Anatoly Basin Israeli Artist – 'Shades', April 28, 2006-May 21, 2006
Israeli Art, Yemin Moshe, Jerusalem
Anatoly Basin Israeli Artist was born in Leningrad in 1936 and made Aliyya in 1979.
In Leningrad, Basin was a well-known artist who belonged to the circle of non- conformist artists who actively opposed the aesthetics which the Soviet rule had dictated. There, he exhibited his works in hiding and even published a book about his activities. When he arrived in Israel, Basin immediately gained acknowledgment and recognition for his work, and in 1984 he was the first to win the Prize of Jerusalem Artists, named after Shoshana Ish Shalom. Since then, he has held numerous exhibits both in Israel and abroad. Important museums have purchased Basin's works, and these are exhibited in distinguished and renowned private collections in Israel and abroad. Basin's work arises from the chaos – from the darkness.
Basin himself claims that he creates tension on the two-dimensional canvas by "coercing a space of four dimensions and five senses". In return, the canvas as if reacts by reflecting changing shades of color and light effects. In effect, one can sink into the dark 'fields of color' which Basin creates using shades of brown and black, green and blue – that together, provide a sense of floating in space. Basin's surfaces of color exhibit a sense of physical presence, and are thus reminiscent of the works of the Jewish American artist, Mark Rothko, who himself focuses on the deepness of the color as a means of expressing his recesses of the mind. Consequently, the different shades in Rothko's 'fields of color' interact with each other such that they convey abstract expressiveness. However, the surfaces of color are only a part of Basin's work; the profundity and impression which they communicate serve as a background or stage for the figurative depiction of images and still life. It is by light drawing, mostly in black, and with no detail,
that Basin adds his images on top of the dark surfaces. The contrast between the dreariness of the colors and the radiation which is emitted from them, creates an effect of mystery,
onto which the drawings come together both visible and invisible, revealed and concealed, floating among the shadows and the flashes of light in delicate motion, as if dancing or as if conveying some fine music. The lyrical drawings of the images are to a large extent reminiscent of those of the French Henri Matisse,
though according to Basin (in his interview with G. Ofrat), his work has been influenced by the fifteenth century Russian artist, Andrei Rublev. Above all, the greatest influence is attributed to Basin's teacher, Ossip Sidlin, who has taught him since 1956, and in his studio Basin, himself, taught in the years 1970-1972. Sidlin is the one who has left his seal on Basin's artistic and conceptual world; it is from Sidlin that Basin learned about the meaning of creating apparent tension on the painted surface (according to Basin's words: creating "a sensation …that even a nail cannot scratch"). It is from his teacher that Basin has also learned to create an effect of tension that is either "lucid and melodic" or "severe and tragic", which separates between the real world and the painted one. Anatoly's Gallery... |  |