Artist Amnon David Ar
Congratulations to 4th Edition 3rd Place Winner Amnon David Ar!
Who are you?
My name is Amnon David Ar, I am an Israeli painter based in Berlin, where I have been living and working for the past 7 years. I work solely from observation, mostly in drawing and oil colours. Through painting, I am trying to encapsulate the human experience of our time, our thoughts, how we experience time, and more particularly the fragile gap between our inner fantasy world and outer boundaries. I was born in Israel 1973. My father prof. Amos Ar is a retired biologist in the field of animal Physiology and my mother Nurit Ar used to work both as an architect’s drafts person and as jeweller. From early age I loved painting and all hand crafts, having started to study the arts more seriously at the age of 14 at Wizo France High School of Art and Design in Tel Aviv. My studies there included classes in painting, drawing, graphic design, and sculpture. After the compulsory military service at the Israeli Defence Forces, I started my studies at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, in parallel to studying privately anatomy for the arts with Oswald Adler, and the fundamentals of drawing and painting from observation with Abraham Bykov. From Mr Adler I learnt that everything is questionable, and should be questioned, while on the other hand Mr. Bykov taught technique and methodical work. As I could not find at the Bezalel Academy the artistic training I was looking for, I decided to leave and pursue my own artistic path individually.
“Life Itself” [ Winning Work]
By Amnon David Ar
Oil on Canvas
In the following years, working more consistently without an academic frame, I devoted myself fully to painting. I stopped being a student, which meant waking up every morning and painting. This meant working hours and hours by myself, in many ways not unlike the example I received from my parents. In those years, I was particularly fascinated by the way time influences the things around us, beauty vs. chaos, and the relation between outer appearance and emotional and spiritual content. In 2013, after spending my first 40 years in Israel, mostly in Tel Aviv, I decided to move to Berlin, where I set my current studio. Over the past years in Berlin I am more and more drawn to themes that investigate the position of the individual in today’s world. We live in a mass production, capitalist, and soulless world. In it I search for the unique and the beautiful in banality and ugliness. Gradually, my work becomes more complex, metaphorical, stranger, and brighter in colour. Some of my passions are reading, particularly history, and collecting bizarre antique objects, which I integrate into my work.
“Death”
By Amnon David Ar
Oil on Canvas
What inspired you to begin utilising oil paints/drawing?
I love the directness of painting and drawing from real life, and the unique “low tech” qualities of the traditional techniques of drawing and painting. I find these techniques, and oil colours in particular, to be perhaps the most diverse means of expression because more than any other graphic possibility they enable an endless palette of colours, textures, thicknesses, and transparencies. Oil colours are a very sensual and can be a wonderful way of achieving a feeling of atmosphere.
“Old Age Part One (Saul)”
By Amnon David Ar
Oil on Canvas
‘Life Itself’ is part of an ongoing series, can you tell me about the series itself?
As mentioned earlier, in the last few years I started dealing with larger and existential questions which in turn has led me to larger scale forms. One of my current projects is a series of large oil works dedicated to the cycle of life, which will constitute of 7 works, each work depicting my interpretation of a major stage in life. I started from the painting that received the prize, Life Itself, representing midlife, as a state of lack of mercy and beauty, in constant aggravation. In this series I have already completed three of the different themes, Life Itself, Death and Old Age ( a diptych made of two large canvases). I am now starting the production of the next large canvas under the title of Youth, which at this point means finding the suitable models for the idea I’m developing.
“Pure Luck”
By Amnon David Ar
Oil on Canvas
Can you discuss the person behind ‘Life Itself’?
The model for this particular painting is a very good friend of mine Shai Tal, who just then moved to Berlin and stayed with me as a guest for most of the duration of the creation of the painting. She basically volunteered to invest the huge amount of time and effort it required. The completion of her figure alone requires around 25 full days so naturally I regard it as a joined effort. During the process of the painting we had discussions about many of the fields of interest that we share, and listened to lots of great music. In the painting she played the role of a person returning home from her stressful day at work only to find herself plunging back into the chaos and dissatisfaction of her personal life. The painting illustrates a momentary relative rest in our constant daily struggle, filled with endless duties and distractions, a routine in which we appear to be never at ease.
“Based On True Events”
By Amnon David Ar
Oil on Canvas
Did you plan the outcome of this work or is it completely different from what you imagined when you started?
In general I believe that creativity has to do a lot with improvisation and that it is important to let the work and its progress lead you to the correct solutions. Because of that I normally prefer not to use preliminary drawings. This means that quite often the initial intentions eventually develop into more complex, contradictory and time consuming resolutions than intended. When it comes to a large work much of it however has to be planned ahead, for instance in this case the basic posture and clothes of my model were chosen ahead (the posture being an indirect quote to the figure of Heraclitus in Raphael’s The School of Athens). Still, due to the complexity of the composition, many of the decisions were done during the process, and according to how my vision of the subject and the compositional requirements evolved. This eventually makes the result quite different than what I could have anticipated.
“Memento Mori”
By Amnon David Ar
Oil on Canvas
Can you explain why you choose painting and drawing as a medium for your work and voice as opposed to others?
First of all, I love painting, I love doing it, and I love consuming it. I think it is a very intimate and direct window to ones soul, in subject matters and ideas of course, but perhaps even more so in the actual act of painting, and the individual way you manifest your personality by the way you apply the paint. Historically painting is one of the most basic human traits and forms of communication we know of and as archaeology suggests at least 25,000 years more ancient than writing for example. I also believe that figurative painting specifically can play an important and interesting role in art toady. The invention of the camera, has in many ways liberated the documentation role of figurative painting. This allows me as an artist to explore beyond representation, and deal with emotion, atmosphere, perceptive analysis, and psychological interpretation. We humans are very observant species, and sight is our most prominent sense with which we capture and perceive the world around us. I therefore choose to paint directly from real life, often orchestrating scenes and objects in my studio, as I feel that only this way I can depict reality in the most direct and honest way, without being restricted by the strains of any technological intermediate distortion. Working in the traditional means of figurative painting in the 21st century, I am having a dialogue both with the traditions of painting, and with our current existence. In fact, not just documenting it, but also sharing my own perception of it.
“State of Things”
By Amnon David Ar
Oil on Canvas
What other mediums have you experimented with?
In terms of other means of expression, I used to do a little sculpting as a youngster, but more professionally had quite a prolific career as a home caricaturist for an Israeli newspapers network. It was quite an experience because I found myself often involved in dispute with my editors, and even received threats both from politicians and from hot headed activists. When it comes to other techniques I have basically tried most drawing and painting mediums, and although I might love the results of many of them in other people’s works, mostly prefer the slower techniques of pencil drawing and oil colours on canvas or board.
A lot of people found themselves discovering and experimenting with new things in the lockdown, did you do that with your art?
I have to say that my working routine is not that different than being in quarantine anyway so the last year has not changed anything crucial in my basic approach. However like most of us over the pandemic, I found myself travelling less, seeing less friends or students and not going to the swimming pool as I normally do. Having less distractions did permit me to plunge quite deep into the actual doing, and to ask myself questions as to the possible purpose and meaning of painting nowadays. I did complete two bigger works, Based on True Events & State of Things which attempt at representing the perplexity and loneliness that seemed to be so typical to this time.
“Professor Bernd Weisbrod in Contemplative Mood”
By Amnon David Ar
Oil on Canvas
What projects are you working on currently?
I continuously work on the other paintings in the series of the cycle of life and have recently finished the second half of Old Age, depicting the young David playing the harp to old king Saul (a peek into my studio right after finishing it below and an image of the first half Saul). I constantly also do smaller and more intimate works, on a variety of subject matter, such as portraits, metaphoric still lives, and interiors.
“Untitled”
By Amnon David Ar
Oil on Canvas
Lastly, I like to ask everyone what advice they would give to their fellow artists, what is your advice?
The first advice that I would give any fellow artist is follow your curiosity. Do what interests you and intrigues you most. Never think of whether or not other people might like it, and more importantly never think of whether or not it’s commercial. Second advice is, have a routine! Treat your creative process like any other job, don’t wait for inspiration, make it come to you by working regularly. Third, always try to do your best and don’t look for excuses for not doing something well enough. Last, don’t try being anyone else but yourself. Naturally when we admire certain artists, we wish to obtain some of their qualities and characteristics, but you don’t achieve an individual artistic language by trying to mimic others, however great they might be.
To view more of Amnon David Ar’s work