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Boundless Painting
by Irena Gordon
“…my love is building a magic, a discrete/ tower of magic", wrote the modernist American poet e.e. cummings and his words seem to be whispered lovingly by the works of the Israeli artist David Gerstein: the revelation of line, shape, color and movement, which are created in a few magic strokes, are intrinsic to his works. Much like e.e. cummings' poems, Gerstein's creations are outwardly simple and transparent - their existence airy and light - as they strive to touch the untouchable. Both his paintings and sculptures, embrace a quintessential quality of form and of matter. They appeal to their viewers without bashfulness or hesitation, seducing them into a world of art, full of enchantment and delight.
As a painter and a sculptor, an excellent draughtsman and a dexterous designer, David Gerstein seeks to expand the limits of two-dimensional paintings into three-dimensional sculptures. In his choice of subject matter he wishes to break down the existing barriers between the work of art and its audience by creating enchanted and straightforward images, which render, at times, intimate, dream-like naïve scenes and at other times, cinemascope-like, large scale, choreographed events. His easily recognizable artistic colorful syntax have developed gradually, reflecting a search for a distinct voice, which ranges from the local to the universal and echoes several levels of representation simultaneously.
Gerstein maintains a conscious dialectic between the hand-made "original"/"unique" work of art and the reproduced work of art - between the "aura" of art and its commercial manufacturing. Therefore his art sustains, in a self-aware manner, an aesthetically and socially charged tension of high art amid low popular culture. His versatile body of works consists of indoor wall-sculptures formed as multi-layered cut-outs, outdoor works, sculptures, paintings, prints, drawings, and multiple designed objects, which can be found in museums and galleries, private collections, indoor and outdoor public spaces, as well as in private buildings and artifact and design shops.
As a prolific artist, Gerstein manages to create a universal, colorful and representational imagery of human behavior that is based on daily, intimate moments. This behavior is set against various backdrops that vary from the urban to the rural. Moreover, his art as a whole, in spite of its appearing detachment, systematically contains and retains many autobiographical elements. Consequently, any contemplation on or consideration of the works evokes an experience, which is both collective and personal.
This survey of Gerstein's work follows the various transformations his art has undergone. It traces the formation and crystallization of his artistic language and its remarkable characteristics, while trying to pinpoint the full range of Gerstein's encounters and interactions with leading concepts of modernism and post-modernism to which he addresses openly. It also attempts to shed light on the way his critical stance has developed and changed from sarcastic criticism to sheer individualistic optimism and joy.
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