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SAUL BELLOW, Nobel
Laureate*
On Jesse
Reichek
Reichek’s paintings and his drawings need to be seen in series, for they
are variations upon certain themes. They do not, however, end at any
point; they continue to expand beyond the canvas and the paper,
suggesting unlimited combinations. And after looking long at them I
begin to feel that Reichek does not intend to catch the universe in his
net of lines but to indicate that the universe rests very briefly in our
perceptions and that we must not think we can fix it for any
considerable time.
But, though we can’t hope to detain it, we do have intuitions about it,
and it is his intuitions that Reichek represents in his works. Here he
shows us the bonds of matter, tangle and clarity, form on the borders of
chaos, equilibrium which only just succeeds in maintaining itself. And
now and then beauty, self-explanatory and self-justifying. There is a
quiet but substantial sense of humor in these works, as if Reichek were
aware of being one of God’s understudies, sometimes obliged to work in
the clumsy, almost shapeless parts of the creation, but occasionally
allowed a glimpse of perfections, for his industry.
*Saul Bellow
Nobel Prize for Literature 1976; The
Adventures of Augie March - in 1954; Herzog
(1964) and Mr. Sammler's Planet (1970) awarded the National
Book Award for fiction; Humboldt's Gift (1975)
awarded the Pulitzer Prize; awarded The International
Literary Prize in 1965 for Herzog, becoming the first American to
receive the prize; January 1968 the Republic of France awarded him
the Croix de Chevalier des Arts et Lettres, the highest literary
distinction awarded by that nation to non-citizens;
JESSE
REICHEK RETROSPECTIVE --- PARTNERS IN CREATION
Works from
1947 to 2005
Creators Equity Foundation
2324 blake street • Berkeley, ca • 94704
PHONE: (707) 514-8188 • --
email:
reichek@dslextreme.com
website address:
www.reichek.org
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