Zamira Hindes-Wartenberg

Paul Klee remarked that "the artist has studied this world of variety and has, we may suppose, unobtrusively found his way in it. His sense of direction has brought order into the passing stream of image and experience."1 Zamira Hindes-Wartenberg's artistic practice likewise combines variegated artistic expression and symbolic thought to form a metaphysical reality that promotes a dialogue linked to art and society.

Her works indicate that they were created in a storm of emotion, yet the artist succeeds in bringing multiple contrasts into a unified totality, combining an abstract narrative with symbols and images. In her work, associations from various cultures and formal aesthetic values transform into a philosophical spiritual reality. On the personal level, her works surrender the presence of a Jewish tradition, fascinating in its contents yet restrictive, while introducing questions concerning female identity and the aspiration for liberation. These sensations are manifested via a warm color palette of ocher hues, reds, and blacks as a contrast, applied to gradually growing canvases in expressive layers. These elements furnish her work with a pure artistic air, alongside the inner female voice uttered through symbols such as the owl, leopard and Sphinx, derived from the artist's spiritual, supersensory world. The billy goat as a motif recurs in the works. Symbolizing the demonic in Christianity, temptation in Greek mythology, wisdom and thought in Judaism, it serves as an example and allegory of Zamira Hindes-Wartenberg's world, a world rich in cultural contents and contexts.

Hindes's art may be experienced as a resounding symphony that generates a spiritual picture and atmosphere by means of musical patterns from a fascinating jigsaw-puzzle of color stains and textures. In this context one may mention Kandinsky, whose color textures articulated detachment from the corporeal world and seemed closer to music. Kandinsky developed interrelations between form and color inspired by animal movements and a combination of contrastive colors: "The harmony of colour and form must be based solely upon the principle of proper contact with the human soul,"2 he asserted.

As for the forms incorporated in Hindes's compositions, one may discern figures and animals delineated with clear contours, alongside others that are a part of the background and the colorful "set," at times alluding to the world of theater, a field highly influential on her work. At times the figurative motif and the image have a conscious context, at others - unconscious, hidden, concealed in an inner dimension. Discussing this theme, Matisse asserted that new, superficial impressions were not enough. "I want to achieve the state of condensation of sensations which makes a picture… a representation of my mind," he said.

In a stratified creative process accompanied by constant search, Zamira Hindes-Wartenberg's inner and cultural world echoes the desires, fears and frustrations, her own and those of her surroundings, the people and the alienated, artificial life style typifying our late post-modern era. As part of her commitment to the cultural legacy, her works are conspicuously attentive to the art of the past and to contemporary approaches at one and the same time. They display reliance on artists such as Matisse, in terms of color and composition, Rembrandt - in terms of tonality and illumination; furthermore, she alludes to intense, critical works such as those of Kahlo, to the symbolic expressivity articulated in Picasso's works, incorporating softness and aesthetics inspired by Alma-Tadema.

Hindes-Wartenberg studied languages, literature and theater at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem and in the UK. She studied painting with artists Ruth Bamberger, Iris Nadel, Isana Meirovitz, and Prof. John Byle. She has staged numerous solo and group exhibitions, among them at the Danon Gallery and the Artists' House, Tel Aviv and the Castra Art Center, Haifa, and has participated in Art Expo, New York and the Salon International des Arts, Cannes.

All these render Zamira Hindes-Wartenberg's oeuvre an artistic feast and a true experience for the beholder. At present, her large-scale canvases are on display at the Gerard Bachar Theater, Jerusalem, and she is taking part in a new exhibition held as part of the international festival, Femina 2004, under the auspices of ICU, on the occasion of Women's Day in Israel, marking female creativity and women's contribution to society and the arts.

Zvika Israel, Chairman, ICU - International Cultural Union
and Chairman of the Israeli Painters' and Sculptors' Association, Haifa and the North

Notes

1. Klee, quoted in: David Piper, The Illustrated History of Art, Hamlyn, 1994, p. 441.
2. Kandinsky, quoted ibid., p. 386.
3. Matisse, quoted ibid., p. 392.