Michael Druks 1940, Jerusalem, Israel - 2022, London, United Kingdom Still Life With a Table Lamp and an Elephant, 1984 Original Hand-Signed Mixed Media Painting -
Artist Name: Michael Druks Title: Still life with a table lamp and an elephant, 1984 Signature Description: Hand-signed and dated "1967" lower right Technique: Mixed media on paper
Frame: Unframed Condition: Very good condition. Artist's Biography: born 1940 Jerusalem since 1972 lives and works in London 1967 - Art Institute, Bat-Yam Michael Druks, painter; sculptor; and conceptual, video, performance and installation artist, was born in Jerusalem (1940), but grew up and went to school in Tel Aviv, and (in the ’60s) became involved in dynamic theater and art circles there. Within a few years he was a success story, his work was shown in leading exhibitions, and he was acclaimed as one of the best young artists in Israel (1969-1970). At this decisive stage in his life and work Druks traveled abroad, and after several months in Holland he has settled permanently in London since 1972. Despite his distance from the “center” of Israeli art, however, Druks has become etched in the local consciousness as a major Israeli artist, and his works have continued to be shown in almost every constitutive exhibition of Israeli art. The Israeli public has indeed been exposed to his work in an ongoing manner, but has never had the opportunity to view and to gain a deeper appreciation of the expressive power of the totality of his work, which also includes a rich chapter of painting. Michael Druks is an Israeli-born artist with a diverse practice ranging from his avant-garde conceptual works of the 1970s involving video, photography and performance, to his installation works, collages, drawings and paintings.
Druks has exhibited internationally over the past four decades, including Documenta 6, Kassel (1977); Performance, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (1979); exhibitions at The Israel Museum, Jerusalem; The Tel Aviv Museum, Israel; and Cartographers, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb. Druks grew up in Tel Aviv where he studied at the Art Academy and became involved in avant-garde art and theatre circles. By the late 1960s, Druks was established as a leading young Israeli artist and decided to travel abroad. His diverse practice over four decades reflects Druks’s thoughts about techniques and media. He sees ‘technique’ as “merely a working tool”: when asked about his use of many different media in 1978, he replied that “the medium is the artist himself, and all the rest, such as video and drawing, are techniques.” In the mid 1970s, Druks made a major series of works involving varied interventions with TV screen images. Using performance and photography, these interventions had subversive, humorous or politically charged results as is evidenced in Druks’s filmed performance work Playbox (1975) where he reacts and interacts with, programmes being broadcast on television; and in his photographic installation Unauthorized Biography (c1975). Druks’s conceptual map – the print Druksland: Physical and Social (1974) – has become an iconic image in both Israeli and international art, featured in numerous exhibitions, books, magazines, exhibition catalogues and posters. This work evolved from his “geographical technique” with which he intended to provide a coded visual language of signs understood all over the world; and reflected Druks’s preoccupation in the 1970s, with borders and boundaries and their social and political implications. Since the early 1980s, Druks has concentrated primarily on painting, making works he says are “details detached from a context” that require time and active participation from the viewer. Described by Arturo Schwarz as ‘mindscapes’, these enigmatic paintings are intended to entice an investment of time and imagination in the process of contemplating and decoding them – Druks sees this time element as incorporating “an extra dimension to a two-dimensional product”, saying that “my elusive images create the space for playfulness and involve the viewer’s participation in an active and democratic role”. He creates fictions, making images that emerge from his subconscious, although “the trigger for the picture is not the subject for the work”. Michael Druks has taken part in group exhibitions at England & Co, including The Map Is Not the Territory series (2002, 2003, 2009); Beneath the Radar in 1970s London (2010); and Wandering Lines: From Automatic Drawing to Abstraction (2012). This first solo exhibition with the gallery features early conceptual works and video together with a group of recent paintings. Selected Solo Exhibitions 1966 Students’ House, Tel Aviv University 1970 ‘Environment’ Billy Rose Pavilion, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem 1971 ‘Sandwiches’ Gordon Gallery, Tel Aviv 1973 ‘Flexible Geography’ Museum of Modern Art, Oxford ‘Punishments’ Gordon Gallery, Tel Aviv 1974 ‘Punishments’ In-Out Centre, Amsterdam; Agora Studio, Maestricht and Art Meeting Place, London ‘Hidings, Forgeries’ Photographers Gallery, London 1975 ‘Image/Identity’ International Cultural Centre, Antwerp ‘Two Installations’ PMJ Self Gallery, London ‘Photographs and Video Installations’ De Appel Centre, Amsterdam 1976 ‘Everybody’s Own Yard’ Whitechapel Art Gallery, London ‘Simple Fractions’ Gordon Gallery, Tel Aviv 1977 ‘Territory – Living Space’ Neue Galerie Sammlung Ludwig, Aachen 1978 ‘Ambiguous Definitions’ ICA London ‘Incidence & Coincidence’ Spaces for Exhibitions & Actions, Berne 1983 ‘Screenings of Photographic Situations’ The Israel Museum Jerusalem 1987,88,90,99 Julie M Gallery, Tel Aviv 1992 ‘Works on Paper’ The Israel Museum, Jerusalem 1993 Bugrashov Gallery, Tel Aviv 1994 Beardsmore Gallery, London 2001 ‘Circumstantial Evidence: New Pictures’ Beardsmore Gallery, London 2004 ‘Druksland: Video Works’ audio visual retrospective Haifa Museum, Haifa ‘Forensic: Paint and Clay’ Beardsmore Gallery, London 2007 ‘Michael Druks: Travels in Druksland’ retrospective, Museum of Art, Ein Harod ‘Michael Druks’ Beardsmore Gallery, London ‘Michael Druks: Early Works 1965-1982’, Gordon Gallery, Tel Aviv 2009 “Deuteronomy Chapter 1, Pictures Chapter 2”, Yair Art Gallery, Tel Aviv 2013 Solo Exhibition, England & Co. Gallery, London Selected Group Exhibitions
1968 ‘Ten Plus: For and Against’ Gallery 220, Tel Aviv 1969 ‘Autumn Salon’ Helena Rubinstein Pavilion of Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv Museum ‘Ten Plus in the Round’ Gordon Gallery, Tel Aviv 1970 ‘Ten Plus On Venus’ Gordon Gallery, Tel Aviv 1971 ‘Concept + Information’ The Israel Museum, Jerusalem 1972 ‘Affidavit: Idea-Process-Document’ Gallery House, London 1973 ‘Self Portrait in Israeli Art’ Haifa Museum of Modern Art 1974 ‘Ten Years, Twenty Artists’ The Israel Museum, Jerusalem 1975 Travelling Exhibition in South America under aegis of Agora Studio, Maestricht, Museum of Contemporary Art, Buenos Aires; Museum of Contemporary Art Sao Paulo; Estudio Actual Caracas, Venezuela ‘International Open Encounter on Video’ Palazzo dei Diamante, Ferrara; Espace Pierre Cardin, Paris ‘Ninth Biennale of Young Artists’ Paris ‘Video Works’ Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels ‘The Video Show’ Serpentine Gallery, London ‘Video Travelling Show’ Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol and Brighton 1976 ‘Photography as Art’ Gallery Grada, Zagreb ‘Time, Words and the Camera: Photo Works by British Artists’ travelling exhibition in Austria: Kunstlerhaus, Graz; Municipal Gallery Innsbruck; Artists Union Vienna. 1977 ‘Documenta ‘Photography as Art, Art as Photography’ travelling show under aegis of Fotoforum Kassel, Kassel, London, Warsaw, New York 1978 ‘Artist and Society in Israeli Art 1948- 1979 ‘Interdisciplinary Events on Body Art and Performances’ National Museum of Modern Art, Georges Pompidou Centre, Paris 1980 ‘Borders’ The Israel Museum, Jerusalem ‘Maps and Images of the Earth’ Georges Pompidou Centre, Paris 1981 ‘International Photography Biennale’ Vienna ‘Contemporary Artists’ Camden Arts Centre, London 1982 ‘Aart Hats’ travelling exhibition in Germany ‘The Labyrinth’ Atelier Rue Ste-Anne, Brussels 1983 ‘Tel Hai ’83 Contemporary Art Meeting’ Tel Hai 1984 ‘Eighty Years of Sculpture in Israel’ The Israel Museum, Jerusalem 1985 ‘Milestones in Israeli Art’ The Israel Museum, Jerusalem 1986 ‘The Want of Matter: A Quality in Israeli Art’ Tel Aviv Museum 1989 ‘To Live with the Dream’ Tel Aviv Museum of Art 1992 ‘Routes of Wandering: Nomadism, Journeys and Transitions in Contemporary Israeli Art’, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem ‘Stitching Gordon Matta-Clark: A Selection’ Waranda Culture Centre’ Belgium 1994 ‘90-70-90: Developments in Israeli Photography in the Past Twenty Years’ Tel Aviv Museum of Art 1995 ‘Looking Up, Looking Down’ Beardsmore Gallery, London 1996 ‘Cartographers’ travelling exhibition in Eastern Europe: Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb; Mucsarnok Hall of Art Budapest; Center for Contemporary Art Warsaw; Umetnostna Gallery Maribor Slovenia 1997 ‘Perspectives on Israeli Art of the Seventies: The Eyes of the State’ Tel Aviv Museum of Art ‘In the Light of the Menorah: Transformation of a Symbol’ The Israel Museum Jerusalem 2000 ‘Four Artists’ Beardsmore Gallery, London 2001 ‘Love At First Sight: Israeli Art from the Vera and Arturo Schwarz Collection’ The Israel Museum Jerusalem ‘Narrative and Other Stories’ Haife Museum of Art 2002 ‘The Map is Not the Territory, Part 2003 ‘Thou Shalt Make: The Resurgence of Judaism in Israeli Art’ Time for Art, Tel Aviv ‘Video Zero 1: Communication Interferences’ Haifa Museum of Art ‘The Map is Not the Territory, Part 2004 ‘The Fourth Ceramic Biennale’ Eretz-Israel Museum, Tel Aviv 2006 ‘Video Zero 3: Performing the Body – Live Acts’ Haifa Museum of Art 2007 ‘Mapping the Imagination’ Victoria and Albert Museum, London 2008 ‘+10 Group’, Tel Aviv Art Museum ‘Click-Clack’ The Art Gallery, University of Haifa ‘The Hidden Trace, Jewish Paths through Modernity’ Felix-Nussbaum-Haus 2009 ‘Face Inside and Out’, Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv ‘Mind the Cracks!’, collages from the Museum and other collections, Tel Aviv Museum of Art ‘The Map is Not the Territory, Part 3’, England & Co, London 2010 “Beneath the Radar in 1970s London”, England & Co, London 2012 “Wandering Lines: From Automatic Drawing to Abstraction”, England & Co, London
Additional Information:
Michael Druks has weathered conceptual, video and installation art and come back to painting.
The world is full of painters who have been sidetracked occasionally by other artistic mannerisms and yet, in the end, retain their sanity and remain painters. Michael Druks is such a painter, one who has weathered the ins and outs of conceptual, video and installation art and has, in the recent past, come back to painting. This Map Charts the Complex Landscape of an
Artist’s Face In 1973, the Israeli artist Michael Druks
created an unconventional self-portrait. BY LAUREN YOUNGMARCH 13, 2017 IT ISN’T UNUSUAL TO
COME across maps of fictional worlds or mistaken
regions explorers once thought were real. But in the case of the map above, the creator intentionally charts an entire
land that—literally—only exists in his head. On November 8, 1973, the Israeli artist Michael Druks mapped Druksland, a cartographic display capturing his life
story. Outlining the shape of his head, Druks’ conceptual map incorporates
features you would see on a topographical map, including coordinates, bodies of
water, and a map legend. Yet the map also serves as an unconventional
self-portrait, the coordinates corresponding to major life events, significant
people, and important institutions. Druks shows how the contours of a face
could be a more complex terrain than any geology on Earth. “In this work, Druks’s head turns into a topographic expanse,” wrote Galia
Bar Or for the Michael Druks: Travels in Druksland exhibit
at the Museum of Art Ein-Harod. It’s “made up of spaces that contain the
landscapes of his life with the inner (psychological) and outer (social)
dynamic that shapes them on various levels of consciousness.” Born in Jerusalem in 1940, the
England-based artist had a lifelong interest in maps from his father, who was a
librarian in the map department of a print house and library. In 1973 at the
age of 33, he was inspired by his “physical, political, and mental isolations
from the space around [him] in Israel,” he says. To create his self-portrait, he projected a grid of stripes on his
face, photographed himself, copied the image onto transparent paper, and marked
out the contour lines. Printing each color separately through offset
lithography made his face appear three-dimensional, similar to the sloping
hills and deep valleys of the earth, explained Bar Or. Druksland was finished in 1974. “Translation of three-dimensional terrain into the
two-dimensionality of the map is no simple task, and this difficulty is
intrinsic to cartography,” wrote Bar Or. “The solution that Druks found for
this and the production technique that he chose are closely connected to
cartography’s technological and historical contexts.” Just like a topographical map, the
lines and graduated hues show elevation, while the blue represents bodies of
water and the brown indicates mountain ranges. “The eyes are like a lake,”
Druks says. “The lips are a bit like a river. The blue can represent either air
or water aiming either up or down—outside or inside.” Druks splits Druksland into
three major zones: a small region of the right side of his head is “Right
Druks,” his nose, lips, and chin fall under the larger area of “Left Druks,”
and his crown and forehead appropriately make up “Occupied Territory.” The
legends also inform how Druks created the map. He describes age lines,
vegetation, and the color scale of heights in millimeters. An assortment of words and phrases are scattered across his face
and head, referencing influential teachers, addresses of apartments, cities,
names of family members, friends, schools, galleries, and owners. He also has
points with the names of fellow artists, whom Druks thought were important
contributors and detractors of the Israeli art scene, wrote Gil Stern
Goldfine in the Jerusalem Post.
The
ambiguous nature of Druksland stirs all kinds of interpretations, and
Druks welcomes each one. Shipping&Handling: All items are sent through registered mail or by E.M.S. Fast delivery service (up to 4-5 business days), depends on the weight and measures of the purchased item. You may add insurance for the item with an additional fee. Please e-mail us for other shipping methods. |