Israeli Art, Yemin Moshe, Jerusalem
The home, at first glance, is the only stable part of a person's existence. Yet due to the twists and turns of life, that stability is sometimes shattered and replaced by feelings of confusion.
In this exhibit, Eliraz's begins with a dynamic interpretation of the home. He builds on that to create a statement reflecting his inner battles. Eliraz's interpretation is minimalistic in nature. The works are structured from a base model of a house, which develop into sculptures of various forms. The artist builds the modular forms of the house in a very basic manner, similar to a child's painting, a square/cubicle house with a triangular roof. Then, by combining the modules and interlocking them in different ways – the works are created.
Eliraz removes the walls and leaves only the corners, the supporting beams, and a skeletal roof. The finished product is a sculpture built from exact geometric shapes. This is the result of careful planning and calculations.
In several of the works, the final product is neat and methodical, while others are chaotic and jumbled. In one, the house stands intact with all of its walls firmly on the ground, while in others the house is leaning on its side or even on the tip of the roof.
There are times that Eliraz uses dolls to populate the houses with characters. In other sculptures the doll supports the house with its head, or in the nook of its underarm. The different arrangements give the viewer a feeling of motion, and the lack of walls gives off a sense of transparency that allows the viewer to look beyond the house into the adjacent houses set up either alongside each other or even above and below other houses. Taking a walk around the exhibit changes the scene, almost moving it, creating new shapes.
The simplicity of the geometric shape of the house and the spattering of playful vertical and horizontal lines together with the diagonals of the roof, create contrastive multi-faceted expressions throughout the works.
Ella Klier Ariel
About the works
The veteran artist Yehoshua Eliraz has recently returned to the exhibition stage after many long years of silence. His exhibit at Beit Gavriel in 2003 and at Beit Shmuel in 2004 focused primarily on the motif of the home, presenting rows and rows of schematic cardboard houses in a crammed and opaque manner.
In his new show at the Israeli Art in Jerusalem, Eliraz presents clusters of skeletal and open airy houses that create a deceiving kaleidoscopic feeling. The houses are glued together, growing one out of the other, intertwined and off-balance in a game of positives and negatives. In the current works, there is an added element of color.
Eliraz's new works connect with the long tradition of minimalist sculptors. The works are ironic in nature; they touch in a playful as well as hurtful way on the sensitive motif of the home in Israeli art.
A truly unique exhibit.
Ziporah Luria
Curriculum Vitae
Born in Jerusalem (1941) where he continues to live and create.
Graduated Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem.
Studied for a year at the Central School of Art, London.
Received M.A from the City University of New York.
Solo exhibits
1968 Nora Gallery, Jerusalem, Rock Impressions
1969 Hemel Hempstead Gallery, London
1970, 1972, 1973 Chemerinsky Gallery, Tel-Aviv
1976 Julie M. Gallery, Tel-Aviv
1978 O.K. Harris Gallery, New York
1979 The Uri and Rami Nechushtan Museum, Ashdot Ya'akov/ Hillel Gallery, Jerusalem
1980 The Israel Museum, Jerusalem / The Sculptor and Painter Society, Tel-Aviv
1981 Museum of Modern Art - Utrecht, Holland
2003 Beit Gavriel Gallery, Zemach
2004 Beit Shmuel Gallery, Jerusalem
Group exhibits
1968 Nora Gallery, Jerusalem,
1969 Hemel Hempstead Gallery, London
1971 The Artist's House, Tel-Aviv
1973 Berta Ording Gallery, Jerusalem
1977 The Artist's House, Jerusalem
1978 O.K. Harris Gallery, New York / The Uri and Rami Nechushtan Museum, Ashdot Ya'akov/ The Artist's House, Jerusalem
1979 Giv'on Gallery, Tel-Aviv / Berta Ording Gallery, Tel-Aviv
1980 The Haifa Museum / Mostra Patrocianata del commune dicstel sangiorgio, Salerno, Italia / The Israel Museum, Jerusalem / The Tel-Aviv Museum, Helena Rubinstein Pavilion / Beinella, Tel-Chai
1981 The Israel Museum, Jerusalem
Yehoshua Eliraz 's Gallery...
