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Leonid Obolsky | When the Brush Meets the Lens

Exhibition

Exhibition opening: Thursday, April 20, 2017 at 20:00

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Exhibition and Book Launch

Curator: Pnina Minirav

Leonid Obolsky – When the Brush Meets the Lens

Leonid Obolsky was born in Leningrad, in 1951. Obolsky’s artistic talent shined through at an early age, specifically his sketching proficiency. He was sent to study art at the Young Pioneer Palace, a unique architectural structure and past residence of the Czar turned school for gifted children. Early on he was exposed to the ages-long tradition of Russian Art. Painting in Russia was taught in the classical manner, with great emphasis placed on technique and meticulous genre specializations. Academic art studies were traditionally sponsored by the government: the Communist state viewed art as an important propagandist tool, and its artists enjoyed considerably good and steady income. Obolsky’s Jewish identity, however, prevented him from advancing to higher education at the Russian Academy of Arts, since all allotted spots for Jews had already been filled. For lack of a better option, he took up engineering as a means for “acquiring a profession”. Nevertheless, his love for art only intensified, and Obolsky made a name for himself as the university’s resident artist – making posters, sets and banners for various school events. Upon graduation, Obolsky joined an engineering firm, but felt a great sense of unfulfillment. Before long, he left the world of engineering and reembraced art. He joined a prominent studio of government-sponsored artists and was part of a team responsible for monumental portraits of notable figures such as Lenin, Marx, Brezhnev and others. Through this work, he was able to finance himself and use his free time to develop his artistic proficiencies. His studio experience drove him to apply to the Leningrad University of Art at 29, and four years later he was awarded a license for teaching painting and art. From that moment on, Obolsky could participate in institutionalized art exhibitions, then the prominent and nearly sole means of exposure for Russia’s artists. He would later go on to participate in notable group exhibitions and even present a solo exhibit at Leningrad’s Central Library.

At the age of 40, already a well-established artist, Obolsky immigrated to Israel. During his time in Russia, he had formed a unique symbolic language of painting: surrealist elements intertwined with renaissance imagery, concocted in the traditional style and skill. His intense technic capabilities and profound understanding of the art of painting, a clear outcome of his Russian education, dominates his work. A chance meeting with Ofer Minirav, a scenery photographer with a keen eye and a love of surrealist painting, would elevate Obolsky’s creation to a new level. It was in Israel of all places that Obolsky returned to the Russian traditions of painting, creating exquisite works of realistic scenery inspired by his traditional upbringing. Minirav’s photography is transformed onto canvas, as strokes of paint replace the lens, revealing the photographed  scenery in all of its painted beauty. Or in Minirav's own words:

"Painting adds dimensions that do not exist in photography; as a result, painted scenery is more real, more like reality".

Obolsky and Minirav met in 2004, thirteen years after the former had made Israel his home. Their shared connection and its fruits— Minirav’s photography recreated in paint by Obolsky—forms a microcosm of numerous chapters in art history. A thorough look into their shared work, complete with a review of their biographies from birth through encounter to mutual impact, raises questions relevant to the discipline as a whole: realism vs. photo-realism, painting and photography, shared work and personal style. The collaboration between the two artists and their scope of work puts Obolsky in line with the Israeli realist school, so beloved by local art collectors and lovers alike. Absurdly, Obolsky’s superior technical capabilities and adherence to traditional painting, traits that burdened the artist in his early days in Israel, would prove to be the root of his success some 25 years later.

Noa Avron Barak

Translation: Rotem Alter