''It is now more than fifty years
since Sonia Natra immigrated to Israel from her native Romania, where she was
already established as an artist. Since then she has gained impressive mastery
over a wide range of medias, including sculpture, ceramics, painting
photography and multi-media prints. Her
work, represented in many permanent collections, has been exhibited extensively
in Israel and
abroad. This year, alone she has exhibited in the United
States , France
and Monaco and
has received high praise for her achievements. Talking with Sonia Natra, one
realizes that, since her arrival in Israel ,
she has been strongly influenced by the local environment: she remembers, in
particular, that she was immediately struck by the raw primeval strength of the
country -the earth, the rocks, the
strong sun and fierce light.
She tried, at first, to express
this strength through powerful abstract forms, but later turned to figurative drawing and sculpture. Today, she notes, she is continually striving to
eliminate the extraneous from her work, in order to distil her ideas in simple,
unadulterated forms, Her major thematic concern has been the lack of
communication between people; their desire to know one another, yet their sad
inability to reach out and respond. This theme of individual loneliness was
previously dealt with in different ways: for example, the physical contact
between couples in Eduard Munch's 'Dance of Death' only emphasizes their
alienation from each other; The solitary figures lost in George Segal's slick, unfriendly
unfriendly world convey the same message. Natra's approach to the subject is
simpler and more restrained. She sculpts or draws monumental figures, often
faceless, sometimes headless, arranged in groups, or seated facing each other
in couples. They look at each other. They never touch. Their arms hang loosely
by their sides. Her latest series depicts small lean men, whose bodies strain
forward, waiting like dogs on invisible leashes for some unknown factor to set
them free. The seriousness and tension associated with times of war are
reflected in a small series of monumentally sculpted heads. One, in particular,
a striking male face, with a taut worried expression bears an uncanny
resemblance to series of expressive portraits sculpted in the violent period of
the late Roman Empire . Sonia Natra also writes poetry. One
of her poems effectively describes her latest work, which, perhaps, closes the
cycle on her current theme of lack of communication. Entitled Self-contemplation"
and sculpted in white Dutch stone, it depicts a beautifully simple figure with
bowed head, resting on one arm. Perhaps the artist is suggesting, in sculpture
and poem, that to succeed in reaching others, we must first learn to understand
ourselves: "The world outside does not exist.
In a definite manner. We carry ourselves within ourselves. Everywhere. We
search. We try to live. Within ourselves."
By Angela Levine.
By Angela Levine.
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