Seasons Will Tell

At the core of the Seasons Will Tell exhibition lies the series of paintings “Mediterranean Views”. The series, which has accompanied Anna Pasternak for several years now depicts human activities at the sea shore, mainly that of Haifa.
Pasternak focuses on pure painterly values such as shadows, reflections and motion.
She explores the qualities of light, which flows abundantly from the paintings – emphasizing the open sea, the blue sky and the golden sand. Against this backdrop she examines human values such as intrapersonal relations and interpersonal relations. Since the seashore is a place where people “peal off” not only their clothes but also their identity and their national or class affiliations, it is an ideal site for such work.
The varied dimensions of the paintings, along with the myriad ways in which they can be combined, creating different groups and combinations, adds yet another source of strength to the entire exhibition.
Pasternak’s investigative attitude is evident in her desire to capture a passing moment or a unique view in an ever changing landscape. This is painting that seeks for the spirit in reality, scrutinizing itself and the object of its depiction, as if searching out a secret.

The exhibition is accompanied by a comprehensive bilingual catalogue.

*The Hebrew title :”Yamim Yagidu” is the equivalent to the English idiom “Time Will Tell”, yet the Hebrew word “yamim” means “days” as well as “seas” and is used here as a pun, hence the translation of “yamim” into “seasons”.
Gallery Talk(in hebrew): Sat. 21.2.09 at 12:00

Seasons Will Tell*

“To draw – is to marvel at reality and to depict its trueness.”
Avigdor Arikha
Anna Pasternak began painting the series of paintings entitled “Mediterranean Views” as part of her ongoing treatment of questions related to the representation of reality. Her paintings are full of natural light emphasizing the open sea, the blue sky and the golden sand – “the great Nature”, against whose background the human takes on a reduced and uniform scale.
It serves her as a perfect backdrop for depicting human activities occurring within it, and for scrutinizing intrapersonal and interpersonal relations.
Avigdor Arikha, relating to the act of painting, noted that it is mainly experimental, and the experimentation is in the dark, not really clear to the artist while working. A similar perception arises from Pasternak’s sea paintings, in which she investigates the changing situations in nature and the passage of time. Among the means she employs are: diptychs; paintings in which identical figures appear a number of times on the same canvas; sub-groups of paintings dealing with the same topic; falling shadows, revealing the time of day; reflections in the sea capturing a transient moment, and more.
Although Pasternak lives in Haifa and depicts the city’s seashore and its people, she points out that for her  the sea is any sea, the seashore is any seashore, and the people portrayed are people in general. In essence, Pasternak’s group of sea paintings is a many-faceted array of works. As such, it draws both from visual observation and from western painting (from the Renaissance to the present time). Although a painting may faithfully represent reality, it gives us a brief respite from it. By hovering beyond place and time, it is not “social” in the conventional sense and does not try to refer to socio-political issues.
In fact, this is a personal painterly journey looking for the spirit that is in reality. Painting which is changing while in motion, which investigates the object it depicts and examines thoroughly itself, as if searching out a secret.

Yaniv Shapira

*Note: The Hebrew title :”Yamim Yagidu” is the equivalent to the English idiom “Time Will Tell”, yet the Hebrew word “yamim” means “days” as well as “seas” and is used here as a pun, hence the translation of “yamim” into “seasons”.