Artist's Room: Reuven Berman Kadim

"My art takes place on another sphere, related more to a kind of meditation, a feeling of order, of oneness with nature and the cosmos. One can talk about it in terms of making graphs of system phenomena, or writing mathematical interpretations, but it doesn't really explain what is going on. The scientific descriptions leave out the spiritual experience."

- Reuven Berman Kadim, Geometric Art: The Hidden Order of Nature (artist's book, 2010)

Reuven Berman Kadim is unique in Israeli art. His work brings bodies of knowledge from the fields of science, theology, and art together. Since the 1960s, Berman Kadim has elaborated the expressions of geometric abstract and delved deeply into the possible manifestations of geometric forms. Unlike the abstract prevalent in local art, which usually adheres to direct observation of an object or a landscape, his work addresses a geometric order refined of any connection to visible reality, following its own internal laws. Its goal, however, is not formal study as such, but transcendence to a higher spiritual dimension through the geometric form.

The works on view are mainly ones in which Berman Kadim studied the design of ancient sites and temples in the Mediterranean basin. From the floor plans typical of selected archeological sites and structures, he created colorful objects reminiscent of three-dimensional models.

The coloration in Berman Kadim's works is organized around the pair of complementary colors, orange and blue. Based on this axis, with the addition of the sharp contrast between light (white) and shade (black), the color gamut prevalent in local landscapes and architecture is constructed. The combination of form and color creates harmony and aesthetic perfection, leading the viewer to spiritual meditation.