Israeli artist Dorit Gur featured at Hartford’s Israel Festival

By Cindy Mindell

WEST HARTFORD – While meditating one night 12 years ago, Israeli artist Dorit Gur saw what she describes as “the inception of the rainbow, the alliance between God and man.” That image, God’s covenant with Noah, would inspire the lush and mystical canvases that she has become known for in Israel and beyond.

Gur’s exhibit, “The Art of Receiving,” is on display at the Mandell JCC Chase Family Gallery through June 1. Gur will be a guest artist at the Mandell JCC Israel Festival, May 8 through 15.

Born in Israel in 1969, Gur was exposed to art from a very young age. Both her mother and uncle were talented artists who worked in a variety of media. At age eight, Gur took painting classes, where she first became familiar with artists like Picasso, Dali, Da Vinci, Klimt, Monet, and others. Through childhood and adolescence, she would continue her studies with various teachers, exploring sculpture and pottery along with painting.

Ana Bekoah

“But I never attended an art school because I didn’t want my imagination to be put in a box,” she says. “I wanted to be free to chart my own path and create my own techniques.” Gur’s unique modern Judaic art incorporates a mix of materials from all over the world, including acrylics from Israel, pigment powders from Germany, and black canvas from Italy. Gur is constantly exploring new ways to integrate various media.

After the vision that changed her artistic direction, Gur visited a Kabbalah center in Israel but could not afford tuition. She began to study Kabbalah and Judaism on her own, finding teachers and fellow “seekers” along the way. “My upbringing wasn’t religious and I’m not a religious person but I find a lot of charm and beauty in Judaism,” she says.

Kabbalah – literally, “receiving” in Hebrew – is at the center of her exhibit’s title. The phrase carries multiple meanings and reflects what Gur tries to convey in her art, both from personal and esoteric levels: there is an art to receiving wisdom, knowledge, and understanding from God.

During another meditation, Gur was inspired to integrate Hebrew calligraphy into her art, intrigued by the messages hidden in the written letters. “The gold calligraphy in my work conveys the respect that the words and letters deserve,” she says. “The words have so much power and so much meaning. The meaning doesn’t come from the definition of the word, but from the letters. Each letter has its own unique power.”

Since entering the world of Kabbalah, Gur has increasingly incorporated the spiritual into her art and left behind other motifs. Through her works, she strives to convey her own spiritual experience and the infinite connection between Creator and creation, as well as the concepts of blessing, energy, and tranquility.

“In my art, I’m trying to deliver something that is light and approachable, not from a heavy religious place,” she says. “I try to project a softer perspective in my work so that people who do not necessarily come from an observant Jewish background will have an easier time connecting to and embracing the beauty of Judaism.”

Tree of Sfirot

Gur never knows what she will end up creating when she first sets brush to canvas. Before she begins a painting, she performs a sort of self-purification ritual and makes sure to cover her hair. This is not a religious action, but rather a spiritual gesture acknowledging the power of the media and concepts that she works with. She chooses the appropriate music or complete silence, and with an extensive rainbow of colors, fabrics, and brushes, flows with whatever intuitive emotion that comes to her. After the canvas is covered with intense colors and has dried, Gur uses a high-quality varnish to preserve the first layer and create a foundation for the next. After several days, when the canvas has fully dried, the process begins anew and this time, Gur completes the central motif of the painting.

While she likes to work during the day, outdoors in a pastoral setting, Gur prefers to work at night. “There is a special magic in the nighttime hours, when God has more free time,” she says.

“During her artistic process, Dorit definitely connects with the Creator,” says her longtime assistant, Ido Wolfman. “From her perspective, it is a moment of unity, a gift, as she allows the artwork to freely unfold and become, without a premeditated or pre-planned design in mind. In this way, even she is surprised at the final outcome. Sometimes, the work presents a kind of riddle that she must decipher and understand in order to see why the creation ended up the way it did, or why a certain sentence was incorporated and not another, to understand the connections. Hers is a challenging process.”

Gur began exhibiting her Kabbalah-inspired artwork at galleries in Tzfat, one of Israel’s four holy cities. In August 2013, she opened her own gallery in Old Jaffa, where she also shows the work of other artists. She plans to open a second gallery in Tzfat.

Her art was first shown in the U.S. at the Stamford JCC in 2013, thanks to Norwalk resident and businessman Dan Koppel. A longtime student of Kabbalah, Koppel was visiting Israel with his family when, on their last day, they walked into the Tzfat gallery where the artist was showing her work. “I use Kabbalistic ideas and concepts for my healing practice and just to stare at her art is a type of healing,” says Koppel, who contacted Gur to express his appreciation. Gur asked Koppel to represent her in the U.S. From the first show in Stamford, interest grew in Connecticut, with exhibits at Temple Sholom in Greenwich, the JCC of Greater New Haven, and the Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale.

Gur’s paintings have been acquired by collectors all over the world.

“I’m happy to share my art outside of Israel because my art is not only for the Jews, but for all people around the world,” she says. As an example, her “Bereshit” canvas reflects the concepts of harmony and purity, as well as innocence and the absence of evil. “People around the world embrace these values and should seek to respect each other,” she says. “My hope is that everyone who looks at my art will feel what I am feeling when I create it: the blessed energy and love inside me.”

“Dorit Gur: The Art of Receiving,” through Wednesday, June 1, Mandell JCC Chase Family Gallery, 335 Bloomfield Ave., West Hartford. Meet the artist May 8-15. For information: (860) 231-6339 / jziplow@mandelljcc.org.