Life in Color / Michaelson Art Gallery

הצילומים באדיבות Michaelson Art Gallery

Reflections on realism following Kobi Shachar's exhibition: "Life in Color".
The 1980s in general and art in particular are turning points. In these years modernity was pushed back and postmodernist ideas arose and these years can be seen as years of the painting's return to the forefront of the stage, after years in which it was abandoned behind. The return of painting as a legitimate medium also created fertile ground for the development of the new realistic painting, painting from observation.
The culture of consumption and the frequent connection to what is happening in the United States of America have led to an artistic economic turning point created by a market that requires tradable works for a wider audience of collectors and buyers, a demand that met the painting from observation, which certainly met this need.
In Israel, this field of art owes much to the artist Israel Hirschberg, who due to his unique character overcame the political difficulties in the process of introducing painting from looking at the field of art and created a worthy alternative to other genres of painting that were more dominant in the country.
Kobi Shachar is a student of Israel Hirschberg.
Kobi Shachar's works are the result of observation, and not just observation but multi-system observation. The researcher Gideon Efrat put it nicely, who wrote about the painting from the observation: " Looking as a look and looking as an inquiry - both are brought to the higher and more challenging level of looking painting and is at the level of contemplation. Now we border on religious experience, prayer, and at least meditation.
" Neo-Platonic contemplation, therefore, begins in looking outward, but continues and culminates in looking inward, 'shutting down' self-consciousness and increasing spiritual concentration in the infinite generality.
Shahar's works describe the artist's intimate encounters with the object of his painting at a point in time. Shahar stretches the boundaries of this encounter and creates truths and fabrications on the canvas, using clear chromatic colors and unique geometry. And when the painting from the observation meets fictional and fantastic districts, from this encounter a meditative experience is often created.
Kobi Shachar remains true to the look and the visual experience that he experiences by looking at the object of the painting and conveys this visual experience well to the viewer. The search for light in his paintings is evident and present in all his works.
Kobi Shachar makes good use of the tools inherited from the painting tradition and his works show that he continues the path of painters such as Yuan Yoglo and Antonio Garcia Lopez.
Kobi Shachar, 55, works and creates in his studio in Rishon Lezion.

Erez Aharon-colleague.