Shabbat 2014

Editor: This is "Shabbat" by Alexander Roitburd, created in 2014 using oil paint. It's… well, it's striking! There's something so surreal about this floating figure, isn't there? What do you see in this piece, what story does it tell you? Curator: Ah, Roitburd. He paints dreamscapes, doesn’t he? For me, it evokes a Sabbath rest that transcends the physical. A soul floating free, perhaps, contemplating… well, what IS he reading, do you suppose? It feels very grounded to Earth but, also unbound, escaping. It is as if the spirit is in repose, even though the body defies the world, as we know it! Editor: That sense of spiritual repose is definitely there. It’s interesting how he places this figure *above* a very earthly landscape. Do you think that placement holds any significance? Curator: I think everything is placed for a reason and an additional reason, some subconscious thing the placement triggers. Perhaps it’s the artist hinting at the simultaneous existence of the mundane and the divine? We're tethered, yet yearning, floating! A paradox Roitburd captures beautifully with those bold brushstrokes and almost muddy palette of browns and grays. The colors almost want to disappear. The brown shades add a historical echo too… Editor: It really makes you think about that duality. The painting almost feels like a meditation in itself, and I love that you picked up on those earth tones that feel ancestral. Curator: Indeed. It’s the kind of piece that shifts with each viewing, like a half-remembered dream that offers something new each time you recall it, but not something entirely new but just tweaked, ever so slightly, each time. I suspect even Roitburd himself might see it differently on different days! Editor: That’s a lovely way to think about it. Thank you for illuminating those layers for me. Curator: The pleasure was all mine. Art like this wants a conversation!