Rich Smukler LandEscapeCONTEMPORARY ART REVIEWMuch of my work is highly intuitive,creating a canvas or backdrop oflandscape allowing for asuperimposition of personal emotion.These landscapes, whether sea, landor space-based, coupled with anendless spectrum of emotion, providean infinite pallet of possibilities. Tomanifest these possibilities in anhonest, new and stunning fashion ismy challenge as an artist.I would suggest that intuition is thestarting point for a well balanced, wellseen image which eventuates to afinal product. It starts, of course, in theselection of the subject matter chosenwhen taking the image. And there itshould sit for awhile as the subjectiveequivalence of the moment of theshoot dissipates into a more objectiveproject. Once reasonably objectified,the process of editing requires a seriesof choices which one may consider,including balancing (crop selections),color enhancement or diminishment,or many of the other options availablein the world of post-processing. But inthe final analysis, something insideyou says, that's it, It is done and I ampleased.For the most part, I am initially drawnto subject matter as a sensory feelingthat this will somehow work in myparticular world of aesthetics. My mindpermits me to reduce objects to acombination of colors and shapes.Once this reduction takes place, I lookfor the most part for depth and
movement of these objects thatpopulate my imaginary canvas.I am pleased that you have been ableto see this in my work and I agreethat this perceived open quality isparamount to my aesthetic. I rarelyattempt any political or philosophicalstatement or agenda. I do hope thatan equivalence to natural beauty,however communicated, creates apositive force that inspires positiveaction.I keep it pretty simple. That is not tosay that I have turned my back onmany of the techniques continuallybeing made available to us. Some ofmy expressionistic pieces are workedextensively in post-processing, whilemuch of my fine art and travelphotography is pretty straight, subjectto minor tweaking here and there. Idon't feel compelled, however, to stayout front with much of the newertechnology. I am comfortable that theLandEscape Rich SmuklerCONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
tools currently in my toolbox provideme with the ability to fully expressmyself and still allow me to grow asan artist without sacrificing the core ofmy self-definition. As mentioned earlier, I typically stayaway from these type of statementsunless the image cries out for it. Thiscannot prevent observers fromplacing a false equivalence on a piece,but it is not my intention.Rich Smukler LandEscapeCONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
For me, the creative process andpersonal experience are one. This isthe subjective part of production. Theselections made at the very momentwhen I take a picture are acombination of thoughts and feelings.Post-processing is another story andrequires a series of intellectualthoughts and decisions along withartistic subjectivity that push forwardto a final product.LandEscape Rich SmuklerCONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
The original image sets the overalltonality of the piece. It can bemanipulated, of course. But, I tend tostay close to the reason I took theshot in the first place, that somethingthat was said to me, hmmm, this ispretty exciting. After working foryears with images, you develop asense for what might work well.Considerable failure and theoccasional happy accident willeventually provide you with acompass for what could be asuccessful image.For many years I worked as a glassartist, my work being extremelyabstract. My photography took on aRich Smukler LandEscapeCONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
similar approach. Miro and Kandinskyhave always deeply influenced theway I look at the world and my art.Each taps into a space within myartistic soul that is so meaningful.Do I enjoy positive feedback fromthose who view my art? Of course!Am I influenced by the what they say,or how they say it? Not in the least. ILandEscape Rich SmuklerCONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
remain open to criticism and listencarefully. On balance, I am purelyinterested in my passion for creatingthe best artwork that I can.I am always polite to those who mightbe interested in seeing or acquiringmy work, but can't be driven by theiropinions.That would surely derail the purity ofthe process.First of all, thanks for the opportunityto express myself in your magazine.This is quite an honor. What is nextfor me? I really don't know. I try tokeep an open mind with my cameraclose at hand. If I can be at the rightplace when the light is right, I willallow myself the possibility forcontinuing my photographic journey.Rich Smukler LandEscapeCONTEMPORARY ART REVIEWAn interview by , curatorand , curator
one to dive far and deeply into them. Wide fields extending beyond the known, an allembracing infinity attracting onwards and onwards to graze within it, in the visions beyond the imagination. A surprisingly different place inviting one to be drawn inside, to be swept away in the fields of darkness.At first darkness is complete. One cannot discern a thing, opacity, opacity, opacity, and then comes one blue, deceptive, purplish, concealing secrets of deep red and gold. And then another blue, different, and anothe rblue, indigo, ultramarine... the darkness blurs and clears, shines up gradually, exposing and revealing how the illumined rises from the opaque.One’s hands are drawn to touch the colors, all of them, layer upon layer. To act. The discovery is revealed by the action. Starting from the existing: colorful newspaper pieces, chromo advertisements, catalogues of different products, articles about cooking and tourism. Layer upon layer, the eyes of the beholder change the colors, the shapes and the images. Torn bits are put together besides each other creating other things, apparently concealed from the eye, but hinting to further possibilities. An ice-cream cone turns into an illuminated window a letter from a restaurant logo ignites a flame that draws carriages of clothing and human figures, sweeping them to another invented reality. A new personal and private world created out of leftovers: magazines and local papers, junk mail on its way to the garbage. The magic of recycling.The paintings in this exhibition are a selection from works created during the past three years, a period of discoveries and frustrations, deciphering and concealing, searching and losing. A time, as if of itself this world was created for me from the fragments; I dismantled and destroyed, invested in disassembling, and then found the place I had been searching for a long time, for a place to graze and to gaze, to wander and wonder within ad infinitum . Or at least for the time being.An artist's statemento graze and gaze in pastures of darkness. Vast, magical expanses, dim, deterring, Tthreatening, albeit tempting Hadassa Wollman22LandEscapeCONTEMPORARY ART REVIEWHadassa WollmanLives and works in Tel Aviv, Israel
Artist Hadassa Wollman's work expertly captures the subtle nuances of her subjects' atmosphere through a variety of techniques including oil paintings, collages and drawings. In her body of works that we'll be discussing in the following pages, she effectively challenges the relationship between the viewers' perceptual parameters and their cultural substratum to induce them to elaborate personal associations, offering them a multilayered aesthetic experience.One of the most impressive aspects of Wollman's work is the way it accomplishes a successful attempt to create a channel of communication between the perceptual sphere and imagination. We are very pleased to introduce our readers to her multifaceted artistic production.Hello Hadassa and welcome to LandEscape: before starting to elaborate about your artistic production would you like to tell us something about your background? You have a solid formal training: after having graduated in Hebrew and English Literatures, from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, you accomplished Art Studies at theeWashington University, St. Louis, USA. You later nurtured your education with a Master-class under the guidance of Maya Cohen Levy. We would suggest to our readers to visit http://hadassawollman.com in order to get a synoptic view of your work: in the meanwhile, would you like to tell to our readers something about your process and set up? In particular, would you tell our readers something about the evolution of your style? In particular, are your works painted gesturally, instinctively? Or do you methodically transpose geometric schemes from paper to canvas? How do your studies influence your evolution as an artist? And in particular, how does your cultural substratum dued to your Hebrew roots inform the way you relate yourself to art making and to the aesthetic problem in general?First of all, let me thank you for your interest in my work. It is so exciting to see that works that I have created for myself, can be meaningful to others. I Hadassa WollmanAn interview by Josh Ryder, curatorand Barbara Scott, [email protected] Salja JahovicCONTEMPORARY ART REVIEWLandEscape meets
have painted and drawn since my early childhood, but life took me to concentrate on the literature field, and for years I had to find my way between the world of words, to a world where words are not necessary. I have studied Hebrew and English literature, and worked for many years as critic editor and producer of literary programs at IBA (Israel Broadcasting Authority), I also had my own program: a weekly literature magazine. All that time, at home, I continued with my art. But during a long stay in the USA, I took art courses at Washington University in St.Louis, and later, back in Israel, parallel to my literature activity, I had begun to dedicate more and more time to my painting. Some years ago, I started doing collages. They are made of small pieces torn of old chromo food, fashion, tourist, motor etc. magazines, supermarket advertisments and other garbage paper. It fascinated me how I could create from all these secondhand papers, a world of my own, a world that surprised and puzzled me a lot. It was a world that I could not totally understand, and it felt like a gift. Some of the collages I have \"translated\" to oil on canvas, changing the size, adding and subtracting details. I do not use preparation drawings or grid, I just look at the collage as I paint, kind of free translation. I see my work rather universal, in the sense that there is nothing especially local, except the bio facts of course, that it is done here, in Tel-Aviv, nowdays. As for the drawings, they are done in one shot. I start, and do 22LandEscape Hadassa WollmanCONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
Hadassa Wollman22LandEscapeCONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
22LandEscape Hadassa WollmanCONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
not put the pen down until it feels finished. I draw instinctively. So are also the drawings that involve Hebrew letters, the text is kind of automatic writing.For this special edition of LandEscape we have selected Interweave and Drowning, an interesting transdisciplinary research project that our readers have already started to admire in the introductory pages of this article. What has at once captured our attention of your captivating investigation about the relationship between your painting and the actual places you painted is the way you provided the visual results of your analysis with autonomous aesthetics: while walking our readers through the genesis of Interweave and Drowning, would you shed light to your main sources of inspiration?It is hard for me to answer this question, as my work is, as I have mentioned before, rather instinctive. I am enchanted by colors, and I see my work also as a kind of research and investigation of the color-field. Layer under layer, tones and shadows, painting and collaging is for me like wondering in an endless mystic universe. Sometimes I feel like Alice in wonderland, in the scene where she fell down and deeper, losing the security of the floor under her feet.You draw a lot from natural and urban environment and the landscapes that you paint never play the mere role of backgrounds: how would you define the relationship between environment and your work? 22Hadassa Wollman LandEscapeCONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
I am fascinated by the night, by darkness. I guess this is the reason for the dark scenes in my works. I feel the options and the opportunities that the darkness offers me. Colors of light are so powerful and diversive in the dark. And darkness itself has such a rich range of colors. I love how the city looks at night after the rain, when the lights glitter, that is why, I think, I am also attracted to water, another image in my works, 22LandEscape Hadassa WollmanCONTEMPORARY ART REVIEWLater
the playfulness of lights and shadows, the delusions that it offers.When showing clear references to perceptual reality, your paintings convey a captivating abstract feeling 22Hadassa Wollman LandEscapeCONTEMPORARY ART REVIEWInterweave I
that provide with dynamism the representative feature of your canvass, as later and a dream. The way you to capture non-sharpness with an universal kind of language quality marks out a considerable 22LandEscape Hadassa WollmanCONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
part of your production, that are in a certain sense representative of the relationship between emotion and memory. How would you define the relationship between abstraction and representation in your practice? 22Hadassa Wollman LandEscapeCONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
In particular, how does representation and a tendency towards abstraction find their balance in your work? It is not easy for me to define my work… but yes, I always try to keep a balance between abstraction and 22LandEscape Hadassa WollmanCONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
representation. Abstraction, because it is essential for me not to reveal too much, not to be too literal, I think you lose interest when everything is clear and solved. And representation is important to me as a context to 22Hadassa Wollman LandEscapeCONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
the unclear, mysterious, hidden, secret.When we look at Depht, we are struck by the atmosphere suggested by the darkness that saturates the canvass. Is this a reflection of you? Can you describe to me how this darkness that appears in your work connects to you personally?Well, I guess that one's work reveals his personality, even sides that he is not aware to. I guess my works reveal fears and anxiety towards life itself, feelings of insecurity, maybe the area where I 22LandEscape Hadassa WollmanCONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
live, the troubled Middle-East, has to do with it too. But I wish that my works reveal also my search for beauty and harmony, maybe my need to calm and to overcome the fears.We would like to pose some questions about the balance established by colors and texture: we have really appreciated the vibrancy of thoughtful nuances that saturate your canvas and especially the way they suggest the idea of plasticity. How did you come about settling on your color palette? And how much does your own psychological make-up determine 22Hadassa Wollman LandEscapeCONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
the nuances of tones you decide to use in a piece and in particular, how do you develope a painting’s texture? You are right about my color palette. As I have answered earlier, I am deeply attracted to shades, tone and nuances of colors. There are so many greens and blues! Endless variations, it literally hypnotizes me, and painting is my attempt to go in and deeper to it. The attempt to solve something that cannot be solved fascinates me. Sometimes I feel a physical pain when I do not succeed to create a color that I have in my mind, when I fail to create it.Over these years you have exhibited in several occasions including your solo at the Artists House, Tel-Aviv. One of the hallmarks of your work is the capability to create direct involvement with the viewers, who are urged to evolve from a condition of mere spectatorship. So before leaving this conversation we would like to pose a question about the nature of the relationship of your art with your audience. Do you consider the issue of audience reception as being a crucial component of your decision-making process, in terms of what type of language is used in a particular context?Here I would like to repeat the quotation that opened my catalogue: \"There always comes a time when one feels the need to show one's work to world, not so much as to be judged, but to reassure oneself as to the existence of the work, and even in regard to one's own existence.\" Michel Houllebecq, from his book \"The map and the Territory\". The relations with the audience is to me always a surprise. During my exhibition in TelAviv, I put a notebook in the hall, for visitors' comments. I shall mention two of the comments. One visitor wrote that the dark scenes made him sad and he felt uneasy, another visitor wrote: oh, I would like so much to be there inside the painting, in this imaginary secret world! Relationship, or comments from the audience is to me a bonus, because I do my art to myself, I have to do it, cannot live without it. Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Hadassa. Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects? How do you see your work evolving?Recently I put some new works in my site (marked 2016). Some of them are bright, in contrast to my dark works. Also I plan to add in the site some new drawings, you are welcome to look.. and comment!22Escape Hadassa WollmanCONTEMPORARY ART REVIEWLandAn interview by Josh Ryder, curatorand Barbara Scott, [email protected]
22Hadassa Wollman LandEscapeCONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
to import the image onto his computerin order to create a sophisticateduniverse for his muse. It was the early1980s and Feruch was one of the firstartists to hop onto the digitalbandwagon. His process includedscanning his collages, reworking themon the computer, and printing them onaluminum sheets. In a constant backand forth between the physical imageand the computer, he created his uniquetechnique.His fantastical images were destined tolead Feruch into the world ofabstraction. A series of four creations,Le Vent dans les Arbres were the first tomark the transformation. Exhilarated bythis newfound freedom, his styleexploded, and he created big black &white monotypes. To further hisresearch he revisited drawingsculptured forms with charcoal, much inthe same way some artists return tostudying the nude figure. In this time ofintense exploration Feruch avoidedcolors in order to enhance his naturalelement and concentrate on forms andcomposition.Once established in his new style, Feruchstarted to integrate colors and feminineforms into his art. The colors were firstpastel and cool and the forms weregracefully gliding through space; thenthe colors reached a pick of brightnessand acidity, like an opera singer attainingthe highest pitch. Sometimes a subjectwould emerge from his process ofabstraction and become morerecognizable, such as in his allegoricseries of Paris. In that series fragmentsof architecture and statues swirl around,twisted in a poetic embrace.Recently the human figure had sparkedhis interest once more, but soon it wouldbecome assimilated into the composition,and be implied rather than shown.Feruch’s creativity swings in a constantpendulum between figuration andabstraction in order to retain itsemotional essence.ne day, as Feruch was shootinga beautiful girl against a white Obackground, he had the desireLand scapeCONTEMPORARY ART REVIEWDavid FeruchLives and works in Paris, France
I am the man who is walking awarethat the world is going through talks tohim. The times shared to establish aprocess that grows from its findings; itis path of a man foreign to his relationto others and submerged to hisrelation to the world.David FeruchAn interview by , curatorand , curatorLand scapeCONTEMPORARY ART REVIEWLandEscape meets
Christopher Reid Land scapeCONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
A piece of art is born; it is an intuitiveperception of the mind. The choice ofyour raw material and the realizationhas to conform to the rules ofcomposition and of abstractdematerialization (of which you haveto know how to stretch out the limits).Creation requires an intuitivecontinuous relation of constructionand destruction and to master thetechnique that has to be incorporatedand never be an obstacle. It is then,both instinctive and methodical.\"Futuristic painters and cubists willapply themselves to put into practicethe principles of the fourth dimension,but sometime with disappointingresults.On the other hand, in David Feruch’swork, you distinctly have the feeling ofbeing drawn right in the middle of adistorted space just like if you reallyenter that fourth dimension? Indeedall forms seem to permanentlytransform through movement. They flitfreely, weightless and even becometransparent, the exterior and theinside intermingle. \" Christian SchmittAurelie Engel says : « Like Möbiusribbon reflect infinity, the Feruch’sarabesques are taking us alwaysdeeper toward a hypnotic trance.Sometime like in a dream to encountera fragment of an identifiable reality, isit a mirage? Is it a clue to help us todecipher the compositions? Feruch likeScheherazade is leading us frompieces to pieces to look for aclarification. But we will have to comewith our own answers, the artisteremains enigmatic.” I am aware of theprovocative disruption in the art’sworld traditions this diversity oftechniques arouse. An art work isunique the absence of reality is itsplace of birth and the effect of its formor the relation between the supportand the color is intimate.Land scape David FeruchCONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
The evolution of the style is linked tothe choices of the subjects; nature,urbanism, portrait, the fragmentsaffect the choice of raw material andcolor palette. The format are alsodecisive, you have dare space. Eachpiece is unique in its construction aswell as its making.David Feruch Land scapeCONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
‘Under Water up to the Stars’ is aconcept of progressive exhibition. Thejourney, the man with his relation tothe world this planet that we mustsave. The making of these works areconnected to specific places close tonature where/or the road is a path youmust follow. To loved people andtouched by a bare spirituality.Knowing how to look, listen, being aLand scape David FeruchCONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
receiver, we feed on theses instants.The visions born in our mind find anecho in nature. Each landscape,object, animal or human that we meetis the sum of matter’s particle. Each ofthese particles or sum can speak tous. They can also mingle from onenature to a being, to an object. Thisparticular attention develops theawakening and allows following apath.Christian Schmitt says:Like Delaunay, David Feruch as wellset the color free. After his attractionfor movement, his obsession forelevation and blue sky, it is the colorthat in a more global way becomes, inher turn, his favorite theme.He claims for himself what Delaunaywas saying: As long as art doesn’t freehimself from the object, he remainsrepresentation. He sets free the colorgiving to the spectator coloredpictures and emancipated of allobligation of representation. Butliberation does not at all meandisorder, for the artist arranges hiscolors according to an organizationthat sometime resemble a grid. Thisgrid structure can be found muchmore distinctively from cubism, themovement of De Stijl, Mondrian,Malevitch… But it was already aroundin history in the XV° and XVI° century,in the studies made by Uccello,Léonard, Dürer.David Feruch Land scapeCONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
Tools are way that enables the artistto become. You owe it to yourself tolearn your trade, knowledge’stransmission is important. Havingbeen born astraddle in between twocentury has enabled me to be familiarwith silver based pictures, laboratory’swork and Lubitsch’s movies but alsowith virtual reality of a world thatdoesn’t exist. Because of that I havefound coherent applications to myartistic process. Indeed technologicaldevelopment is followed for each newdiscovery could be the keys of a newworld to be discovered and explored. Ihave enjoyed participating to the ‘theThonel D’Orgeix collection’ projectwhere I realized a two minutes andthirty seconds on the destruction of apiece.The relation between the artist and hismachine is pretty close of the oneCapitan Kirk has with his ship theEnterprise. The intuitive process of theman facing machine is a dialogue. Iask the machine to go along with mein my process and I share with her themeans to go in the chosen direction.‘Ding ding dong’ and the fruit of 15years of multidisciplinary works whichhave gather around on a virtualplatform to transform into a uniquepiece that will be printed over analuminum plateAurelia Engel says :The images are printed on aluminumplate, like water they reflect light thatbrush past. At first sight, those mirrorsurfaces are disconcerting, as aspectator we are not sure of what wesee. Metal magnetize us and pull usaway in turns. Like a living surface,the plates include in the workluminescence like a passing actormodifying them all the time. After awhile this dissipation becomesbewitching and you fervently desire togo back in these animated creations torejoin the reflections of our emotionsand our soul.‘DU TEMPS HISTORIQUE’ is built like adefragmentation process. The void isfilling and the shapes affirm. There arealso peaks. The background suggestsa world of heights that we haveLand scape David FeruchCONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
crossed over. The eyes intuitively arelooking through the color. Lightdiffracts on the metal and reshapesthe piece under our eyes. It is thisstrong first impression that we sharebut then the dialogue awakes once thefirst impression fades away and leavesthe spectator with a dialogue beyondthe metal . ‘DU TEMPS HISTORIQUE’ isalso twelve color forms yet on the firstplan lower right each of them is seizedwith a wire. They are forming thehours in the center of which there is aform composed by three needles likein a watch; hours, minutes, seconds.You can find as well this watch in thebackground on the top left. This visionis not immediate it can be missedbecause rhythm’s expression isstronger than the one of figurativerepresentation.Once again it is the choice of rawmaterials that will ascertain thebalance of the image. I believe thatreality occurs in abstraction like aresonance of our world from the BigBang until now. In my images reality isa tendancy of abstractionIn White Lady, it is the lighting effectsand the matter that speaks to us.Reality is the architect of image. WhiteLady is drawn from a series of severalimages from a work on the city andmore particularly on the 14 district ofParis. (Gallery Sponte )In Creation the movement is containedin the forms. The forms are declinedfrom their most crude to their mostdainty expressions, diluted this waythe figurative expression very visibleremains abstract by association offorms. Creation comes from a work onthe silhouette “Around a portrait”This degree of openness is not asimportant as it seems, or if it isimportant one can say that it revolveson the universes of silhouette andmovement, of form and illusion givingfree rein to interpretation. It is alsometaphysical thoughts about elevationand expression. They speak just aswell as to a dancer, a storyteller or anactor. Form at the service ofinterpretation is a progressive work.David Feruch Land scapeCONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
The mix of abstract and representativein ‘We Say’ is put in jeopardy in favorof the expression of feeling. In thebalance between form and matter theoptic illusion is created. The willpowerexpressed by words fades away. Theplans succeed each other andstabilize.‘Blue’ is placed at a more elevatedlevel, it releases a calming, aplenitude, words are gone in favor of asuccession of universal symbols,banned iceberg from an undergroundcocktail.Land scape David FeruchCONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
The texture of a piece is paramount, itappeals to the sense of touch. Youtouch with the hand or the eye. Thematter of my pictures is usuallytexturized, you can find a bit of flattint, the matter and the transparencehave a resonance. The printing onaluminum plays on the colors, smoothor brushed support and light.‘Stars’ and ‘La Genèse’ are imageswhere the relation sets up betweenform and content. In each of theseDavid Feruch Land scapeCONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
pieces the forms are in movement. In‘Stars’ the movement outflank theforms, we understand that they are notfinished and their invisible lengtheningis felt strongly. In ‘La Genèse’ the coloris given rhythm by the forms that wescape David FeruchCONTEMPORARY ART REVIEWLand
can guess, the color like the ultimateact of creation, seasons, elements,time each of his component travelsalong man who activate the creation.David Feruch Land scapeCONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
Land scape David FeruchCONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW