Gerstein's rich painting style; the secular, flat, mundane images, simple and glowing in their colors; his relating to a society accustomed to seeing reality through the television frame and which has forgotten the simple pleasures of sand and sea and riding a bicycle with one's hair blowing in the wind - all these encourage us to ascribe his cut-outs to a late Israeli-style pseudo Pop Art genre, designation by genre and, not a fundamental-ideology. It should be noted that in Israel, Pop Art, unlike other international styles such as American Abstract, Minimalism, Conceptualism and even Post Modernism, did not catch on.
In the mid-sixties there were two leading Israeli artists who tried to assimilate Pop Art: Rafi Lavi and Ran Shechori. Of the two it was Shechori, the art critic, who remained faithful to Pop Art's flatness and continued to produce figure paintings and portraits in strong base colors. However, after two or three years, around 1967, Lavi gave up this style, recognizing the inherent failure in adopting a trend that was generated from within an intrinsically capitalistic society. In those days, the socialist dream in Israel had not yet run its course, and the lyrical expression typical of Israeli painting refused to make way to an objective, impersonal and non-human style of expression as dictated by mass society, a style which blurred the relationship between personal experience and mass consciousness.
And then, in the late eighties, twenty years later Gerstein (then an art student in New York) saw and absorbed Pop Art works at first hand, arriving at his cut-outs, and with them paying an old debt to one of the trends he claims always appealed to him. The Israeli street, too, was seemingly ready for stereotyping of a culture that was formulating into a local style of Pop Art, or, to be more precise, something in between Pop Art and Folk Art.
"Everyone called Pop Art "American Art", but actually it was industrial art. "America was hit by industrialism and capitalism earlier and harder than other places," claimed Roy Lichtenstein. . . . If the core of British, followed by American, Pop Art reacted to a society which had become consumerized, shallow and gluttonous - a society which eradicates the hierarchy between "high" and "low", for whom a McDonald's sign is part of the landscape, the Coca Cola logo culture, Micky Mouse a cultural hero, Campbell Soup a myth and "Supermarket" the world, and the jumble of syllables from comic books, such as "BOOOOM", "OOOOUCH", "SPLAAASH" and "CRAAASH" is language - then Gerstein foregoes most objects of criticism of modern capitalist society. He thereby also relinquishes the light-hearted critical tone of "original" Pop Art on the one hand, and the depressive cynicism and despairing submission to the loss of the original and the authentic, and the triumph of "the system" over all expression of liberty and individuality in the Post Modernistic style, on the other hand.
Gerstein refrains from "large concepts" and the theoretical principle, but he does internalize certain aspects of the Modernist frame of mind - the aesthetic atmosphere and "soft" reality data, to which he chooses to respond in his conciliatory manner, trying to placate the viewer and supply him with a kind of interlude from the violent furor of social and political criticism. Instead of Arnon Ben David's "Uzi", he has a female bicycle rider nicknamed "Little Witch", who reminds him of the days when his young mother, then still an immigrant girl wishing to assimilate into Israeli culture and society, learned to ride a bicycle just a short while before her small twins, David and Jonathan, learned as well; instead of the Israeli soldier's overcoat and sleeping bag, in the style of young Gil Shahar, he has a series of noisy three-dimensional cut-outs of cats and surfboats and pools and beaches and balconies; instead of sculptures made of cut, rusty metal in the style of Menashe Kadishman that deal with weighty myths such as Sacrifice of the Son, Pieta, and Pregnancy and Birth, Gerstein chose to cut a "Human Circle" out of metal two millimeters thick and coat it with bright lustrous brushstrokes.
Gerstein does not ignore the fact that the McDonald's sign has taken over the Israeli landscape in thirty-eight strategic sites. But Gerstein will not copy a particular sign, nor photograph or paint it; rather he will relate to it in his consistent manner: He will strip it of concreteness and impart to his work something of the atmosphere of the sign's "professionalism", of its blending into the landscape and assimilating among the public. Cut-outs by Gerstein - with their outlines strictly trimmed by laser beams, radiant coloring aiming to catch and seize the eye, three-dimensional volume yet flattened expression like a painting, and immediate images that require no mediation and do not rely on the Ready-Made or the objet trouv? and do not really imitate reality or try to take it to an extreme or "pollute" it - function as sign and logo, reminiscent of the store signs hanging over the small businesses in Tel Aviv, without being such at all.
"My painting is based on the fact that the only thing there is, is what can be seen," claimed Stella, attacking the demand of American Abstract for transcendence in art, "it really is an object... the whole idea can be grasped at once without any complications... what you see is what you see."
In the mid-sixties there were two leading Israeli artists who tried to assimilate Pop Art: Rafi Lavi and Ran Shechori. Of the two it was Shechori, the art critic, who remained faithful to Pop Art's flatness and continued to produce figure paintings and portraits in strong base colors. However, after two or three years, around 1967, Lavi gave up this style, recognizing the inherent failure in adopting a trend that was generated from within an intrinsically capitalistic society. In those days, the socialist dream in Israel had not yet run its course, and the lyrical expression typical of Israeli painting refused to make way to an objective, impersonal and non-human style of expression as dictated by mass society, a style which blurred the relationship between personal experience and mass consciousness.
And then, in the late eighties, twenty years later Gerstein (then an art student in New York) saw and absorbed Pop Art works at first hand, arriving at his cut-outs, and with them paying an old debt to one of the trends he claims always appealed to him. The Israeli street, too, was seemingly ready for stereotyping of a culture that was formulating into a local style of Pop Art, or, to be more precise, something in between Pop Art and Folk Art.
"Everyone called Pop Art "American Art", but actually it was industrial art. "America was hit by industrialism and capitalism earlier and harder than other places," claimed Roy Lichtenstein. . . . If the core of British, followed by American, Pop Art reacted to a society which had become consumerized, shallow and gluttonous - a society which eradicates the hierarchy between "high" and "low", for whom a McDonald's sign is part of the landscape, the Coca Cola logo culture, Micky Mouse a cultural hero, Campbell Soup a myth and "Supermarket" the world, and the jumble of syllables from comic books, such as "BOOOOM", "OOOOUCH", "SPLAAASH" and "CRAAASH" is language - then Gerstein foregoes most objects of criticism of modern capitalist society. He thereby also relinquishes the light-hearted critical tone of "original" Pop Art on the one hand, and the depressive cynicism and despairing submission to the loss of the original and the authentic, and the triumph of "the system" over all expression of liberty and individuality in the Post Modernistic style, on the other hand.
Gerstein refrains from "large concepts" and the theoretical principle, but he does internalize certain aspects of the Modernist frame of mind - the aesthetic atmosphere and "soft" reality data, to which he chooses to respond in his conciliatory manner, trying to placate the viewer and supply him with a kind of interlude from the violent furor of social and political criticism. Instead of Arnon Ben David's "Uzi", he has a female bicycle rider nicknamed "Little Witch", who reminds him of the days when his young mother, then still an immigrant girl wishing to assimilate into Israeli culture and society, learned to ride a bicycle just a short while before her small twins, David and Jonathan, learned as well; instead of the Israeli soldier's overcoat and sleeping bag, in the style of young Gil Shahar, he has a series of noisy three-dimensional cut-outs of cats and surfboats and pools and beaches and balconies; instead of sculptures made of cut, rusty metal in the style of Menashe Kadishman that deal with weighty myths such as Sacrifice of the Son, Pieta, and Pregnancy and Birth, Gerstein chose to cut a "Human Circle" out of metal two millimeters thick and coat it with bright lustrous brushstrokes.
Gerstein does not ignore the fact that the McDonald's sign has taken over the Israeli landscape in thirty-eight strategic sites. But Gerstein will not copy a particular sign, nor photograph or paint it; rather he will relate to it in his consistent manner: He will strip it of concreteness and impart to his work something of the atmosphere of the sign's "professionalism", of its blending into the landscape and assimilating among the public. Cut-outs by Gerstein - with their outlines strictly trimmed by laser beams, radiant coloring aiming to catch and seize the eye, three-dimensional volume yet flattened expression like a painting, and immediate images that require no mediation and do not rely on the Ready-Made or the objet trouv? and do not really imitate reality or try to take it to an extreme or "pollute" it - function as sign and logo, reminiscent of the store signs hanging over the small businesses in Tel Aviv, without being such at all.
"My painting is based on the fact that the only thing there is, is what can be seen," claimed Stella, attacking the demand of American Abstract for transcendence in art, "it really is an object... the whole idea can be grasped at once without any complications... what you see is what you see."
1985 "Bicycle Rider", Hebrew University, Mount Scopus, Jerusalem
1986 "The White Rider", City of Lod
1988 Sculptural children's playground, Weiller Park, Jerusalem
1992 "Kiosk", Israel Museum, Jerusalem Six sculptures at Avdat archeological site, the Negev
1993 "Great Tree", billboard project in Ramat Hasharon Wall relief, main office of the Electric Company, Jerusalem
1994 "Ladder of Motives", Open Museum, Tefen
1995 Two wall pieces for Bank Leumi, Tel Aviv "The Flower Vase", Bank Leumi, Rehovot "Jacob's Ladder", Israel Festival, Jerusalem
1996 "Scientific Orange", Rehovot shopping & central bus station Mall Israel Festival, Jerusalem "Head Within a Head", the Hebrew University, Jerusalem "Vases", Brigada Street, Herzliya
1997 "Above the Head", Installation, Hebrew University, Jerusalem "City Square", Center of Performing Arts, Tel Aviv "Pupils", Dizengoff Street, Tel Aviv
1998 Cow, Raanana Park, Raanana
1999 A Whole World, Hebrew University, Jerusalem The Bus, Hebrew University, Jerusalem Homage to Alterman, Dizingoff Street, Tel Aviv
2000 Audience, Jerusalem Theater, Jerusalem
2001 "Day and Night", Bezeq Lobby, Azrieli Center, Tel Aviv.
2001 "Colors from Nature", Horev Center, Haifa.
2001 "Things that come from the Heart" (sculptures), Ramat Alon Park, Haifa.
2002 "Soul Bird", Holon.
2002 "Digital Zabar", Waddi Nisnass, Haifa.
2002 "No Favorite Color", 3 months Installation, Kassel, Germany.
2002 "Shalom On Israel", Rabin Building, Judaism Center, Hebrew University, Jerusalem.
2003 "Blue Mermaid", Kiryat Yam, Haifa
1986 "The White Rider", City of Lod
1988 Sculptural children's playground, Weiller Park, Jerusalem
1992 "Kiosk", Israel Museum, Jerusalem Six sculptures at Avdat archeological site, the Negev
1993 "Great Tree", billboard project in Ramat Hasharon Wall relief, main office of the Electric Company, Jerusalem
1994 "Ladder of Motives", Open Museum, Tefen
1995 Two wall pieces for Bank Leumi, Tel Aviv "The Flower Vase", Bank Leumi, Rehovot "Jacob's Ladder", Israel Festival, Jerusalem
1996 "Scientific Orange", Rehovot shopping & central bus station Mall Israel Festival, Jerusalem "Head Within a Head", the Hebrew University, Jerusalem "Vases", Brigada Street, Herzliya
1997 "Above the Head", Installation, Hebrew University, Jerusalem "City Square", Center of Performing Arts, Tel Aviv "Pupils", Dizengoff Street, Tel Aviv
1998 Cow, Raanana Park, Raanana
1999 A Whole World, Hebrew University, Jerusalem The Bus, Hebrew University, Jerusalem Homage to Alterman, Dizingoff Street, Tel Aviv
2000 Audience, Jerusalem Theater, Jerusalem
2001 "Day and Night", Bezeq Lobby, Azrieli Center, Tel Aviv.
2001 "Colors from Nature", Horev Center, Haifa.
2001 "Things that come from the Heart" (sculptures), Ramat Alon Park, Haifa.
2002 "Soul Bird", Holon.
2002 "Digital Zabar", Waddi Nisnass, Haifa.
2002 "No Favorite Color", 3 months Installation, Kassel, Germany.
2002 "Shalom On Israel", Rabin Building, Judaism Center, Hebrew University, Jerusalem.
2003 "Blue Mermaid", Kiryat Yam, Haifa
