Welcoming Guests

Shlomi Schwartzberg

Reading Faces, 1998, oil on canvas and text on wood, 19 X 25 cm

In a series of works exhibited previously (at the Haim Atar Museum in Ein Harod and the Janco-Dada Museum in Ein Hod), Ruth Kestenbaum Ben-Dov explored the relationship between the languages of art and Judaism.  In a painting entitled Reading Faces, Ruth’s self-portrait is juxtaposed with a page from Tractate Avoda Zara from the Babylonian Talmud with the emphasized passage “All faces are permitted except for the human face”. In additional works as well a conflict is created between the self-portrait and texts from various Biblical and Talmudic texts.

In the current series Welcoming Guests, Ben-Dov seems to be freed from the somewhat heavy task of investigating the limitations on artistic language set by Jewish law and culture.  This liberation results in a more joyful series of works in which Ruth has performed the ancient custom of welcoming guests.  For the first time she welcomes people into her studio, a private space in the extreme until now.  She begins to paint portraits of other people, concentrating on others and thus putting aside, at least temporarily, her intense preoccupation with the self portrait.  Welcoming guests into her studio means giving those guests respect and honor.  Ruth attempts to paint the person sitting opposite her as a subject, not an object; a subject with his or her own wishes and preferences, who chooses what outfit to wear, in what position to sit, etc.  From time to time Ruth even takes a break from painting to turn the easel toward the person being painted, showing the work and hearing the persons response, trying to grant him or her a status equal to hers as the painter who creates the image and decides how the final result on the canvas will appear.

In a long process lasting ten or more meetings, an intimate interaction between the painter and sitter ensues, in which the two reveal themselves to one another.  The first meeting results in a drawing, followed by many meetings devoted to the large painting of the whole figure and its surroundings.  Finally, after the acquaintance has deepened, the painting of a close-up view of the face becomes possible.

The large painting relates to the person with all the additions and accessories that he or she brings to the encounter. The painting shows the persons clothing, sitting position, and other details that all hint at background, way of life, personality and mood.  In the small portrait of the face all these are missing and the person is revealed to us in the most elemental and basic form of his or her facial features.

Ruth chose all the people whom she painted from the area in which she lives, from Karmiel, Misgav, and the Arab villages in this region.  A place that is regarded as peripheral and distant is transformed by her into a center, a center for the meeting of different cultures and identities, a center of joyful and generous welcoming that stands in such stark contrast to the violence and hatred that we live with today.

Hasna, Ami, Rachel