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EXHIBITION DATES March 9th–April 18th, 2006
Jesse Reichek's sources for the 263 works in this series,
done between 1994 and 2000, were
MORTALITY/IMMORTALITY—PARADISE MYTHS
Myths of mortality/immortality reflect on the possibilities of life and the
inevitability of death. Throughout human development, even for
Neanderthals, the poetry and paintings of paradise are ever presen
Paradise has been imagined as an orchard, a forest or a park. It has
many names, such as Heaven, Nirvana, a Garden of Eden, the Elysian
Fields, Valhalla, Shangrila. For some it is a promised land, a
place of personal perfection or a home for the righteous. In these
wonderings and wanderings we can recognize the currents that connect
mathematics, myth and madness.
Reichek painted a visual universe for creation, mortality/immortality, and death that both follows in this heritage and offers new adventures. For Reichek, creation, mortality/immortality, and death constituted a continuum of existence
The paintings of Mortality/Immortality follow Creation and precede Death. While the paintings of Creation were vertical, the paintings of Mortality/Immortality are horizontal, as if paradise encompasses an endless horizon where location becomes the prerogative of each individual. In these paintings there is no up or down, east or west, vertical or horizontal.
In the Rabbinic musings, it is thought that some 26 creations might have preceded Genesis. Likewise, paradise is a partnership that is forever unfinished, tentative, and a journey that rejects a destination. The unknown and the uncertain are always accomplices of creation.
Barry Weisberg,
Chicago, Illinois, June 2006
and
Rabbi James Brandt
Napa—Oakland, California, Nov. 2005
Click on the thumbnail images below to view at full size.
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JESSE REICHEK RETROSPECTIVE — PARTNERS IN CREATION
Works from 1947 to 2005
2324 Blake Street • Berkeley, CA • 94704
PHONE: (510) 514-8188 • --
email:
reichek@dslextreme.com
website address:
www.reichek.org
