Gideon Rubin
20 Jan - 03 Mar 2012
GIDEON RUBIN
Brief Encounters
20 January - 3 March, 2012
The Galerie Karsten Greve will present the young Israeli artist Gideon Rubin with his first solo show in Germany. Gideon Rubin has always done portraits, but over the past few years, his paintings have evolved from his beginnings in realism towards a more simple, quasi minimalist painting style. An eye begins at first as a shadow and then disappears entirely. These anonymous portraits are intentionally left without faces. The artist prefers that his figures evoke souvenirs among his viewers, rather than representing specific identities. He wants the spectator to focus on the painting process, on the medium itself and on a few details that Rubin brings to it, such as the person’s position or their bearing. The artist wants to offer alternative ways of looking at the figures by inviting the viewer to complete the tale or the scene. His intention is to create a painting that functions like an obscure souvenir of someone’s life.
These faceless portraits are inspired by photographs from old photo albums that the artist obtained on eBay from around the world, photos of celebrities or paintings by old masters. In examining these old photos, the artist seeks a kind of narrative that lends itself to interpretation. Some of the original photos were taken by anonymous families during their holidays at the sea dating from the beginning of the century. But in Rubin’s paintings, the scenes appear to be timeless. They could even be taken for snapshots of contemporary beach holidays. In our exhibition, the peaceful paintings of bathers contrast with images from the Second World War when this civil life found an abrupt end.
Gideon Rubin uses sandy tones, grey blues and off whites that he applies with large brush strokes. He also uses little touches of red to emphasise a detail that initiates a relationship between the work and the viewer. He likes using canvas or raw linen and often leaves entire areas of these materials untouched so that they become integral parts of the work. He also paints on roughly cut bits of packaging carton, integrating motifs and letters already printed on the carton into his composition. The subtle colours he uses and the fact that the artist often reworks and repaints his works with several layers, further emphasises his desire to bring forgotten lives back to life again.
In 2010 Gideon Rubin discovered a new medium. The exhibition includes his film “To Change Air a Little“ inspired by Chaim Nachman Bialik, Israel's national poet and made for an exhibition in Biet Bialik (the poet’s former home, now a museum) in Tel Aviv. 250 gouache paintings were used for a short animated film which shows Rubin walking in a park. The film is projected on a small painting of the snow-covered park and is accompanied by the sound of strides. Very little happens. Rubin explains: “As a painter, I am trying to breathe life into the painting by means of the simple, basic act of walking. Is walking the content of the work, and painting-the medium representing it, or is the content of the work painting itself, with its limitations and capabilities, while walking is but the means chosen to illustrate it?”
Gideon Rubin was born in Tel Aviv in 1973. He studied at the School of Visual Arts in New York and then at the Slade School of Fine Arts in London where he graduated in 2002. He has had numerous international one-man shows and his works are included in private collections in London, Hong Kong, New York, Paris and beyond. He lives and works in London.
Brief Encounters
20 January - 3 March, 2012
The Galerie Karsten Greve will present the young Israeli artist Gideon Rubin with his first solo show in Germany. Gideon Rubin has always done portraits, but over the past few years, his paintings have evolved from his beginnings in realism towards a more simple, quasi minimalist painting style. An eye begins at first as a shadow and then disappears entirely. These anonymous portraits are intentionally left without faces. The artist prefers that his figures evoke souvenirs among his viewers, rather than representing specific identities. He wants the spectator to focus on the painting process, on the medium itself and on a few details that Rubin brings to it, such as the person’s position or their bearing. The artist wants to offer alternative ways of looking at the figures by inviting the viewer to complete the tale or the scene. His intention is to create a painting that functions like an obscure souvenir of someone’s life.
These faceless portraits are inspired by photographs from old photo albums that the artist obtained on eBay from around the world, photos of celebrities or paintings by old masters. In examining these old photos, the artist seeks a kind of narrative that lends itself to interpretation. Some of the original photos were taken by anonymous families during their holidays at the sea dating from the beginning of the century. But in Rubin’s paintings, the scenes appear to be timeless. They could even be taken for snapshots of contemporary beach holidays. In our exhibition, the peaceful paintings of bathers contrast with images from the Second World War when this civil life found an abrupt end.
Gideon Rubin uses sandy tones, grey blues and off whites that he applies with large brush strokes. He also uses little touches of red to emphasise a detail that initiates a relationship between the work and the viewer. He likes using canvas or raw linen and often leaves entire areas of these materials untouched so that they become integral parts of the work. He also paints on roughly cut bits of packaging carton, integrating motifs and letters already printed on the carton into his composition. The subtle colours he uses and the fact that the artist often reworks and repaints his works with several layers, further emphasises his desire to bring forgotten lives back to life again.
In 2010 Gideon Rubin discovered a new medium. The exhibition includes his film “To Change Air a Little“ inspired by Chaim Nachman Bialik, Israel's national poet and made for an exhibition in Biet Bialik (the poet’s former home, now a museum) in Tel Aviv. 250 gouache paintings were used for a short animated film which shows Rubin walking in a park. The film is projected on a small painting of the snow-covered park and is accompanied by the sound of strides. Very little happens. Rubin explains: “As a painter, I am trying to breathe life into the painting by means of the simple, basic act of walking. Is walking the content of the work, and painting-the medium representing it, or is the content of the work painting itself, with its limitations and capabilities, while walking is but the means chosen to illustrate it?”
Gideon Rubin was born in Tel Aviv in 1973. He studied at the School of Visual Arts in New York and then at the Slade School of Fine Arts in London where he graduated in 2002. He has had numerous international one-man shows and his works are included in private collections in London, Hong Kong, New York, Paris and beyond. He lives and works in London.