“I believe that nothing can be more abstract, more unreal, than what we actually see. We know that all we can see of the objective world, as human beings, never really exists as we see and understand it. Matter exists, of course, but has no intrinsic meaning of its own, such as the meanings that we attach to it. We can know only that a cup is a cup, that a tree is a tree.”

– Giorgio Morandi

Eti Jacobi Lelior’s solo exhibition features eight new paintings, all done in acrylic on canvas and are 100 × 100 cm in size. The exhibition centers around two main “subjects of interest” related to Jacobi Lelior’s practice, which is devoted to painting and the multitude of manifestations related to this medium.

The first subject of interest is that of still life. This painting genre has been employed by artists over the centuries in order to convey technical and conceptual ruminations that have little or nothing to do with the genre itself. Its emptiness has always been its strength, allowing the language of painting to emerge in all its glory without being obfuscated by the intrinsic power of subject matter. Placing herself within this legacy, Jacobi Lelior – who over the last forty years has created numerous series of still life paintings – once again takes this opportunity to experiment with layers of colors and brush strokes, complementing her latest body of work – different in size and scope – which will take central stage in her upcoming solo exhibition at Tel Aviv Museum of Art (TAMA). However, in sheer contrast with her previous still lifes that saw shapes emerging from a black background, this new series is based on a palette of pinks and purples, echoing the colors dominating the body of work that will be presented for the first time at TAMA.

The second subject of interest is repetition. The decision to make a still life painting already entails a double sense of repetition. Firstly, since the painting repeats – or let us presume it repeats – a composition of objects arranged by the artist and subsequently copied. Secondly, due to the weight of the genre itself, which means that any artist doing still lifes evokes a long list of iconic paintings of this kind: from Caravaggio’s to Cézanne’s still lifes, through Rococo painters like Chardin, whose works are a recurring source of inspiration for the artist. Following these premises, repetition becomes, just like the genre of still life itself, a way of liberation, a way out of the limitations of interpretation. It frees the artist from issues of originality and meaningfulness, turning the spotlights only to what really matters to Jacobi Lelior. To conclude, we can argue that – through the combination of playfulness and virtuosity – the artist aims at achieving, in a quest that seems not to have any end or limit, the perfect painting.

– Nicola Trezzi, Selvino, Italy