Ori Gersht
Encyclopedia
Ori Gersht is an Israel
i fine art photographer. He is a professor of photography at the University for the Creative Arts in Rochester, Kent, England. Gersht lives and works in London.
, Sarajevo
, Auschwitz, the Galicia region of Ukraine
, the Lister Route in the Pyrenees
(on which Walter Benjamin
made his ill-fated exodus from Nazi-occupied France)—into ciphers of psychological disruption. Such scenes may not seem out of the ordinary unto themselves, but, through the artist’s focused attention and treatment they evoke the emotional resonance of what has transpired—most often, violence, and, more significantly, the ghosts of war’s most egregious detritus, its refugees.
Pervasive in Gersht’s work is the landscape
—as a place, an idea, and an art historical trope. His films and photographs may be compared to paintings in their display—from their unhindered access (no Plexiglas separates their surfaces from the viewer) to the frames surrounding the monitors on which the films often play. Moreover, the vistas and horizons of, for instance, Between Places (1998-2000), White Noise (1999-2000), The Clearing/Liquidation (2005), and Evaders (2009), recall Romantic depictions of the sublime
. They conjure precedents in both photography, such as the breathtaking vistas of Andreas Gursky
and the landscapes of the American south by Sally Mann
, and painting, by J.M.W. Turner, Caspar David Friedrich
, and even Mark Rothko
.
In his art historical still life
series Gersht investigated the relationships between photography
, technology
and optical perception, at a pivotal moment in the history of photography where digital technology both threatens a crisis and promises a breakthrough. Research into the early history of the medium of photography is brought together with theoretical discourse, creating, still image and films that (literally) explode the genre of still life, the beautiful and destructive results captured using cutting-edge technology. In Pomegranate, a film that references Juan Sanchez Cotan
’s seventeenth-century still life and Harold Edgerton’s stroboscopic photography, a high velocity bullet flies across the frame in slow motion and obliterates a suspended pomegranate, bursting it open and wheeling it slowly into the air like a smashed violated mouth spraying seeds. A peaceful image is transformed into bloodshed, and a dialogue is established between stillness and motion, peace and violence.
Gersht’s photographs and films provide a meditation on life, loss, destiny and chance. Allusions to the catastrophic violence of the French Revolution
, the Spanish Civil War
, the bombing of Hiroshima
, and the suicide bombs that Gersht anticipated during his childhood in Israel
can all be found in this work. As such, it reminds us of our past, present, and future, and, above all, the fragility of life itself.
in New York, Mummery + Schnelle Gallery in London and Noga Gallery in Tel Aviv.
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i fine art photographer. He is a professor of photography at the University for the Creative Arts in Rochester, Kent, England. Gersht lives and works in London.
Work
Ori Gersht engages the grand themes of life, death, violence, and beauty. His photographs and films of the past two decades transcribe images of sites of historical significance—the Judean DesertJudean desert
The Judaean Desert is a desert in Israel and the West Bank that lies east of Jerusalem and descends to the Dead Sea. It stretches from the northeastern Negev to the east of Beit El, and is marked by terraces with escarpments. It ends in a steep escarpment dropping to the Dead Sea and the Jordan...
, Sarajevo
Sarajevo
Sarajevo |Bosnia]], surrounded by the Dinaric Alps and situated along the Miljacka River in the heart of Southeastern Europe and the Balkans....
, Auschwitz, the Galicia region of Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
, the Lister Route in the Pyrenees
Pyrenees
The Pyrenees is a range of mountains in southwest Europe that forms a natural border between France and Spain...
(on which Walter Benjamin
Walter Benjamin
Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin was a German-Jewish intellectual, who functioned variously as a literary critic, philosopher, sociologist, translator, radio broadcaster and essayist...
made his ill-fated exodus from Nazi-occupied France)—into ciphers of psychological disruption. Such scenes may not seem out of the ordinary unto themselves, but, through the artist’s focused attention and treatment they evoke the emotional resonance of what has transpired—most often, violence, and, more significantly, the ghosts of war’s most egregious detritus, its refugees.
Pervasive in Gersht’s work is the landscape
Landscape
Landscape comprises the visible features of an area of land, including the physical elements of landforms such as mountains, hills, water bodies such as rivers, lakes, ponds and the sea, living elements of land cover including indigenous vegetation, human elements including different forms of...
—as a place, an idea, and an art historical trope. His films and photographs may be compared to paintings in their display—from their unhindered access (no Plexiglas separates their surfaces from the viewer) to the frames surrounding the monitors on which the films often play. Moreover, the vistas and horizons of, for instance, Between Places (1998-2000), White Noise (1999-2000), The Clearing/Liquidation (2005), and Evaders (2009), recall Romantic depictions of the sublime
Sublime (philosophy)
In aesthetics, the sublime is the quality of greatness, whether physical, moral, intellectual, metaphysical, aesthetic, spiritual or artistic...
. They conjure precedents in both photography, such as the breathtaking vistas of Andreas Gursky
Andreas Gursky
Andreas Gursky is a German visual artist known for his enormous architecture and landscape color photographs, often employing a high point of view...
and the landscapes of the American south by Sally Mann
Sally Mann
Sally Mann is an American photographer, best known for her large black-and-white photographs—at first of her young children, then later of landscapes suggesting decay and death.-Early life and education:...
, and painting, by J.M.W. Turner, Caspar David Friedrich
Caspar David Friedrich
Caspar David Friedrich was a 19th-century German Romantic landscape painter, generally considered the most important German artist of his generation. He is best known for his mid-period allegorical landscapes which typically feature contemplative figures silhouetted against night skies, morning...
, and even Mark Rothko
Mark Rothko
Mark Rothko, born Marcus Rothkowitz , was a Russian-born American painter. He is classified as an abstract expressionist, although he himself rejected this label, and even resisted classification as an "abstract painter".- Childhood :Mark Rothko was born in Dvinsk, Vitebsk Province, Russian...
.
In his art historical still life
Still life
A still life is a work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which may be either natural or man-made...
series Gersht investigated the relationships between photography
Photography
Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
, technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
and optical perception, at a pivotal moment in the history of photography where digital technology both threatens a crisis and promises a breakthrough. Research into the early history of the medium of photography is brought together with theoretical discourse, creating, still image and films that (literally) explode the genre of still life, the beautiful and destructive results captured using cutting-edge technology. In Pomegranate, a film that references Juan Sanchez Cotan
Juan Sánchez Cotán
Juan Sánchez Cotán was a Spanish Baroque painter, a pioneer of realism in Spain. His still lifes, also called bodegones were painted in a strikingly austere style, especially when compared to similar works in Netherlands and Italy.- Life:Sánchez Cotán was born in the town of Orgaz, near Toledo, Spain...
’s seventeenth-century still life and Harold Edgerton’s stroboscopic photography, a high velocity bullet flies across the frame in slow motion and obliterates a suspended pomegranate, bursting it open and wheeling it slowly into the air like a smashed violated mouth spraying seeds. A peaceful image is transformed into bloodshed, and a dialogue is established between stillness and motion, peace and violence.
Gersht’s photographs and films provide a meditation on life, loss, destiny and chance. Allusions to the catastrophic violence of the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
, the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
, the bombing of Hiroshima
Hiroshima
is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, and the largest city in the Chūgoku region of western Honshu, the largest island of Japan. It became best known as the first city in history to be destroyed by a nuclear weapon when the United States Army Air Forces dropped an atomic bomb on it at 8:15 A.M...
, and the suicide bombs that Gersht anticipated during his childhood in Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
can all be found in this work. As such, it reminds us of our past, present, and future, and, above all, the fragility of life itself.
Education
- 1989-92 B.A. (honors), Photography, Film and Video, Westminister University, London
- 1993-95 M.A., Photography, Royal College of Art, London
Awards and Prizes
- 1990 South Bank Photo Show, London
- 1993 Department of Transport Art Competition, London
- 2000 The Constantiner Photographer Award for an Israeli Artist , Tel AvivTel AvivTel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
Museum of Art, Tel AvivTel AvivTel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
Exhibitions
Gersht has exhibited widely in museums and galleries since the early 1990's. He is represented by Angles Gallery in Los Angeles, CRG GalleryCRG Gallery
CRG Gallery, NY is a gallery on West 22nd Street in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City. CRG was founded in 1990 by Carla Chammas, Richard Desroche, and Glenn McMillan, a trio which shares extensive academic and professional experience in contemporary art, each having worked for major...
in New York, Mummery + Schnelle Gallery in London and Noga Gallery in Tel Aviv.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
- 2011 - Lost in Time, Santa Barbara Museum of ArtSanta Barbara Museum of ArtThe Santa Barbara Museum of Art is an art museum located at 1130 State St. in downtown Santa Barbara, California.It was founded in 1941 and currently ranks amongst the top 10 regional art museums in the United States . It is home to both permanent and special collections, the former of which...
, Santa Barbara, California, USA - 2009 - Black Box, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture GardenHirshhorn Museum and Sculpture GardenThe Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is an art museum beside the National Mall, in Washington, D.C., the United States. The museum was initially endowed during the 1960s with the permanent art collection of Joseph H. Hirshhorn. It was designed by architect Gordon Bunshaft and is part of the...
, Washington DC, USA - 2008 - Selected Films, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture GardenHirshhorn Museum and Sculpture GardenThe Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is an art museum beside the National Mall, in Washington, D.C., the United States. The museum was initially endowed during the 1960s with the permanent art collection of Joseph H. Hirshhorn. It was designed by architect Gordon Bunshaft and is part of the...
, Washington, USA - 2008 - The Forest, Musée d’Art de Toulon, Toulon, France
- 2008 - Pomegranate, The Jewish Museum, New York
- 2007 - Time After Time: Exploding Flowers & Other Matters, The Armory Show (with CRG Gallery), New York, USA
- 2007 - The Forest & Blow Up, Yale Center for British ArtYale Center for British ArtThe Yale Center for British Art is an art museum in New Haven, Connecticut at Yale University which houses the most comprehensive collection of British Art outside the United Kingdom...
, New Haven, USA - 2006 - The Forest, Tel Aviv Museum of ArtTel Aviv Museum of ArtThe Tel Aviv Museum of Art is an art museum in Tel Aviv, Israel. It was established in 1932 in a building that was the home of Tel Aviv's first mayor, Meir Dizengoff. The Helena Rubinstein Pavilion for Contemporary Art opened in 1959. The museum moved to its current location on King Saul Avenue in...
, Tel Aviv, Israel - 2006 - The Clearing, The Photographers' Gallery, London, UK
- 2004 - History in the Making, Photo España, Madrid, Spain
- 2002 - Afterglow, Art Now Room, Tate BritainTate BritainTate Britain is an art gallery situated on Millbank in London, and part of the Tate gallery network in Britain, with Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It is the oldest gallery in the network, opening in 1897. It houses a substantial collection of the works of J. M. W. Turner.-History:It...
, London, UK - 2002 - Afterglow, Helena Rubenstein Pavilion for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv Museum of ArtTel Aviv Museum of ArtThe Tel Aviv Museum of Art is an art museum in Tel Aviv, Israel. It was established in 1932 in a building that was the home of Tel Aviv's first mayor, Meir Dizengoff. The Helena Rubinstein Pavilion for Contemporary Art opened in 1959. The museum moved to its current location on King Saul Avenue in...
, Tel Aviv, Israel
Selected group exhibitions
- 2011 - Evaders & Falling Bird, Tel Aviv Museum of ArtTel Aviv Museum of ArtThe Tel Aviv Museum of Art is an art museum in Tel Aviv, Israel. It was established in 1932 in a building that was the home of Tel Aviv's first mayor, Meir Dizengoff. The Helena Rubinstein Pavilion for Contemporary Art opened in 1959. The museum moved to its current location on King Saul Avenue in...
, Israel - 2011 - When a Painting Moves… Something Must be Rotten, The Stenersen Museum, Oslo, Norway
- 2011 - Eating Art, La Pedrera/Casa MilàCasa MilàCasa Milà , better known as La Pedrera , is a building designed by the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí and built during the years 1905–1910, being considered officially completed in 1912...
, Barcelona, Spain - 2010 - Haunted: Contemporary Photography/Video/Performance, Guggenheim MuseumGuggenheim MuseumGuggenheim Museum may refer to:* The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, United States* The Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, Italy* The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain* The Guggenheim Hermitage Museum in Las Vegas, United States...
, New York, USA - 2010 - Still / Moving, The Israel MuseumIsrael MuseumThe Israel Museum, Jerusalem was founded in 1965 as Israel's national museum. It is situated on a hill in the Givat Ram neighborhood of Jerusalem, near the Bible Lands Museum, the Knesset, the Israeli Supreme Court, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem....
, Jerusalem - 2010 - Beijing International Art Biennale 2010, National At Museum, Beijing, China
- 2010 - Atlantis II, Rohkunstbau, Berlin, Germany
- 2010 - Paysage, Musée d’Art, Toulon, France
- 2009 - Hugging and Wrestling: Contemporary Israeli Photography and Video, Museum of Contemporary Art ClevelandMuseum of Contemporary Art ClevelandThe Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, better known by its acronym, MOCA, is a contemporary art museum located in Cleveland, Ohio. Founded in 1968 by Marjorie Talalay, Agnes Gund, and Nina Castelli Sundell as The New Gallery, the museum was renamed the Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art in...
, USA - 2009 - Flower Power, Villa Giulia – Centro Ricerca Arte Attuale, Turin,Italy
- 2008 - Pomegranate: The Jewish Museum, New York, USA
- 2008 - Mutation II, Paris, Kulturprojekte, Berlin, Fotofo, Bratislave, Vladmir Und Estragon, Vienna, Association Café Crème, Luxenbourg, Musee de la Photographie, Moscou, Zone Attive, Rome
- 2007 - Video Killed the Painting Star, Museum of Salamanca, Spain
- 2007 - In Focus: Living History, Tate ModernTate ModernTate Modern is a modern art gallery located in London, England. It is Britain's national gallery of international modern art and forms part of the Tate group . It is the most-visited modern art gallery in the world, with around 4.7 million visitors per year...
, London - 2007 - Single Shot, Tate BritainTate BritainTate Britain is an art gallery situated on Millbank in London, and part of the Tate gallery network in Britain, with Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It is the oldest gallery in the network, opening in 1897. It houses a substantial collection of the works of J. M. W. Turner.-History:It...
, London - 2007 - 1st Architecture, Art and Landscape Biennial of the Canaries, Canary Islands, Spain
- 2006 - Inside-Out: Contemporary Artists from Israel, Museum MARCO, Vigo, Spain
- 2006 - Forest Primeval, MOCA (GA), Atlanta, USA
- 2006 - Twillight: Photography in the Magic Hour, Victoria and Albert MuseumVictoria and Albert MuseumThe Victoria and Albert Museum , set in the Brompton district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects...
, London - 2005 - Dreams and Trauma, Haus der Kulturen der WeltHaus der Kulturen der WeltThe Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin is Germany's national centre for contemporary non-European art. It presents art exhibitions, theater and dance performances, concerts, author readings, films and academic conferences on non-European Visual Art and culture...
, Berlin, Germany - 2003 - One Ground, California Museum of Photography, Riverside, USA
- 2002 - Reality Check: Recent Developments in British Photography and Video, curated by Kate Bush and Brett Rogers, Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague, Czech Republic
- 2002 - Non-Places, Frankfurter KunstvereinFrankfurter KunstvereinThe Frankfurt Art Association is an art museum founded in 1829 by a group of influential citizen of the city of Frankfurt, Germany. The aim of the institution is to support the arts in the city, which was an important center of trade and business...
, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
External links
- Ori Gersht from the collections of the Israel MuseumIsrael MuseumThe Israel Museum, Jerusalem was founded in 1965 as Israel's national museum. It is situated on a hill in the Givat Ram neighborhood of Jerusalem, near the Bible Lands Museum, the Knesset, the Israeli Supreme Court, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem....
http://www.imj.org.il/imagine/collections/results-free.asp?searchType=simple&words2=Ori+Gersht&Submit=Search - Ori Gersht from the Israeli artist list of the Information Center for Israeli ArtInformation Center for Israeli ArtThe Information Center for Israeli Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the Israeli Art in Israel. More than 12,000 artists files are housed in the Center in the Israel Museum, Jerusalem....
at the Israel MuseumIsrael MuseumThe Israel Museum, Jerusalem was founded in 1965 as Israel's national museum. It is situated on a hill in the Givat Ram neighborhood of Jerusalem, near the Bible Lands Museum, the Knesset, the Israeli Supreme Court, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.... - Europeana -- Gersht, Ori