Page 17 - Art-in-Israel

extremely strong sculpture-oriented consciousness. What has in How are we to interpret then the work that secured the Grand Prize?
effect happened is that a piece of photographic sculpture has We have the famous phrase of the poet Lautréamont, in which he
succeeded in gaining the upper hand and winning the grand prix at a summed up the spasmodic beauty of surrealism in the following
print competition. manner: “As beautiful as a chance encounter between a sewing
machine and an umbrella on a dissecting table.” We might venture to
In a sense, then, it is, perfectly natural that those who had aspired to parody this line in the following way: As beautiful as a chance
and expected the conventional art of printing - as typified by encounter between a white dog and the jaws of a shark in the deep-
woodcut, copperplate, lithography and the like - should react to the red sunset glow of a Tel Aviv beach.
award of the Grand Prize in this manner, by voicing questions as to
why a photograph was awarded the grand prix in a competition of The comments of the artist himself indicate that the white dog could
prints. The other contender for the Grand Prize, Mr. Keisei Kobayashi, symbolize Sirius (the Dog Star) in Canis Major. The dog faces the jaws
chose to eschew such so-called present-day printing techniques as of a shark that gape to expose sharp teeth. We are told that the shark
the use of photography and high technology. Instead, he tells us, it jaws in question were collected in 1985 in Cape Town, at the
was the following thoughts that fired his productive efforts: “My southernmost tip of South Africa. The artist uses a profusion of terms
message was simply this: To carve on and on as you might in describing his work, such as “bewilderment,” “ominous signs,”
steadfastly plow a field; to carve and carve again as if simply to etch “cosmic information,” “lsanagi,” “meditation,” “juxtaposition,” and
into the work some trace of myself.” The insects, fish, birds and “Yin and Yang.”
beasts, flora, and trees, as well as the clusters of buildings in the
urban setting that we find carved and rubbed into this giant end- Originally from the South African city of Cape Town, the artist studied
grain woodcut, “Transferred Soul,” proclaim out loud, as it were, the sculpture at a local school of fine art, later going abroad to study in
original ideal of what a print should be. In this sense, “Transferred London, where he studied under the sculptors Anthony Caro and
Soul” stood in stark contrast to the Grand Prize-winning work. Philip King. Frank now lives and produces his work in Israel.

HEAD III
ASSEMBLAGE 170X157X140 CM 1989 - 1994

UMBILICAL AFRICA IV
ASSEMBLAGE 47X24X12 CM 1991
UMBILICAL AFRICA V

ASSEMBLAGE 47X24X12 CM 1991
UMBILICAL AFRICA DETAIL

ART IN ISRAEL ART IN ISRAEL
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WORLD OF ART WORLD OF ART