The illustrator died during the Corona days and did not have time to attend his exhibition • Curator: "Avner's works are exactly who he is - a lot of humor, but very macabre humor"
Did not get to be at the opening of his exhibition.
Avner Katz
Photo:
Moshe Shai
Last September, the artist Avner Katz passed away, who over the years has participated in dozens of exhibitions in galleries and museums in Israel and abroad, and his writing talent and sensitivity to texts also helped him become one of the founding fathers of the Israeli illustration world. Thursday) in the hall of Israeli art at the Israel Museum under the name "Avner Katz:" I already was ", but passed away before he was allowed to open.
"The process of preparing the exhibition began more than two years ago," says Orna Granot, the exhibition's curator.
"He had one exhibition with us in the youth wing many years ago, and even before the corona started we decided on a theme, a gallery and the works that would take part in the exhibition.
This is the first exhibition to be launched at the museum in the current opening round and class, Granot admits, very exciting, for many reasons.
"It's especially exciting because of all the conflicting emotions: it's happy that Avner won a solo exhibition at the Israel Museum, it's happy to open the museum, put on an exhibition and engage in culture, but on the other hand it's sad because he's not with us. Avner is exactly who he is - a lot of humor, but very macabre humor. "
The theme of the exhibition chosen is "Self-portrait in words and pictures".
"There are three main types of works in the exhibition: large paintings of classical portraits; from his sketchbooks in which he writes about himself; and the third most impressive and moving - a combination of them. This is a series of two-day portraits he made for a year. His close up, and wrote down a date or some other note, thus creating 366 portraits that are like a pixelated mosaic that becomes one huge picture on our wall.Every day he did it, and after a year he did the last portrait, on his 80th birthday. His observation of himself and old age is super honest, penetrating and poignant. "