EXHIBITION DATES March 9 - 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 present.
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, Shangri‑la. 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 uni   verse 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.
Reichek
translated this into living. He often stated his morality was not to
do good, in search of some heaven here or hereafter, but to try and
do as little harm as possible. But he also embraced the belief that
in life-as-painting, profound good luck was his partner in creation.
Before you
is presented Reichek’s path of paradise. A visual encyclopedia
mythica, without authorities or an index. New-found subtleties of
hue and sudden unexpected pathways.
For Reichek
the act of painting was his paradise.
Barry Weisberg
Chicago, Illinois, Nov. 2005
click on
the thumbnail images below to view full size
Use the
back button on your browser when going between
a full size picture and
this page,
so you do not lose your place on this page.
The following photographs of the exhibition were taken by
Jonathan Reichek:
click on
the thumbnail images above to view full size
Use the back button on your browser when going
between
a full size picture and this page,
so you do not lose your place on this page.
JESSE
REICHEK RETROSPECTIVE --- PARTNERS IN CREATION
Works from
1947 to 2005
Creators Equity Foundation
2324 blake street • Berkeley, ca • 94704
PHONE: (510) 514-8188 • FAX: (510) 665-4893
email:
reichek@dslextreme.com
website address:
www.reichek.org
|