Contemporary group exhibition opens in the Nassima-Landau art space
The Nassima-Landau gallery brings contemporary artists together for ‘Parallel Worlds’
By HAGAY HACOHEN‘LOVE REMAINS,’ by Friedrich Kunath.(photo credit: Courtesy)
In his private office, Steeve Nassima keeps two paintings. One by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama depicting her famous pumpkin motif, and one by Black American painter Henry Taylor depicting a man in a prison uniform. In impeccable Hebrew, Nassima, who moved here following the 2004 Tsunami in Thailand, shares how he became passionate about art collecting when he encountered the works of Kusama and her fellow countryman Nobuyoshi Araki in his youth.
“I was drawn to Japanese culture from a young age,” Nassima explained, “their society is a very structured one with an imposing sense of hierarchy and yet, they also offer paths to rebel.”
Kusama, who in 1977 willingly moved to a mental hospital in Tokyo to continue functioning and had been living there ever since, is one of the most original artists working today. It should be noted that curator Suzanne Landau, who partnered with Nassima to create the Nassima-Landau art space, will curate a large exhibition of works by Kusama meant to open at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art this November. Araki, famous in the West for his erotic photographs depicting kinbaku-bi [aesthetic bondage], is hailed in his own country for a massive outpour of works in a stunning range of topics. The monumental catalog Araki: Love and Death, to name but one example, includes examples from six decades of devotion to beauty. Some of the most moving photographs are of his wife, their relationship and how she eventually succumbed to cancer.‘I’M OK BY MYSELF,’ by Friedrich Kunath.
A successful diamond expert raised within the traditional Jewish community of Antwerp, Nassima’s roots stretch to the city of Mashhad in Iran. Born in Milan, his family eventually settled in Belgium. “I was sent to a Jewish school and raised within a culture that also imposed structure,” he says, “maybe this is why I enjoy Araki and Kusama so much.” The legend is that it was Nader Sha who, when returning from India in 1747 with great treasures, invited Jewish families to come to his new capital of Mashhad to ensure all this wealth was well managed. Nassima, 46, was extremely successful in his field of the diamond trade, then tragedy struck.During a family vacation in Thailand an earthquake at the bottom of the Indian Ocean led to the death of thousands, among them his youngest son. It was this tragedy that led to him moving his family to Israel and to follow a different course. Oddly, Landau also found herself in Israel following a different tragic situation in 1968 when the USSR invaded her native Czechoslovakia. Already in Israel for a student visit, she stayed, eventually becoming one of the leading people on the art scene here.
The Nassima-Landau art space, in that sense, is a very unusual thing. A gallery and an art foundation focused on bringing international art talents to the local audience. Usually, Jewish people new to the country use their relocation to advance their existing careers or see it as their personal mission to introduce things from their new home, such as wine or hi-tech, to the world. Nassima is doing the opposite, bringing artists he admires to Israel. “Even today there is a feeling among Israelis that in order to see really good art one must board a flight,” he tells me, “I do not see why that should be the case.”
It should also be said that the Israeli art market, like most cultural ecosystems, tends to focus on home-grown talents – not foreigners, no matter how good they are. This creates a sort of loop. Good artists win scholarships, then show their works at a museum, later a gallery, then land a teaching position, show their new works and so on. While large museums do bring well-known non-Israeli art to the country as part of their mission, most galleries and art spaces present local talents. Those who buy art, private people or huge firms investing in a collection, also tend to focus on Israeli artists. The Tel Aviv Museum of Art recently showed works by Raymond Pettibon, who at this point in time is a world-famous American artist. Pettibon mentored other painters as well, among them Honor Titus. The current Parallel Worlds exhibition at the Nassima-Landau art space gives the Israeli art lover a chance to see Titus now, here, without heading to a medical lab to prove one is not infected with COVID-19 and hailing a cab to the airport.
“If I do not love it, it will not be here,” Nassima points out, “I want this foundation, which is entirely nonprofit, to become a hub on the current international art scene.” Pointing to the painting by Taylor, he explains how meaningful that artist is for current Black art in America. “We are an oasis of artistic freedom and this is where people can come and learn what is going on in the larger world outside Israel,” he adds. “What we show now, and will show in the future, are new works.”
In Parallel Worlds, a group exhibition of contemporary artists who are all in dialog with past masters, one can see the richly detailed landscape paintings of Friedrich Kunath. These canvases work on at least three levels, I think. The first is their direct reference to German Romanticism. The second is how they capture our own cultural moment. Even when we see nature, we view it while wondering what sort of filter to put on the image we will share on social media the next moment. Kunath alters the clouds in his paintings to depict texts and adds animated characters as if the painting was meant to be sent to a friend halfway across the world. Lastly, Kunath says something about the skill of painting without taking the solution employed by the late painter Raffi Lavie. Lavie, who knew perfectly well how to paint realistically, turned his back on all that and boldly took Israeli art in an intellectual direction by doodling on wooden boards. Kunath is able to hold the painting brush on both ends, to present his skills as a painter of the world as seen by the eye, but also communicate a mind that encounters the world.
A large painting by Chloe Wise’s is also on display. In it, a woman is seen holding Romaine lettuce. Known in Hebrew as Arabic Lettuce, the 2021 painting A thing that’s on the table takes on a very new and unexpected meaning following recent events.
Another interesting dialog between the past and the current moment is achieved by Turkish artist Onur Hasturk and his 2019 acrylic and watercolor work Odalisque with Red Caftan. The Turkish word means chambermaid, and the theme was often employed by European painters who imagined the harem of the Turkish sultan as a place of nudity and sensual pleasures. Hasturk, in contrast, employs the classic technique of Ottoman miniature painting – and paints a woman fully clothed.
“We do not inspect what passport the artist holds before we bring the work here,” Nassima tells me. “People who wanted to see international art of high quality simply did not have a space to view such things. Now, they do.”Parallel Worlds includes works by Daniel Arsham, Alex Gardner, Ori Gersht, Onur Hasturk, Friedrich Kunath and Honor Titus. Shown until June 11 at the Nassima-Landau Art Space at 55 Ahad Ha’am Street, Tel Aviv. Monday to Thursday from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Friday from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. www.nassimalandau.com/
