Exhibition of the famous Odessa artist Joseph Ostrovsky "Wandering Stars" in the Central House of Artists

The heroes of Joseph Ostrovsky’s paintings seemed to have come out of an ideal place, descended from Paradise by Sholom Aleichem, where there is no hunger, war and death, where a dream always comes true. Back in the 1960s and 70s. the artist turned to the Jewish theme. The world of artisans, musicians, wise men - everyone who surrounded him once in his childhood - was embodied in the wonderful “Jewish cycle”, consisting of several hundred paintings, some of which were presented at the exhibition “Wandering Stars. Dreams of Joseph Ostrovsky. " These works are perceived as philosophical parables. No wonder one of the main motives of Ostrovsky’s work is the theme of dreams and dreams.

Our dreams, like prayers and stars, do not have a permanent residence permit, they are not limited by time and space. Only morning, with its awakening and daily care, can interrupt, no, temporarily oblivion those dreams that come to us in a dream, only a few manage to not forget them and convey to humanity as a prayer and as the voice of angels. This was possible to the great master - Joseph Ostrovsky, the artist on whose canvases ideal creatures live: the idea of a shoemaker, the idea of a flutist, people in the synagogue - when the men are at ease, in constant prayer, as the Creator had intended, and if a woman visited his dream, then this bride is a pure and innocent being. Each character seems to emerge from a certain conditional space devoid of everyday realities. And this space is an unusually moving reflection of the subtlest shades of the author’s emotional state. His works are interesting in the complex when they are presented in a single series. According to Ostrovsky’s creative researcher Mikhail Rashkovetsky: “The heroes of the“ Jewish ”works of Ostrovsky often stoop as if they were“ folding up ”, looking at the viewer from hidden depths…. A goat or a running cat… conveys a national character. They are ranked among the most piercing works of the Jewish cycle. Maybe because of the resemblance to the images of animals on the Jewish matzews. "

Joseph Meerovich Ostrovsky (1935-1993) - a symbolic name in the history of the artistic life of Odessa in the second half of the twentieth century. His works are in the collections of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, the Kiev Museum of Russian Art, the Odessa Art Museum, as well as many famous private collections. The paintings of this master were exhibited at exhibitions in New York, London, Zurich, Antwerp, Tokyo, as well as in museums and galleries in Odessa, Kiev, Dnepropetrovsk.

Joseph Ostrovsky was born in 1935 in the Jewish town of Sudilkovo (near Shepetovka), where in Soviet times they remained faithful to the Jewish tradition. He began to draw early and already at the age of 15 he entered the picturesque department of the Odessa Art College. His main teacher was a wonderful artist Dina Mikhailovna Frumin, who considered Ostrovsky one of her most striking and original students.

Landscapes of the 1970s with their transparency of air, calligraphic outlines of trees carry a sense of admiration for the winter beauty of Russian nature. These poetic and philosophical pictures of nature are associatively consonant with the winter landscapes of Peter Bruegel, where the earthly world appears in its greatness and purity. Then Ostrovsky first turned to the Jewish theme. The world of childhood, the world of the small town and everyone who surrounded the future artist here - all these artisans, musicians, sages - was embodied in the amazing “Jewish cycle”, composed of several hundred paintings. As M. Ne Kogan wrote in his article about this cycle: “… the works are original signs. Sign of a man with a book. Sign of the Violinist. Sign of the artist. A sign of heritage. In his works, a great deal of convention is great: it is the convention of a language that is understandable from a half-word, from a half-view. ”

I. Ostrovsky took part in republican, all-union and international exhibitions. In March 1978, the first solo exhibition of Ostrovsky was opened at the Odessa Museum of Western and Eastern Art. She was very successful. The artist’s workshop also became a kind of cultural center in Odessa: it was here where the creative intelligentsia gathered.

The last years of life and work of Joseph Ostrovsky took place in Israel, where his art was quite in demand. The artist passed away in 1993 in the prime of life. In an obituary published in the Russian-language American newspaper The Jewish World, it was written: "In the history of Jewish fine art, Joseph Ostrovsky is the only artist whose work is so much devoted to the bearers of Jewish spirituality."

Exhibition “Wandering Stars. Dreams of Joseph Ostrovsky "takes place in the Central House of Artists until October 28, 2013. (Moscow, Krymsky Val, 10, Hall 3). Opening hours: 11.00-19.00.

Organizer website: http://www.vellum.ru/