"A line is a sensation, an ability to feel, a ray we still don’t know the essence of. But I see it clearly; everything that we do, sketch out, engrave, arouses lamentation for our inability, for the inability of our knowledge, a line's end, is there an end? […] The line is 'good', it is 'art', only when it isn't virtuoso-like, when it isn't effective, when it isn't graphic, when it lacks brilliance; it is 'good' when it breathes like a creature that has just been born, and contains something of the knowledge of the past and memories of the future, all that exists and stands in the universe's future and awaits its revelation, the solution of its riddle [...] And the paper—the paper is the world."
Aviva Uri, "The Line," 1984
Aviva Uri's ability to touch on raw emotion, and the intense expressive quality typifying her work, have made her a highly influential, mythical figure in the history of art in Israel. The exhibition presents an outstanding selection of Uri's works, all from the collection of Haifa Museum of Art.
Uri's main means of expression were the line and its paper surface, which she pitted against each other using a wide range of techniques. While many distinctive drawing artists focus on a single material, Uri often combined different drawing materials, and many of her prints became one-off works when she supplemented them with drawing by hand. Each material and each line has its own sound—a unique texture, thickness, and hue. In each of Uri's works there is a spectrum of differentiated, sharp, at times disharmonious sounds, from which she masterfully creates compositions full of life and movement. Uri acted out of an urge to express herself in a direct, unmediated, straightforward manner. Guided by her refined intuition, one line led to another, and the application of one material summoned the other. Her works are tantamount to a series of notes representing life's dissonance, composed together in well-organized harmonies, which contains no consolation, but only acceptance and a great belief in the power of art to purify the soul.