creating cutout sculptures in the ’80s, as laser-cutting technology became more commonplace. These works are layers of painted metal cutouts featuring different motifs.
He prefers to call them “three-dimensional paintings”. He views them as a way to expand upon painting’s representations and views himself as a painter rather than a sculptor.
The ongoing show displays several such works, including his Butterfly series.
He says he loves observing different creatures and is especially intrigued by butterflies’ diverse colors and dances. His freely fluttering butterflies soften the metallic rigidness and bring viewers comfort.
Also on show is the Sports series, in which Gerstein portrays such athletic activities as running, cycling and swimming. He’s not a sports fan, per se, but is fascinated by the dynamic motions of people doing sports, he explains.
Gerstein grounds many motifs in personal memories.
“My impressions of childhood pop up when I start to create art: My mom rode on a bicycle, my parents swam in the Dead Sea and they milked cows at my grandparents’ farm.”
The cutout sculptures of his Beach series on show in Beijing depict how people enjoy themselves and draw from his memories of summer visits to the Dead Sea’s shores.
Gerstein says art is like bread, water and air to him. He doesn’t feel tortured while working but rather his works sprout like the fruits of trees, he says.
“It is something quite natural so I don’t need to rack my mind to invent something of grandeur.”