I used to be filled with questions after I went to see the exhibition Gideon Bok: Gaza and Different Work on the Interchurch Middle. Bok had utilized paint otherwise in every disparate physique of labor that I had seen. I questioned how all of them match collectively, or in the event that they even wanted to. My curiosity was additional piqued after I learn that the present would come with “Gaza” (2025), his restating of Pablo Picasso’s celebrated antiwar portray “Guernica” (1937) in response to Israel’s ongoing assault on Palestine. This was a aspect of Bok — who has spent years depicting views of his studios — that I had not encountered earlier than.
Together with work of studios that Bok has labored in between 2004 and the current, the exhibition consists of two items titled “Gaza” (certainly one of which is similar dimension as “Guernica”), his model of Artemisia Gentileschi’s “Judith and Her Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes” (1624), and several other work of file covers — certainly one of his many preoccupations.
Gideon Bok, “Genteleschi” (2019), oil on canvas
What instantly struck me about Bok’s studio work was his consideration to element and mimetic facility, together with their jewel-like palettes — however would that work when recreating Picasso’s monumental black, white, and grey “Guernica”? With “Gaza” Bok tailored to the topic, quite than the opposite method round.
Seeing the big model of “Gaza” made me admire Bok for recognizing his complicity within the act of constructing artwork. Displayed on the marble wall that greets guests getting into the Interchurch Middle, “Gaza” replicates “Guernica” on an unstretched canvas rendered in blue and white, the colours of Israel’s flag. The colours hyperlink the sustained, systematic aerial bombing of civilians, largely ladies and youngsters, residing within the Basque city of Guernica in 1937 to Israel’s present genocide in Gaza. To check new techniques, the German and Italian air forces directed their assaults in Guernica towards infrastructures, together with hospitals and firefighting items.
By together with “Gaza” together with his different works, Bok pushes us to rethink the connection between the studio artist and activist. Do you must be one or the opposite? His modestly sized response to Gentileschi’s portray underscores his concern with violence and resistance.
Gideon Bok, “Fading Mom” (2020), oil on linen
The studio work are animated by stress between the three-dimensionality of the room’s receding area and the two-dimensionality of many objects in it, corresponding to work on the far wall. Bok torques this stress through the use of vibrant, imagined colours inside a naturalist setting, and depicting issues as if seen from completely different angles — the eyes are by no means nonetheless. In “Fading Mom” (2020), Bok equally reveals his mom’s head in several positions, recording the passage of time. Portray can’t cease time; it will probably solely acknowledge a consistently altering world.
A 3rd group of works depicts album covers, from Bob Dylan and David Bowie to Sparklehorse and PJ Harvey. All are painted on sq. panels and present the file tilting diagonally in area, as whether it is mendacity on a desk or flooring.
Collectively, the three teams of work reveal Bok passionately enshrining what issues in his life. With the “Gaza” works, he broadened the vary of expertise to which he responds. As I take into consideration his studio photos, which appear closed off to the world, I’m to see the place Bok will go subsequent.
Gideon Bok, “Its A Wonderful Life” (2016), oil on panel
Gideon Bok: Gaza and Different Work continues on the Interchurch Middle (475 Riverside Drive, Morningside Heights, Manhattan) via November 14. The exhibition was curated by Steven Harvey with Jennifer Roberts.
