Tal Gallery is honored this present an exhibition of Aaron Giladi and to have the opportunity to encounter his works from the perspective of time in the context of his life events which are representative of many Israeli artists from the second generation of Israeli Art.

Artists that came to Israel as pioneers Halutzim worked at all worked needed as laborers builders, farmers, joined the idealistic groups and built the kibbutz society. They performed their art openly or in secrecy, argued arduously about new ways in modern art, the significance of Israeli art, the local vs. the global, the figure versus the abstract, the change in style or hanging on to the personal artistic ways. Giladi was there at the beginning of the new trends in Israeli art, taking a significant part in the foundation of "Ofakim Hadashim" but he left in understanding the deep roots of his inspiration and continued on his own way of total artistic freedom. 

 As he tells us himself in various interviews, his work related to his early memories, a large family living during the war together at his grandfather house, the experience of   hardship of young man who was send as a student at the Art academy in Leningrad to prison and then to exile in Siberia, for his Zionist activity, far from his family that he did not get to meet again.

He joined the Zionist movement and came to Palestine, was one of the establishers of Kibbutz Afikim in the Jordan Valley. After twenty years he left the kibbutz and moved to the city, finally he settled in Holon, a modest neighborhood where he lived all his life. The Kibbutz people and their everyday life of his early drawings transformed to the city workers, on their way to their daily chores, on buses, on streets or local garden benches, in coffee shops, the anonym faces absorbed in their grimy toils. He gave them a new life on his canvases, but mostly they became the family members clinging together in clusters around the table or standing still as characters of a play.

 His characteristic style and can be easily recognized from the lines of his early drawings to his late paintings. Quick stokes, oval open lines, partial contours of the image, leaving details to be completed by the viewer imagination. His main body of work is the oil canvases. As he stated, the subject is only an excuse to the painting...

He starts with a stain of paint, a splash of color that leads him to the whole composition.    The subject changes with the many layers of paint added the image becomes more and more as the memory of the past. Giladi returns in his work to some distant place from his memory, from his inner self. His work is driven by emotion, and his sensitivity reflects through the silent, faceless, sober figures he creates over and over again.

There is density and crowdedness in the composition, the figures are flat but some perspective is realized by the crowdedness of the figures, positioned one on another, giving the feeling of no space.

The Scenes of people at their rest from the day toil, at the table, playing a chess game or silently enjoying the togetherness.

One main theme in Giladi's work is Mother and Child. We do not know if is the influence of  because the Christian  icons he saw in Russia of his youth, or his studies at Leningrad Academy of Art, or may be the due to dialog with Renaissance artists he carefully studied from the cherished book his mother gave him when he was exiled to Siberia. It may be the longing to his own mother who was a significant figure in his development as an artist, the mother that he left behind as young man in tragic events on the last meeting in the port of Odessa before leaving for the new life in Palestine. I may also be the lost of his first child, as in the early drawings in his mother's arms. It maybe that all gathered in one figure that he returns to over and over in his works. 

Apparently his work did not change during the year but with a close look from the chronologic perspective we can observe some changes during the years. The last works are more of bright colors, less dense and the figures portrayed with contours like colored drawings.  The background is changed, more empty spots, the grid hat was characteristic influenced by the modernist concepts of "Ofakim Hadashim", disappear leaving blank or one colored space.
He continued to his work till the last days of his life, his last colorful pastel drawings describe the elderly some in wheel chairs, in their daily routine with a sense of empathy and compassion, as he drew  people thought his life. The exhibition shows oil paintings from his lifetime period of creation, some of his early works from the kibbutz period, some from later periods along with a few water color paintings and some of his last pastel works as a man of old age. We show some drawing from the early works, books and leaflets with illustrations.

We also bring words written on Giladi's art by Lea Goldberg , David Ben-Gurion, E. Colb, Dr Haim Gamzu, Curator Yona Fisher  and Artists friends, like Avigdor Stimatzki.  We wish to remind and remember this special artist that is an inseparable part of the chain of Israeli Art. His life story is representative of other artists that made their way to a new country and built a new society, in the kibbutz and in the city, but he remained independent in his artwork.  

As he himself tells: "The clumsy characters are not of our time, they belong to the days of Genesis, as though standing in their silent revolt for the wrongs done to generations that did not enjoy the echoes in art as by kings and prophets. Their faces express oppressed inner tension, fearing for destiny of mankind, whispering a prayer for infinite truth, like the love of a mother for her son".

The works in the exhibition are presented with courtesy of Giladi Family collection, Kibbutz Afikim archive, the artist Jan Rauchwarger, the artist Jacob Gildor, Curator Gabbi Maanit and Tal Gallery collection.

Ady Greenfeld
Exhibition Curator