Samuel Ackerman and Jan Rauchwerger have been long-time friends with the Kyiv-based Art 14 Gallery where they display their works. Samuel Ackerman’s exhibit is called “Shibbolet”; Jan Rauchwerger’s – “Pastels.” The expositions are different, in some things they even contrast, but both are about finding inner harmony and coming to understanding with other people. “Shibbolet” is contemplation about the life of humankind in the whirl of national contradictions and feuds. In “Pastels” the emphasis is made on personal emotions and the value of personal things.
Samuel Ackerman and Jan Rauchwerger can be called artists of the world. Jan Rauchwerger was born in Turkmenistan, in evacuation, later he lived in Kyiv and Moscow, repatriated to Israel, for a long time resided in Paris and New York, and in 2002 settled in Israeli town of Jaffa. Samuel Ackerman was born in Mukacheve, in 1973 he immigrated to Israel, and in the 1980s he moved to Paris. It is the first time Jan Rauchwerger is holding his exhibit in Ukraine, Samuel Ackerman exhibited his works at Art 14 last year.
IMMERSION INTO ARTISTIC IMAGES
“Shibbolet” is a verbal password, with its roots going back to the Bible. Israeli judge Jephthah together with residents of Galahad fought with the tribe of Ephraim and defeated them. Then he ordered to take all the ferriages across Jordan to prevent the defeated from getting to their territories. Everyone, who was passing the ferriage, had to say “shibbolet,” which means “an ear.” In the dialect of the tribe of Ephraim there was no sound /sh/, they said “sibbolet,” which can be translated as “burden” or “suffering,” and that’s how they doomed themselves to death. Dozens of people were killed for incorrect pronunciation. Samuel Ackerman concludes, today an error in an international agreement can cause a war. So, the artist has to have accuracy of soul, clarity in expression of his thoughts and feelings.
Samuel Ackerman’s works are full of allusions and metaphors: the same ears, boats emerging from land, crossed knives. Even the color and the composition are important. “My pictures feature images rather than symbols,” the artist says, “A symbol is something stable, for example in literature. Everyone knows that a bird is a symbol of freedom. My works show elements of our life, but in an unusual situation. The Bible has no symbols, but it has images from life.”
A PAINTING AS THE BATTLE FIELD WHERE ONE FIGHTS FOR THE TRUTH
Jan Rauchwerger’s pastels are melancholic and sensual. Summer in Umbria; Moscow. First Snow; In a park; A Model in a Studio – these are the scenes from life the artist and art critic Hlib Vysheslavsky compares with the diary records. Personal emotions of an individual are no less, sometimes more, important than social upheavals. The artist’s works make one ponder over the value and uniqueness of life.
“When I begin to create a work, I try to work quickly, to make as many mistakes as possible – to have something to fight. If you start slowly, you’ll enter this condition. I seek to turn the work surface into a battlefield for my own truth,” the artist admits.
Jan Rauchwerger considers that the artist’s work is in persuading people. “If you believed the artist, it’s his greatest merit,” the artist asserts, “Creating pictures that are professionally executed isn’t enough. The viewer must come up with a desire to come closer to the work, to see the warmth of the artist, his pulse, and sensuality. And this is a danger for the artist, because one can feel everything. However, only people who can see notice such things. And this is a rare thing.”
Both artists are open for passing their knowledge and emotions to everyone willing to accept them. The exhibits “Shibbolet” and “Pastels” will be underway at the gallery Art 14 till November 27.
