Museums and galleries tend to abide by the “no-touch” rule to safeguard the artworks they display. But 72-year-old Israeli contemporary artist David Gerstein encourages a hands-on approach, firmly believing that his creations are for the public and not for private collectors or curators.
“My philosophy is that art should touch life. It shouldn’t be something that you see once a year when you go to a museum,” Gerstein said at his studio in the Beit Shemesh industrial zone.
There’s a pop art feel to the everyday items he depicts in his multilayered wall sculptures, outdoor sculptures, paintings, prints, drawings and designed objects.
“It’s my personal pop art. I’m not following Andy Warhol, but I’m using the same feeling about the colors, about the popular images,” he explained. “It’s about speaking with the audience at eye level. My work is not a riddle. Many times I go to museums and see artworks that are vague. I want people to understand what I mean.”
David Gerstein. Photo from gersteinart.com
The subject matter for his paintings and sculptures comes from scenes in his past. “My memory of my mother riding a bike became the Tour de France wall sculpture,” he said. “I’m not just inventing images. They’re all based on my memories.”
Gerstein has succeeded in bringing his universal language of playfulness, humor and optimism to the public at large in many countries. Galleries and museums in Germany, Spain, the United States and the United Kingdom are among those that have exhibited his works.
In Israel, his works — especially his three-dimensional outdoor sculptures — brighten up cities and towns from north to south.
“Gerstein has changed the spirit of environmental sculpture in Israel. No more the enigmatic object which arouses a feeling of splendor and distance, but an accessible object, fresh and optimistic,” wrote the late Israeli curator Naomi Aviv.
Gerstein’s studio is a multi-roomed warehouse surrounded by gray industrial office blocks. Yet what goes on inside is anything but bleak. Step through the gate and you’re entering a magical kingdom filled with 3-D cows and flowers, butterflies and birds, and cyclists racing to nowhere. Framed paintings feature golden fish, balconies and urban scenes bursting with life.
It is no wonder that even Chinese hospitals and nursing homes have been queuing up for a dose of Gerstein happiness lately.
“I never thought I’d get to the Far East,” he said, noting that he is currently working on eight huge wall murals in China and an exhibition for Beijing. And he’s been meeting with other Chinese curators interested in his work.
While he also recently made a large sculpture for Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, hospitals are hardly his only clients. Gerstein is on the go at least one week of every month, traveling with his exhibitions or meeting potential buyers. In January, the artist presented Pope Francis with a wall sculpture in bright colors depicting the phrase from Psalms, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want,” in Hebrew and Spanish.
His most famous work, a 60-foot-tall painted steel outdoor sculpture called “Momentum,” is installed in Singapore’s central business district. “It became an icon,” he said.
One of Israel’s best-known contemporary artists, Gerstein was born and raised in Jerusalem. At 21, he started his studies at Bezalel School of Art, the premier art school in the country. In the 1960s, Gerstein set off to widen his art horizons in Paris at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts and then at the Art Students League of New York.
“When I returned from New York, I was still very young. I immediately began teaching at Bezalel and I had to make a crucial decision for myself as an artist: Should I turn to what is popular and accepted, meaning the minimalist, conceptual approaches, or go my own way and be less popular, for the moment at least,” he wrote in a forward to his book, “David Gerstein Works.”
He chose to concentrate on painting. In the 1970s, his palette was monochromatic.
In 1980, Gerstein created his first two-dimensional sculpture. At the time, high-tech laser cutting wasn’t available, so he carved an image of donkeys out of wood. For the next 15 years, he carved and painted wooden sculptures that would eventually become his signature in the art world.
“I believed in it,” he said of the new style he created. “My family thought I became crazy. I was recognized as an artist and as a painter. They thought it was a phase that would pass.”
Today he uses laser technologies for steel and aluminum cutouts. And the bright colors came about thanks to the need for industrial paint to cover the metal.
“I love pure colors and industrial colors,” he said. “My painting also changed. The bright colors became part of my works.”
The public loves his happy palette. In fact, he started creating small objects — stamped with the Gerstein Design logo — because people kept telling him they couldn’t afford his works. He continues to add to this collection despite curators telling him that he would “kill his market.”
His limited-edition art is hand-painted whereas the images on his unlimited smaller objects are printed. His works range in price from $100 to $1.5 million. Design shops in Israel and around the world sell his smaller sculptures, and his designs can be found on porcelain dishes, clocks, placemats, jewelry boxes and more.
“There’s a saying, ‘A car for every worker.’ I say, ‘Art for everyone.’ I think that art should serve; it’s not something above us. It’s something that we live with,” Gerstein said.
He gets particularly animated when he talks about new public installations, like a sculpture dedicated to the late president of the Hapoel Haifa soccer team — being installed in Haifa.
“My best works are outdoors because it’s in the public domain. I like people to experience it when they’re walking, driving, being part of the public. That gives me the most pleasure,” he said. “It talks with the environment, with the surrounding architecture. It’s my great experience, doing public works.”
Which of his works is his favorite?
“My most favorite is the one I’m going to do,” Gerstein replied. “My mind is always thinking about the next creation.”
This article originally appeared on Israel21c
