Zoe Sever

The spring in Judean Desert,

Oil on canvas, 70X120 cm.

Signed. Signed and depicted on the reverse.

The colorful and rhythmic landscapes of virtuoso painter Zoe Sever are reminiscent of the landscapes of the mythical artist Paul Klee – and like Klee’s, they inspire the viewer with good atmosphere and a joyful mood. Klee has described his art as “taking the line for a walk”, and much the same can be said of Sever’s drawing. She, too, travels with her clear lines, constructing landscape patterns made of densely symbolic, stunningly beautiful puzzles, folkloric characteristics and boundless texture symbols characterized by an exhilarating and diverse spectrum of color. Her art is indubitably assertive, bent on a providing a positive description of our world, on reflecting its epic and romantic aspects, on expressing in a humorist and joyful manner the experience of travel and observation of the urban space of Tel Aviv, the metropolis. Zoe Sever’s “city that doesn’t sleep” is a city exploding with fireworks, festival grounds built out of colorful houses and dynamic art works, a place of rhythm and pleasantly Sisyphean movement.

Through her artistic interpretation, Zoe Sever’s works come to host a fascinating dramatic dialogue between natal landscape, paintings of the city itself and the vistas of imagination it contains, along with the artist’s unique interpretation for its shape. Sever possesses a special index of shapes and colors from which she draws her inspiration for her works. The viewer has the feeling that there is no need for explanation and analysis of what he sees. Her works are structured exactly like those works included in the school of Naïve art, and are characterized by strong colors, emphasis on outlines, distortion of proportion, simplistic approach to light and shade, glorification of innocence, intelligible painting and, of course, an optimistic and utopian view of life. At the same time, the works themselves are certainly not naive. They can certainly be included in the framework of modern interpretation of the concept of impressionist art, built upon the artist’s personal and specific perspective of the world. Her refreshing, high-quality work is received with great love and with complete emphatic identification with her viewers, which explains her meteoric success among collectors in Israel and abroad.

The naive, colorful and authentic painting in our country was represented for many years by Shalom Moskowitz of Safed, along with the early painting of storied Tel Aviv painter Reuven Rubin, followed by leading artists like Nahum Gutman, and in our own time, Rafi Peretz, Gabriel Cohen and many more. Picasso, Gauguin, Henri Russo, Paul Klee and the traditional folklore artists all had considerable influence over these Israeli artists was palpable. The new, eruptive presence of the art of Zoe Sever, who came to Israel from Lviv in Ukrain and has studied at the Betzalel academy in Jerusalem, certainly brings a fresh breeze to the local art scene.

Emile Zola’s description of the painting as “a natural landscape viewed through the filter go the artist’s temperament” is well suited to describe Sever’s very artistic and original interpretation of her landscapes. Her painting takes the view that exists in her surroundings and translates it into hundreds of colorful particles creating a new visual puzzle that brings joy to anyone who sees it, and brings art to levels of enjoyment and catharsis previously unknown here. Sever’s joyful work, excited by life and its beauty stands out sharply against the background of conceptual art dominating the local art scene, which appreciates the unusual and deviant in our lives. The quality of Sever’s work, based upon that which exists all around us, proves and reinforces the observation of renowned art critic David Piper in his book “A History of Painting and Sculpture”: “Figurative art has a direct relationship with the real, tangible life, ” he says, adding a quote from Henry James “who expected that a painting would have as much to do with life… as it does with art.” Zoe Sever does indeed brings back, through her art, the wonder at the flow of life and her painting serves as the positive double of reality. The artistic illusion of her paintings continues to enchant all those who see it, a magic that creates landscapes of dreams and boundary-breaking imagination.

Doron Polak – International Artists’ Museum.

Estimated price: $3,000 - $4,000

Sold for: 3800

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