100 KISSES

100 KISSES. Size: 40 x 20 x 20 cm. year: 2008 | medium: Metal | edition: Unlimited | type: Free Standing | SERIGRAPH ON STEEL | The range of circumstances, both artistic and popular, under which the Israeli public has been exposed to Gerstein's work in the past years, i.e. the statues and cut-outs, as well as his overflowing presence, speak of the community's deep need for this type of creation: The work of a virtuoso artist, who is neither theoretical nor topical in the publicist, period-related sense, but "simply an artist" in the superb sense of the word. A painter who has fine-tuned the technique, temperament, shapes, images and coloring which are identified with him: a painter who produces simple, charming, Matisse-like decorative objects, using his unique inventive technique and employing a Fauve-like coloring and sensuality. Good-hearted objects that convey a certain irony and humor towards "Israeliness", which grows more and more convoluted and yet for him, at least, remains simple and innocent, as it was during his childhood in the 50's. Perhaps not so different than the Israeliness experienced by the first generation of the Land of Israel painters, i.e. Nahum Gutman and Reuben Rubin.