Ivan Schwebel - Paintings  
  Introduction          
 

The paintings within, plus a few etchings, display a number of my works since the 70’s. This ingathering of paintings made me realize that my work has some elements that are constant over the years, with no stylistic leaps toward any fashion. The act of painting is a major truth and my theatricality plays it up. The work process is always revealed, for instance the effects of a disc-sander in removing unwanted paint is often displayed as part of the surface texture. If it rubbed out a piece of a human body, so be it! The work can utilize something else. Total realism is not acceptable.

Painting is a game, often a desperate one without laws, except within the creed of formal values shared in art for many centuries. But these are all intuitive. I paint streets in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, New York mostly from photographs I have taken, although I have gone up plenty of roofs with big canvasses. There’s one on Canal and Broadway only three stories high where the local Chinese dried innards of chickens. Paradise.

I am thought to be very expressive although some misconstrue it as aggressive. Theatricality, in painting as well as behavior, is often a major characteristic. More...

        Tel Aviv is bright, modern and lively. A place of Bauhause curves and romance, almost falling into the sea.  
 
    New York's subways and rooftops are backdrops to the 3 Sewer Hitter, Houdini the self-liberator, lovers and other heroes.     The models can be derived from old masters, family members, the cinema or myself in the mirror.
 
    The Expulsion from Spain and the Holocaust - the two great horrors united, fused with present-day cityscapes.     The Mall is the modern church of consumption, where Mammon is worshiped worldwide.
 
    Job ponders the controversy and despair, demanding death from God's hand. He confronts the unfathomable.     Landscapes - my hillside in Judea has been incisive in hundreds of works.
 
    The Situation in Israel - the pain and suffering on both sides. Beauties appear unobserved in front of the tanks. "Holy land"?!     Schwebel's books reproduce my work, texts and pages from my sketchbook diaries, creating paperbound galleries.
 
    Grand Hotel - I relate to cinema with a certain clarity, and the audience joins in the plot of this great 1932 film.