The painter and sculptor Shaul Bez established an exhibition of paintings based on the poems of Jonah Wallach • Bez: "I moved away from myself to get closer back"

Jonathan / Jonah Wallach

I halfback upon Hgsr

and Hildim Ahri

Iontn

Hm Koraim

little Dm

Just a little Dm Lknoh Hdbs

I Mscim Lhor belonging to stud

but it's a The children Rotzim

and Hm Ildim

and Ani Iontn

Hm Cortim At Rasi Banf

Gldiolh and Aosfim At Rasi

Bsni Anfi Gldiolh and Aorzim

At Rasi Bnir swish

Iontn

Iontn Hm Aomrim

sooth Excuse us,

do not imagine for yourself that you are like this

"As a child, I sometimes felt like 'Jonathan' from Jonah Wallach's song," says painter and sculptor Shaul Bez. "I was born and raised in a kibbutz where society examines and reviews you as a daily act. On the one hand I wanted to win the sympathy of society, and on the other hand I knew I was different from those around me. I was not a strange child, I was an outsider with the soul of a sensitive artist."

"Jonathan", one of the best known poems by the poet Jonah Wallach, was an inspiration for a painting by the artist Shaul Bez, and is one of ten paintings he painted in the spirit of Wallach's poems displayed in the exhibition "Dreams of Poets" in the Tel Aviv Gallery curated by Rachel Sockman. 

"It's a wounded song. Jonathan agrees to be stabbed, but the children are not enough. They want more than that, they want Jonathan. And the end of the song is that they decapitate him with gladioli and wrap their heads in rustling paper. "The head in Gladiola indicates that it is a children's game. The eyes in the painting show the examining eyes in the kibbutz society," Bez explains.

Jonah Wallach is one of Shaul Bez's favorite poets. He often reads her poems, thrilled by her virtuoso mastery of the Hebrew language, her abilities to create layers of reality and hallucination in songs, admiring her fascinating character and provocativeness. 

According to the artist, the new exhibition symbolizes a major change in his creative development. "I went through a process of creative and emotional release from the painting and figurative and realistic sculpture that characterized me, to an abstract and contemporary painting," he says.

For two years a falcon searched for a subject close to his heart and found it in the poems of poets. "I moved away from myself to get closer back. And when I chose poetry as a subject to engage with in my studio, I realized that was it, I found it," he testifies.

"The songs are very close to my heart and my favorite, but they were far enough away to allow the creative change to take place," shares Bez. "When I read the poems, images were created in my imagination, which I translated into paintings and abstract sculptures. The paintings are not an illustration of the poems. When I paint, my commitment is first and foremost to the composition, color and drawing.

A good man loves Pythia / Jonah Wallach

A good man loves Pythia to 

my great joy 

that otherwise I would not be worried 

who loves Pythia 

and to whom Pythia gives love 

A good man like me loves to seduce the 

three of us talk openly 

if not him I was to seduction 

at the time hinted to me that she is undecided 

and I kept you from hesitating 

Solomon will undecided seduction and sorry 

A good man loves Pythia to 

my great joy 

that otherwise I would not be worried 

who loves Pythia 

and to whom Pythia gives love 

We always laugh together 

what they say and laugh 

and I laugh too as a happy seducer 

I would think like we're two 

like two wings to a lure 

but no, what I'm only is 

one lure, one lure 

A good man loves Pythia to 

my great joy 

that otherwise I would not be worried 

Who loves Pythia 

Who loves Pythia 

Who?

This song was the inspiration for the painting "Two Wings to the Pythia". "The song is not so characteristic of Jonah Wallach's poetry," explains Bez. "What caught me is the triangle of lovers that is also expressed in the painting. The narrator, who has a good heart who loves Pythia, is happy to have a lover who makes her happy, so he moves away. So as not to interfere. " Pythia, by the way, is a prophetess and priestess who sat with the oracle from Delphi and would speak obscure prophecies, apparently under the influence of drugs.

Doe / Jonah Wallach

A hidden crevice in the cliffs A 

doe drinks water 

what for me and her 

but the cliffs of my heart 

but the fountain of my life 

but hidden 

Ayala What about me and her 

What about me and her 

but I loved 

in some of the songs whose inspiration is evident in the artist's paintings in the exhibition is Ayala. The painting "But I Loved", named after a client who finishes the song.

"The doe in Wallach's songs sometimes represents all that is innocent and pure," says Bez. In his painting, Ayala appears drinking water, in a play with a composition of color, drawing and emotion. Falcon strives to show the tangles outside, which are also tangles in the heart.

The Doe Monster / Jonah Wallach

And Cl Haofot Hio Bgni 

and Cl Hhiot Hio Bgni 

and Cln soaked At esquire Ahbti 

and Hfliah Mcln sing Hailh

and Sir Hailh upon a time song Ahbti

and Kol Hhiot Stk

and Haofot Fsko Mltzrh

and Hailh Alth upon Gg homey

and Hith Srh me At poem Ahbti

but it's a Bcl Hih Do Mfltzt

on behalf of Sbcl chicken There is a certain Msho whacky

on behalf of Smfltzt Isnh Bcl man

and Mfltzt Hailh Sobbh Lh Sbib Hgn

Cshaofot Hrcino chief Cshailh custody

and Hhiot Nmnmo Cshailh custody

and Ani Hiiti Cla Hiiti Cshailh custody

Brga Hrc that one Hlmh Bsari.

And Cl Haofot Afo and Hhiot Nso

and Hailh Nflh Mhgg and Sbrh At Hras

and Ani Brhti and Bgn Ahbti Sogrt Mfltzt

Gorilh Shrh and Rah Cschh.

"It was the first song I worked with and made me burst into creativity, and inspired by him I drew three paintings," the artist reveals. "The doe is the protagonist of the song that focuses on a story that takes place in a place where there are animals and plants, seemingly an optimistic place, but the end is much less like that. When the doe falls from the roof and the gorilla reaches it, it is the monster found in each of us."

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Shortly before the outbreak of the corona, a falcon was exposed to the song "My father and mother went hunting," and he inspired a painting centered on a house in which the child is closed and crouched, while his parents go hunting for "serious animals."

My father and mother went hunting / Jonah Wallach

My father and mother went hunting 

and I alone 

my father and mother in wonderful hunting fields 

and what do I do 

My father and mother are hunting now 

My father and mother are hunting serious animals 

Never hunted funny animals 

Badgers or rabbits 

My father and mother are in glorious hunting grounds 

and I am bored and lazy 

my father and mother are eternal hunters 

and I am at home, what is home 

My father and mother are hunting now ... 

The whole past of my father and mother 

is not considered in their eyes when they hunt 

and I am also entrusted as a souvenir 

that will always be beautiful from her 

father and mother hunt now ....

Between the lines of the song there is a picturesque story about adults and their serious occupations like livelihood, wars, politics and more. That "serious parties live", but refrain from doing just things, with the loneliness of the sad child at home in the background. 

"In the process, I covered more and more details from the initial painting with paint, so that the images from the poem are hidden under the layers of paint. Before finishing, I added the flower, which has an element of hope in it," the artist explains.

Shaul Bez was 24 years old when he left his kibbutz from Mishmar HaEmek, and has lived in Jerusalem ever since. He studied painting by looking at masters of figurative painting, including Jan Rauchwerger and Leonid Blacklev. The exhibition "Dreams of Poets" features 21 paintings (acrylic charcoal pencil and pastes) and three sculptures inspired by the poems of Jonah Wallach and the poet Sarah Koi. "I became acquainted with her poems on Facebook and recognized elements in them from Jonah Wallach's poems. Sarah Koi often uses images from the Bible and also her biblical language," Bez explains.

The exhibition, which was supposed to be shown in March, was postponed and at the weekend was launched "Late Corona" at the "Office" gallery. "Despite the situation, I decided to present the exhibition," says Bez. "The people need and want art and culture."

"Dreams of Poets", Shaul Bez

Curator: Rachel Sockman

Gallery "Office" 

Zamenhof 6 Tel Aviv

Closing: August 28th