At Home: Dwelling of Loves and Anxieties
Our home, and the objects in it, tell stories: in the kitchen cupboard there is a partial set of dishes, some broke during a move; in the living room there is a worn sofa, which has taken the shape of the body due to overuse; on the wall behind it are pictures of smiling relatives, some still alive, others no longer. Our favorite people and things are usually found in our living environment, and a representation of the interior shows everything that we love and fear for.
Depictions of domestic scenes have a place of honor in the history of painting. Genres such as interior and still life served artists to explore aspects pertaining to economic and social status, family belonging, and an attachment to a place. The ostensibly banal subject has often been an ideal platform for experimenting with new modes of painterly expression, since it does not require more than intimacy between the artist, his setting, and the objects in it. Édouard Vuillard, one of the greatest French artists of the early 20th century, formulated a new language in his avant-garde interior paintings. In the exhibition, he is joined by five contemporary Israeli artists—Ira Eduardovna, Aram Gershuni, Tzion Abraham Hazan, Uriel Miron, and Hilla Spitzer—who explore domestic settings and painterly questions. Their probing eyes observe common, mundane objects such as soup bowls, carpets, and chairs, finding beauty, meaning, and memories in them. Their works convey the comfort of gathering in the protected domestic space and the fear of what threatens to disturb its stability.
For an audio guide in the exhibition from the artists>>> click here
