A talk with Marek #5
“Someone who was once my student lived on Harav Berlin Street, her name was Claudine Meyer. She and her partner were long-time immigrants from France, the kind that still kept their accent. She told me they live in a rooftop apartment, and from her porch you can see the Knesset and the Valley of the Cross. Once they went abroad and left me a key so I could paint there. I went and did two watercolor landscapes; then I noticed that their house was actually very French. I decided to do a still-life with their things. I started out with a concept of a still-life of new immigrants from France and in the background this view in the window. It’s all authentic, real. I didn’t stage anything. The still-life turned into breakfast because there was brie and French bread, a silver pitcher and a porcelain jug and a newspaper, Ha’aretz, in English. Then I added a kitchen towel with blue and white stripes. I worked really hard to make it look random, like when you spend half a day preparing to go out with that “messy” and casual look.
The result was a painting which on one hand was French, or of new immigrants, despite their being here for quite a long time, and on the other hand Israeli in the sense that the view from the window is the Knesset and The Valley of the Cross, and the kitchen towel in the still life that looks a little like the Israeli flag. A kind of multi-layered painting, a new immigrant from Europe, but Israeli.
Afterwards I did the painting “Breakfast in the Katamonim” which is the exact opposite – spare, simple, Telma cornflakes with milk that comes in a bag. I liked the coupling of this and that kind of Jerusalem. There’s an endless number of these and those in Jerusalem”.
The result was a painting which on one hand was French, or of new immigrants, despite their being here for quite a long time, and on the other hand Israeli in the sense that the view from the window is the Knesset and The Valley of the Cross, and the kitchen towel in the still life that looks a little like the Israeli flag. A kind of multi-layered painting, a new immigrant from Europe, but Israeli.
Afterwards I did the painting “Breakfast in the Katamonim” which is the exact opposite – spare, simple, Telma cornflakes with milk that comes in a bag. I liked the coupling of this and that kind of Jerusalem. There’s an endless number of these and those in Jerusalem”.
Breakfast in Talbiya, Marek Yanai, oil on canvas, 100X81 cm.
