by Miriam Yizrael, 1996
The titles of Jordan Wolfson’s paintings – such as “A Room with a Chair” or “View of Sink” – are unpretentious. Something which does not make you stop and notice, not even for a second. But from the moment the eye rests on one of his works it will not move away easily, and the viewer might be astounded to find himself mesmerized, his gaze transfixed, in front of a part of a bathroom sink, a bucket or some bottles.
Wolfson – born in Los Angeles in 1960 – has emigrated from the United States a little more than four years ago and is living and working in the Bakah neighborhood of Jerusalem. Here he continues to develop the figurative tradition of painting of the Old Masters which wasn’t very popular here, perhaps – and it’s a cautious guess – because it doesn’t suit the local well-known affection for improvisation.
In most of Wolfson’s paintings the thick brush strokes, when seen upclose, look like an abstract painting of frantic and temperamental impasto. But from a distance, surprisingly, one observes an everyday physical reality of quiet drama, from the depths of which emerges a light.
Wolfson, the first Israeli artist who won the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Award, is about to exhibit his works in Artspace Gallery and concurrently some of his works are to be shown in the Tel-Aviv Museum for the first time in a group exhibition entitled “Virtual Reality” (Ellen Ginton, curator). The gallery exhibition is comprised of 25 oil paintings from the last year, most of which are interiors, some are landscapes from Wolfson’s neighborhood and just a few are portraits. Among the portraits, two are of the poet Rivka Miriam.
Yerushalayim Weekly, Jerusalem, September 27, 1996
(Translated by Sigal Adler)