David Gerstein: Sea, Mud and Salt

This group of paintings, created in the mid-1980s, embodies all the qualities integral to the art of David Gerstein from its beginnings until the present - a curiosity about how people behave, their conduct in their daily life, their weaknesses; and his great ability to depict them, in a strong artistic language rich in reality and warm humour, empathy, and compassion. This is a continuation of the 1979 series of people taking their ease on the peeling balconies of old Tel-Aviv. Those balcony paintings were, at that time, the recognizable "trademark" of Gerstein, confirming his specific locus on the map of local art. In the series presented here, says Gerstein, the loungers on the balconies have moved down to the Dead Sea and populate its shores, smeared with mud, exposing their pink bodies to the rays of the sun and the salt, frying slowly.