By Yair Shulevitz (April 04, 2013)

Gilad Keidar paints the view from his studio in #109 HaThiya Street in Jaffa. This is a painting from observation, though not one that the landscape serves coincidentally as a cause or pretext.

An in-depth look at the series of paintings reveals that these are not innocent landscape paintings. It seems that Keidar feels a deep emotional connection to the place, this bond being in fact a motive for their creation. It is therefore possible to read these works as a farewell ceremony from the studio and the work environment.

In Keidar's work there is a constant struggle between the culture and tradition represented by the painterly aesthetics, and the urge to free itself from the bonds and the regime represented by an expressive and stormy pictorial language.


* The translation is a summary of the written text in Hebrew