
DATE: Sunday, April 13, 1997                TAG: 9704110084

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E13  EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY TERESA ANNAS, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  103 lines

ISRAELI WORKS REFLECT POLITICAL TENSIONS

TOP ARTISTS from all over Israel travel as much as five hours each day to convene on a hilltop on the northern coast. Their destination is Haifa, a town on the Mediterranean that is home to the nation's premier art school.

Many of Israel's finest artists are on the faculty of the University of Haifa, said Morris Yarowsky, a Richmond painter who recently returned from a visit with artists there.

Thirty works on paper by 18 of these esteemed artist-educators are on view through April at the Jewish Community Center in Norfolk, where Yarowsky will give a free gallery talk at 2 p.m. Sunday.

Yarowsky was in Israel March 28 through April 3 to help celebrate the opening at Haifa's campus gallery of an exchange exhibit - works on paper by faculty from the department of painting and printmaking at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, where Yarowsky is a professor.

Standing before an Israeli art audience, Yarowsky offered his take on the differences between artists in Richmond and in Haifa:

``The work of Israeli artists often reflects tensions - political and historical tensions - and their experience. Whereas, you could say the art being produced here is more concerned with conceptual, aesthetic and art historical issues.

``When you look at the Haifa work, it's pretty obvious: a lot of it is dealing with the anxiety of personal, everyday life.''

Ruminations on land and border issues as well as a fixation on memorials show up in their art.

Among the works on display:

Ruth Cohn's abstract oil painting ``Memories of Cities Lost'' is essentially a blue dot on a textural green field. Is this the lasting, blurred impression of an obliterated site? A hole in the brain where there once was a place?

At first glance, Yiftach Brakin's ``The Farm'' is an expressionistic abstract design in ink and watercolor. Continued looking reveals it to be a bird's-eye view of rural territory wherein borders have been repeatedly erased and replaced.

Micha Ullman, a sculptor well known for creating monumental installations, is represented by a large pencil drawing, ``Landscape.'' Heavy graphite sections suggest how buildings can overwhelm the land, thus bringing attention to a form of domination.

If the Haifa collection is any indication, Israeli art is not isolated from the larger art world. The work at JCC bears some relationship to stylistic and thematic streams found in international contemporary art.

In the exhibit catalog, Sanford Shaman, director of the University of Haifa's exhibits and collections, writes that while contemporary art generally is an international language, ``this is especially true of Israel.''

Most of the Haifa artists have lived, studied and exhibited in other countries. Many have major credits, including taking part in important shows at New York's Museum of Modern Art, London's Tate Gallery and in the Venice Biennale.

``Nevertheless, in spite of the international nature of Israeli art - or perhaps because of it - artists in Israel ceaselessly wrestle with the question of whether there is an `Israeli art.' The question is an important one, because this is a country that is still in the throes of defining itself and its culture,'' Shaman writes.

Some of the work in the Haifa show has the look of a rough sketch made with throwaway materials. ``It conveys a certain tough encounter with life,'' said Yarowsky, who organized the Haifa exhibit with Steven High, former director of VCU's Anderson Gallery; High now heads the Nevada Museum of Art, among the stops on the show's two-year national tour.

``A lot of these artists have been in the Army, and in combat,'' Yarowsky said.

Their lives are intense, as is their engagement with cultural and political issues. ``The Israelis tend to be pretty articulate. And it's easy to get into conversations with them, especially on subjects like art, literature and politics.

``Artists there have one foot in cultural life, and one foot in political conflicts.''

It's a life alternating between normality and crisis, providing yet another frequently changing border - only within.

That ever-moving border extends to their cultural associations. While feeling distinctly Israeli, these artists ``have a real intimate connection with European and American art. They are very, very well informed.''

Yarowsky found much to admire in the artists' role in Israeli society.

``Artists there have a pretty highly regarded status,'' he said.

Israeli artists are expected to take on important issues through their art. And many citizens pay attention, recognizing that art is a unique language that can convey insight perhaps not available in other kinds of communication.

America could learn a lot from Israel - where ``the artist is seen as someone who has a very unique insight into the state of things,'' Yarowsky said. ILLUSTRATION: COURTESY OF JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER

``The Farm,'' a 1996 ink and watercolor on paper by Yiftach Brakin,

appears to be a bird's eye view of rural territory wherein borders

have been repeatedly erased and replaced.

Graphic

WANT TO GO?

What: ``New Art From an Ancient Land: Contemporary Art From

Haifa''

Where: Jewish Community Center, 7300 Newport Ave., Norfolk

When: through April 30

Hours: 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, until 5 p.m.

Friday, noon to 5 p.m. Sunday

How much: free