​Joseph Hirsch "Through the Mask"

By Yair Shulevitz (December 22, 2012)

Hirsh was often defined by artists and critics of art as a master, although he concentrated on drawing on paper in a small format.

Hirsh's virtuosity of drawing never became a major feature of his paintings; his excellent skill was used to emphasize and deepen the themes. The wonderful organization of light and shade, the relationship between the line and the stain, the richness of the shades within the seemingly narrow scale of gray-black, the whiteness of the exposed page - all help to create the mood Hirsch wanted to insert in his paintings. The choice to focus only on the shades of black and white, which requires the viewer to concentrate and deepen, is not coincidental, and is a statement in itself. He saw this as the realization of the principle of looking at the deep philosophical meaning: "Within the colors there is no observation," he said.

* The translation brings the spirit of things.