Artist: Ari Azene
Title: Bistro Café
Edition Size: 350
Medium: Serigraph on Paper
Image Dimensions: 22" x 29.5"
About the Art: Ari Azene, born in Germany in 1934, is now living in Jerusalem. His works are in many museum and private collections. The works of Arie Azenc document the insular ambiance of a specific cosmopolitan milieu. The totality of the environment in which he lives and works - from the rococo calligraphy of street signs and geometric configurations of architecture to the gleam of passing automobiles - act as stimuli which the artist then crystallizes into unique portraits" of a neighborhood. At the heart of these paintings lies Azene's fascination with the appearance and habits of a tribe generally categorized as urban inhabitants. The costumes, haircuts, facial expressions, gestures of types and stereotypes - those people who stand out in a crowd and imprint themselves on the viewer's mind - animate the places he portrays with a particular, special identity. Throughout his career, Azenc has forged personal histories through the exploration of information implicit in the tactile, or that which can be seen. Where his earlier work drew on the nostalgic, sometimes talismanic, qualities of past mementos, these recent paintings are characterized by their contemporaneity and fleeting immediacy - a present centered only on external values. Utilizing a technique reminiscent of cinematic montage, the artist collects, edits and rearranges each pictorial component, carefully controlling the impact of the finished work. Through this process new visual texts are born in his mind, and transferred to the canvas. Through Azene's inspired composition, an evocative narrative emerges which transcends the sure of its parts."