Participating Artists
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Landscape Miniatures, 2011, Oil on wood, courtesy of the artist, Raw Art Gallery, Tel Aviv, Yair Gallery, Tel Aviv and the Band family
Iddo Markus
A possible answer to the question posed by the title of the exhibition is to paint in small-scale. The miniature can have a liberating effect: the painting as a declared decorative object, defiantly seductive. The choice of the small-scale format involves a complete surrender of the painting to its essence as an object and a renunciation of its self-importance. The risk is clear: not to be taken seriously. This is an excellent starting point to begin to think anew about painting. In this non-prestigious territory, in a format that was once valued relative to its size, Iddo Markus creates for himself working conditions freed from any expectations.
In his studio, his tiny paintings are densely arranged on shelves. They rest in two rows, hiding each other like books in a bookshelf or artifacts in a store. In the studio, Markus also draws and paints on large surfaces, but in the exhibition he only displays his miniature works - over one hundred of them. The gazing eye continuously jumps from one to the other, not knowing where to stop. It seems as though Markus hurls this mass at us as if to attack the aura which exists around painting. Each painting exists by itself, but, of course, is also overshadowed by the quantity. The landscapes and the portraits may be so small - and so perfect, that they make the large painting seem ridiculous and single out the pathos involved in the act of standing before a large-scale format.
Born in USA 1979; lives and works in Haifa
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