Joseph Hirsch – Retrospective

Joseph Hirsch – Retrospective is the artist’s first posthumous exhibition. Despite the compelling title, from a graphic oeuvre spanning several thousands works on paper, only 220 drawings were selected for display. The present exhibition strives to provide an introduction to a large and comprehensive body of work, while weaving it into the Israeli and European contexts where it belongs. Naturally, the exhibition is historical, chronological and didactic in nature. However, Hirsch’s art does not belong to a definite time and style; even now it is perceived as art which is timeless. Most of his drawings elicit discontent and conduce contemplation, despite – or perhaps due to – their visual perfection and outstanding execution. Most of the works are drawings in pen, brush and ink, with occasional touches of graphite, watercolor or chalk; they are the product of meticulous observation, a virtuoso touch, and fine irony, at times verging on sarcasm.

The totality of Hirsch’s work and his status continue to raise questions concerning the artist’s role in society, the function of art, and the viewer’s position. The fact that he chose to engage exclusively in drawing, creating small-scale, monochromatic works, in a style reminiscent, to some observers, of academic, historic and classical drawing, exempted him over the years from competition with the trends and movements preoccupying his contemporaries. This choice ranked him along with other artists in Israel, older than he, who engaged exclusively in drawing, among them Anna Ticho, Leopold Krakauer, and Osias Hofstatter. The latter was also the only Israeli artist whom Hirsch regarded as a confidant, someone who understood what all the others could not see, and the two men had great respect for each other.

Still and all, Hirsch’s oeuvre is not classical, let alone academic. Hirsch himself often detected in it an unconventional, subversive element, a revolutionary act of sorts stemming from an understanding of historical development. By virtue of his origin, education and fate, he belonged to a large group of artists who were brought up on the rudiments of German Art and subsequently expelled therefrom. During the 1930s, with the Nazis’ rise to power in Germany and Austria, many German artists, scholars, and philosophers were scattered to all corners of the world, bringing to their new countries the traditions, values and insights which stimulated the Weimar Republic. One of these was the long tradition of drawing, where the ability to sketch from nature, from observation, is a self-evident, basic requirement an artist must meet. Concurrently, an ethos of work in black-and-white, possessing an ethical-critical tint, emerged in the 20th century throughout the world of German culture. The immense impact of German painting, and mainly Expressionism in all its manifestations and variations, on the consciousness of artists throughout the world derives, first and foremost, from the intensity of expression triggered by a drawing skill, as it was manifested in chalk and charcoal drawings, woodcuts, etchings, and lithographs.

The current exhibition sets out to provide, for the first time, a more comprehensive perspective on Joseph Hirsch’s art. It sheds light on his early work from the early 1950s, traces its evolution throughout the 1970s, reaching its peak during the last years of his life. It presents a wide range of techniques and approaches, many works that have never been shown before, studies, quick sketches and laborious drawings, rich in tone and visual resonance. Furthermore, this is the first exhibition in which the artist’s work is being presented not by the artist’s own choice.

*An interview with Joseph Hirsch: