Landscapes, Ronit Goldschmidt‘s solo exhibition at Gordon Gallery, is as unpretentious and straightforward as its title. This group of paintings ranges from 6×4 to 23×27-inch panels—tiny but mighty. Their strength derives from the apparent skill of the painter to transport the viewer to a place so specific that it feels familiar. She successfully translates the full spectrum of a real moment by simple means of acrylic or gouache.
The whole experience of walking in the landscape is present: feeling the wind on your skin, listening to the leaves rustle, looking at the sunlight hitting the earth, and noticing a patch of sky between the treetops. The small-sized panels bring to mind either snapshots taken during a hike or plein air sketches by Courbet in the forest of Fontainebleau.
All the paintings but one are untitled. They may be recognizable to people familiar with the landscape of Israel and Palestine, but Goldschmidt does not specify any locations. There are no national landmarks here, but a collection of places where the artist lived or spent time. Considering the region’s complex history and present state, it is a rebellious act to focus on the natural. It is a valid suggestion to seek respite in nature and art, and free the work from the limitations of politics that have been shaping the landscape. Goldschmidt invites us to witness a personal relationship to the landscape. The human agendas that have torn up this place for generations make way for the glory of the Mediterranean sun on the tree bark. A radical move for the artist, and even bolder when dressed as a humble group of lovely landscapes.
The only thing disturbing the peace and stillness of this entire group of paintings appears in Landscape with a Snake, which becomes a key to understanding the double context of the show: the timelessness of painting and the power of nature. The artist explains this is a view from Bet Horon, where she lived as a child, walking the hills and flipping rocks to find snakes. Most of the composition, one of the larger paintings in the show, features bushes, oat weeds, and a tree against a backdrop of blue mountains in the distance. In the bottom right-hand corner, a snake is twisting on a rock that could be either natural or a ruin. It threw me back to Poussin’s famous Landscape With A Man Killed By a Snake at the National Gallery in London and the long tradition of painting snakes and telling stories about them. The snake makes the view suddenly mythical and ominous, an omen or a divine presence.
Another historical moment in the exhibition is a small 4×6-inch panel featuring a Roman-period sarcophagus with a tree relief, paired with a painting of a tree against the backdrop of a building—the only urban landscape in the show. It is as if Goldschmidt sends us a message saying, ‘I am but one of many artists throughout the ages, in awe of nature and trees.’ She points out the beauty of nature and the value of painting as a way to worship and serve it, beyond religion, nationality, and words.
Photo courtesy of Gallery Gordon.
Ronit Goldschmidt: Landscapes, July 17 – August 12
Gordon Gallery, 139 Norfolk Street, New York, NY
Open by appointment only: office@gordongallery.co.il
About the writer: Noa Charuvi is a visual artist living and working in Brooklyn, NY. She holds an M.F.A in Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts in New York and a B.F.A in Fine Arts from the Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem, Israel. Her work was exhibited internationally in venues such as The Bronx Museum of The Arts (Bronx, New York), Haifa Museum of Art (Haifa, Israel), and Mishkan Museum of Art (Ein Harod, Israel). Her paintings are included in “Landscape Painting Now,” an anthology of contemporary paintings published by D.A.P and Thames & Hudson. Charuvi was a recipient of the Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant in 2018. Residency programs she attended include Art Omi International Artists Residency in Ghent, NY, Yaddo Artist Colony in Saratoga Springs, NY, The Keyholder Residency at the Lower East Side Printshop, and a studio membership at the Elizabeth Foundation for The Arts in New York, NY.