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Rafael Stryjer | Drawing Therapy

Exhibition

Exhibition opening: Thursday, March 23, 2017 at 20:00

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Curator: Na'ama Goldstein

Rafael Stryjer | Drawing Therapy

"I cannot think of anything that would drive us to become therapists,
if we did not have our own problems." - Ronald Fairbairn

Dr. Rafael Stryjer , born in Uruguay, 51 years old, married and father of three, is a senior psychiatrist and a self-taught painter.

More than a decade ago, Dr. Stryjer  began drawing  with pencil and marker pen; it was his way to process the events of the day, verbal language being too narrow to encompass them.

Drawing was the quickest way to express his feelings and the images of people he met in his work at the hospital.
To the page streamed the images of the people and his own image as reflected and revealed before him in the intensive meetings.

"The psychiatrist must recognize that he is not much different from his patients, and what distinguishes them is just knowledge."

Drawing, though minimal, is a strong means of expression even if it is two-dimensional; it is able to provide us with a sense of volume and with it creates in us the understanding of the work.
This is exactly the process that Stryjer  wants us to experience.
The reverse process of forming the drawing.
Here the artist in the psychiatrist has created his impressions through his understanding and knowledge of the model standing before him and created a synthesis between the psychiatrist and the artist.


Stryjer 's line character is appropriate to the extreme mental states to which he was exposed: disturbance, stress, instability and nervousness translated as scribbled, sharp and asymmetric lines; sadness, depression, joy and tranquility create strokes of one round and accurate line.


The decision to hold his first solo exhibition, with the self-exposure involved, was not easy for Dr. Stryjer . The transition from intimate, confidential therapeutic work to the public domain, involved a slow ripening and with a willingness to deal with foreign perspective and criticism.

The curatorial process of selecting the works continued therefore for more than two years. Out of hundreds of works created over a decade, a series of drawings has been carefully selected, which tells a story of therapeutic relationships, of meeting, of connection. Analysis through drawing.

Na'ama Goldstein