The twenty-Sixth of May 2006
by Zipora Luria
In her new show, Hava Raucher develops further the subjects that have engaged her interest for years: the nature and quality of the representation of femininity, and questions of personal identity. But her familiar inventory – particularly the large, striking nudes in the exhibition "Testimony" at the "Arsuf" Gallery in Rishpon in 1994 – is joined by new images, and the scenes which she constructs, although direct, take on richly nuanced and intricate new layers.
Raucher's fleshy women now give way to their polar opposites: anorectic girls exposing their gaunt bodies to the viewer. Images of over-ripe, excessive femininity are replaced by the distress of pre-femininity, of the negation of womanhood. In both cases what is at stake are the repressed limits of feminine representation, embodying, in diametrically opposed ways, the struggle against temporality. Using a Cindy Sherman-like conception – the woman as victim – Raucher tackles, through her figures, a hegemonic, covert model of fictive, dollish femininity – a femininity that is glamorous, synthetic, anti- and meta-temporal. In opposition to this model – the offspring of myths, historical artistic images, and above all the contemporary culture of film and advertising – Raucher presents, with fearless defiance, a different image, one that is perhaps bold, perhaps cruel, often challenging for the viewer. It is not an image of a utopian, ideal, perfect and unreal femininity, but rather of a femininity that is realistic, flawed, bruised and bruising.
In "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" the apotheosis of the composition is peopled, in a biting, almost pornographic ironic twist, with male doll figures. The dwarfs surround the large female figure, the latter dominating them with her overt sexuality. The puppet figure – a wooden clown with a large penis, painted with painstaking care – is a newcomer in Raucher's world, giving a new reading to the motif of femininity throughout her work. The Cindy-Shermanesque concept of femininity mentioned above is transformed and revealed as a superior, dominant and threatening force. The puppets, standing at the feet of the sublime beauty like an army of servants ready for action, embody a collective masculinity that is part grotesque, part pathetic. It would seem, then, that Raucher's feminine images belie a certain conception of power – which in its radical representation has a castrating quality – that is utterly unlike the victimized aspect usually highlighted in the mainstream images of feminist art.
Raucher's conception of feminine power is more clearly expressed in the series of depictions of young Ethiopian women. This series is, first of all, striking in its originality. I believe Raucher is the first Israeli artist to seriously confront the image of the Ethiopian Israeli, a recent addition to the Israeli ethnographic mix. But apart from the novelty, the nature of these images is revealing. All of her dark-skinned models sport blond hair. What is the meaning of this hybrid? In my opinion, the paintings of Ethiopian girls give full expression to Raucher's twofold conception, which is in fact characteristic of her entire artistic output. On the one hand we have here another link in the chain of alienation, the search for the self that is typical of her world. Beginning with the "testimonials" mentioned above, those large-limbed "Natashas" uprooted from their native soil and put on display here, in a new land, where they are literally exposed to the elements, and up to the Ethiopian girls with their synthetic blond hair, this chain of women expresses feelings of alienation, aberration, anomaly, a discordance between individual and environment. They are not from here, they are "other". And yet, one cannot but feel the strong sense of power, of victory, that these young women exude. Their choice of blond hair and fashionable tank tops does not create a sarcastic, kitschy or pathetic aura. No. They are serious, their gaze focused, their posture upright. Their blond hair is not a gesture of surrender to the dictates of fashion, but rather an expression – proud? Liberated? – of independence, of choice. They are free of an anthropological determinism that would rather see them as ethnic, colorful objects, their hair pleated in braids. No, they are not that. The series of Ethiopian beauties is therefore, for me, ultimately, a hymn of glory to feminine independence, one of Hava Raucher's more original statements.
Let us turn our attention to another dimension revealed in this exhibition: the representation of the figures reflects a theatrical, multi-angled approach. The painted scenes feature narrative sequences, secondary figures, gestures and glances that weave a network of refractions around the central image, which in itself, as we have seen, is highly charged and multivalent. The interplay of artistic allusions and references enriches each scene with counterpoint echoes, often ironic, borrowed from the history of Western art: whether the horizontal Matissean figures in the background of the two perpendicular figures in "Her Likeness and Image" (these reclining figures, made by male artists, convey a sense of passivity that is opposed to the assertive – and even aggressive, Amazonian – posture of Raucher's figures), or the Doré images surrounding the Ethiopian girls. Doré's figures highlight the tension between East and West (Doré, the European, expressing a kind of Orientalism), construct an expressive counterpoint to the subdued Ethiopian figures, and present a drama of flowing material played out against the tank-top (Western) minimalism of the models.
But what is the meaning of this theatricality? Besides the narrative aspect, fascinating in itself, the theatrical conception that is a signature of Raucher's work points up the theatricality inherent in artistic representation. The realistic genre to which Raucher's work is usually assigned is based on an assumption according to which reality can be captured in a moment of grace. Observation, patience and artistic talent hold out the promise of touching the real – if even for a split moment. This is the very assumption that the artist undermines.
The theatrical character of the compositions presents her artistic endeavor – with its intention of capturing reality, capturing truth in its real, physical and sensual embodiment – as a fundamentally illusive attempt. The sense of illusion is multiplied and strengthened by Raucher's conception of space – another important aspect of her work, here mentioned only in passing. The spatial configuration of her works is always indefinable. It includes doublings, shadows, reflections and mirror images. What we see, in fact, is an unclear, enigmatic space.
Beyond the question of the representation of femininity, touched on in the beginning of this essay as her major, central statement, Hava Raucher's work addresses the futility of the attempt to capture the real through art. Her meticulous painting practice presents – tragically? Dialectically? – the roots of her work as a compelled act that can never find its true fulfillment.
* Apotheosis: A depiction of Mary's deification; Mary ascends skyward while the yearning worshipers stand at her feet.
English version: Anat Schultz
by Zipora Luria
In her new show, Hava Raucher develops further the subjects that have engaged her interest for years: the nature and quality of the representation of femininity, and questions of personal identity. But her familiar inventory – particularly the large, striking nudes in the exhibition "Testimony" at the "Arsuf" Gallery in Rishpon in 1994 – is joined by new images, and the scenes which she constructs, although direct, take on richly nuanced and intricate new layers.
Raucher's fleshy women now give way to their polar opposites: anorectic girls exposing their gaunt bodies to the viewer. Images of over-ripe, excessive femininity are replaced by the distress of pre-femininity, of the negation of womanhood. In both cases what is at stake are the repressed limits of feminine representation, embodying, in diametrically opposed ways, the struggle against temporality. Using a Cindy Sherman-like conception – the woman as victim – Raucher tackles, through her figures, a hegemonic, covert model of fictive, dollish femininity – a femininity that is glamorous, synthetic, anti- and meta-temporal. In opposition to this model – the offspring of myths, historical artistic images, and above all the contemporary culture of film and advertising – Raucher presents, with fearless defiance, a different image, one that is perhaps bold, perhaps cruel, often challenging for the viewer. It is not an image of a utopian, ideal, perfect and unreal femininity, but rather of a femininity that is realistic, flawed, bruised and bruising.
In "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" the apotheosis of the composition is peopled, in a biting, almost pornographic ironic twist, with male doll figures. The dwarfs surround the large female figure, the latter dominating them with her overt sexuality. The puppet figure – a wooden clown with a large penis, painted with painstaking care – is a newcomer in Raucher's world, giving a new reading to the motif of femininity throughout her work. The Cindy-Shermanesque concept of femininity mentioned above is transformed and revealed as a superior, dominant and threatening force. The puppets, standing at the feet of the sublime beauty like an army of servants ready for action, embody a collective masculinity that is part grotesque, part pathetic. It would seem, then, that Raucher's feminine images belie a certain conception of power – which in its radical representation has a castrating quality – that is utterly unlike the victimized aspect usually highlighted in the mainstream images of feminist art.
Raucher's conception of feminine power is more clearly expressed in the series of depictions of young Ethiopian women. This series is, first of all, striking in its originality. I believe Raucher is the first Israeli artist to seriously confront the image of the Ethiopian Israeli, a recent addition to the Israeli ethnographic mix. But apart from the novelty, the nature of these images is revealing. All of her dark-skinned models sport blond hair. What is the meaning of this hybrid? In my opinion, the paintings of Ethiopian girls give full expression to Raucher's twofold conception, which is in fact characteristic of her entire artistic output. On the one hand we have here another link in the chain of alienation, the search for the self that is typical of her world. Beginning with the "testimonials" mentioned above, those large-limbed "Natashas" uprooted from their native soil and put on display here, in a new land, where they are literally exposed to the elements, and up to the Ethiopian girls with their synthetic blond hair, this chain of women expresses feelings of alienation, aberration, anomaly, a discordance between individual and environment. They are not from here, they are "other". And yet, one cannot but feel the strong sense of power, of victory, that these young women exude. Their choice of blond hair and fashionable tank tops does not create a sarcastic, kitschy or pathetic aura. No. They are serious, their gaze focused, their posture upright. Their blond hair is not a gesture of surrender to the dictates of fashion, but rather an expression – proud? Liberated? – of independence, of choice. They are free of an anthropological determinism that would rather see them as ethnic, colorful objects, their hair pleated in braids. No, they are not that. The series of Ethiopian beauties is therefore, for me, ultimately, a hymn of glory to feminine independence, one of Hava Raucher's more original statements.
Let us turn our attention to another dimension revealed in this exhibition: the representation of the figures reflects a theatrical, multi-angled approach. The painted scenes feature narrative sequences, secondary figures, gestures and glances that weave a network of refractions around the central image, which in itself, as we have seen, is highly charged and multivalent. The interplay of artistic allusions and references enriches each scene with counterpoint echoes, often ironic, borrowed from the history of Western art: whether the horizontal Matissean figures in the background of the two perpendicular figures in "Her Likeness and Image" (these reclining figures, made by male artists, convey a sense of passivity that is opposed to the assertive – and even aggressive, Amazonian – posture of Raucher's figures), or the Doré images surrounding the Ethiopian girls. Doré's figures highlight the tension between East and West (Doré, the European, expressing a kind of Orientalism), construct an expressive counterpoint to the subdued Ethiopian figures, and present a drama of flowing material played out against the tank-top (Western) minimalism of the models.
But what is the meaning of this theatricality? Besides the narrative aspect, fascinating in itself, the theatrical conception that is a signature of Raucher's work points up the theatricality inherent in artistic representation. The realistic genre to which Raucher's work is usually assigned is based on an assumption according to which reality can be captured in a moment of grace. Observation, patience and artistic talent hold out the promise of touching the real – if even for a split moment. This is the very assumption that the artist undermines.
The theatrical character of the compositions presents her artistic endeavor – with its intention of capturing reality, capturing truth in its real, physical and sensual embodiment – as a fundamentally illusive attempt. The sense of illusion is multiplied and strengthened by Raucher's conception of space – another important aspect of her work, here mentioned only in passing. The spatial configuration of her works is always indefinable. It includes doublings, shadows, reflections and mirror images. What we see, in fact, is an unclear, enigmatic space.
Beyond the question of the representation of femininity, touched on in the beginning of this essay as her major, central statement, Hava Raucher's work addresses the futility of the attempt to capture the real through art. Her meticulous painting practice presents – tragically? Dialectically? – the roots of her work as a compelled act that can never find its true fulfillment.
* Apotheosis: A depiction of Mary's deification; Mary ascends skyward while the yearning worshipers stand at her feet.
English version: Anat Schultz
