Group Exhibition of Collages
Collages by Audrey Bergner, Jean David, Anatol Gurewitz, Rafi Lavie, Israel Paldi, Louise Schatz, Mina Sisseiman, Shulamit Tal and Aharon Vitkin are on view at the Artists’ Pavilion till July 2, and make up a light-hearted and colourful, if also light-weight, exhibition. While there have been occasional solo shows of collages, this is the first such group exhibition.
Like so much in modern art, it is to Picasso that the beginning of the use of “papier colle” or “stick-ons” can be traced. While at first he used the device to enrich the content or surface of his paintings, he said of his later collages that they were always intended to be “pictures in their own right.” We know from the works of Kurt Schwitters that even when made up of bits of “rubbish” such collages can be expressive as well as decorative.
Here the interpretation of the designation “collages” varies considerably. Audrey Bergner includes among her arrangements of painted papers two hand-sewn patchwork hangings (her preferred triangular forms and deep colours); Paldi shows a grotesque portrait with imitation hair affixed to the head; Mina Sisseiman and Rafie Lavie include photographs of themselves in their compositions; while Vitkin’s razzle-dazzles of geometric shapes in brilliant colours, very clean in execution, really qualify as Op Art. Louise Schatz has evolved some delightful colour patterns by assembling vari-coloured pieces of net and scraps of tinsel paper on clear white backgrounds. The delicacy and lightness that characterize her watercolours make themselves felt here too. Jean David’s contribution is marked by a spirit of fun and excellent craftsmanship. Here is one artist who is never guilty of sloppy work. He mixes oil and collage, shows a couple of reliefs, but stuck-on and not incised, and particularly entertaining is his series of cut-outs from prints to which he has added some drawing with accent on the ludicrous, a statesman sporting a mermaid’s tail and so on. The Gurewitz works are collages of an accepted type: scraps of coloured paper, .with little painting added. They .are all figurative and rather ingeniously worked out. There is an attractive composition by Paldi in browns and ochres, with a black calligraphic line linking the various shapes, and Shulamit Tal has cleverly used curved slips of paper to suggest movement. The Rafi Lavie works are in his characteristic combination of areas of news print allied to painted sections, and most of them have been shown before. Seen from a distance some of them contain interesting designs.
Group Exhibition of Collages
Collages by Audrey Bergner, Jean David, Anatol Gurewitz, Rafi Lavie, Israel Paldi, Louise Schatz, Mina Sisseiman, Shulamit Tal and Aharon Vitkin are on view at the Artists’ Pavilion till July 2, and make up a light-hearted and colourful, if also light-weight, exhibition. While there have been occasional solo shows of collages, this is the first such group exhibition.
Like so much in modern art, it is to Picasso that the beginning of the use of “papier colle” or “stick-ons” can be traced. While at first he used the device to enrich the content or surface of his paintings, he said of his later collages that they were always intended to be “pictures in their own right.” We know from the works of Kurt Schwitters that even when made up of bits of “rubbish” such collages can be expressive as well as decorative.
Here the interpretation of the designation “collages” varies considerably. Audrey Bergner includes among her arrangements of painted papers two hand-sewn patchwork hangings (her preferred triangular forms and deep colours); Paldi shows a grotesque portrait with imitation hair affixed to the head; Mina Sisseiman and Rafie Lavie include photographs of themselves in their compositions; while Vitkin’s razzle-dazzles of geometric shapes in brilliant colours, very clean in execution, really qualify as Op Art. Louise Schatz has evolved some delightful colour patterns by assembling vari-coloured pieces of net and scraps of tinsel paper on clear white backgrounds. The delicacy and lightness that characterize her watercolours make themselves felt here too. Jean David’s contribution is marked by a spirit of fun and excellent craftsmanship. Here is one artist who is never guilty of sloppy work. He mixes oil and collage, shows a couple of reliefs, but stuck-on and not incised, and particularly entertaining is his series of cut-outs from prints to which he has added some drawing with accent on the ludicrous, a statesman sporting a mermaid’s tail and so on. The Gurewitz works are collages of an accepted type: scraps of coloured paper, .with little painting added. They .are all figurative and rather ingeniously worked out. There is an attractive composition by Paldi in browns and ochres, with a black calligraphic line linking the various shapes, and Shulamit Tal has cleverly used curved slips of paper to suggest movement. The Rafi Lavie works are in his characteristic combination of areas of news print allied to painted sections, and most of them have been shown before. Seen from a distance some of them contain interesting designs.