It's Just Baaaaaaad

In the latest weekly article [this link may be broken soon as the newspaper regularly deletes old postings; relevant paragraph quoted below] in Haaretz's series "Art of Diplomacy," we visit the home of Dr. Krinka Vidakovic-Petrov, the ambassador of Serbia and Montenegro in Israel, to discuss her art collection. This section got my synchronicitous spider-senses tingling:

Nearby hangs a monochromatic painting of a sheep, almost completely white, which the embassy received as a gift from Israeli artist Menashe Kadishman. "I met Kadishman when we organized an exhibit for a Serbian artist, but even before that I had read about him, seen reproductions of his, and fallen in love with his sculptures. And I wanted to meet him," she says. "One day he invited me to visit his studio, and asked me what I wanted as a gift. I saw the installation of sculptures that he had prepared for the Jewish museum in Berlin— a pile of iron heads— I saw several heads in his studio, and I told him that I wanted one like that. A symbol of the suffering of the Jewish people. Kadishman replied: 'Of course I'll give it to you, but I'll also show you all my sheep, and you'll choose between them.'" [article written by Dana Gilerman]

Well, that clears up a few things! I've seen Kadishman's sheep paintings in art galleries around Jerusalem, and frankly, I find the full-canvas head-on portraits disturbing, and I would never want one in my home. Note that, as quoted above, Kadishman has to offer and give away sheep art even if someone is interested in something else! I can't be the only one out there who refuses to have the wool pulled over my eyes.

But I didn't know that Kadishman is the same artist who created the sculptures that I do appreciate, like the installation at Yad Vashem I blogged about recently (the "iron heads"). Interestingly, I cannot find a title card or accreditation near Yad Vashem's sculpture, but the artist is now revealed. If you want to see a Kadishman overview and pictures of his work (both sheep and iron heads are featured), then go here. At the bottom of the Wikipedia article are more links to pictures of his sheep obsession. It's shear madness!