Programme of the Synagogue

 

Jakov Bararon: Vista

Art exhibition

9. - 31. 5. 2013, opening on 9. 5. 2013 at 18.00

Ten years have passed since a series of Jakov Bararon’s paintings “Or Hadash – New Light” were exhibited in the Maribor Synagogue. This renowned artist will be making a return visit to Maribor and Slovenian audience to present his most recent cycle of paintings called Vista (or View) in which the painter remains faithful to his search for the essence of rich Jewish traditions. This is revealed throughout his distinctive lyrical and melancholic artistic images.

Jakov Bararon, “a man with a restless traveller’s biography and a typical diaspora fate”, was born in Belgrade in 1939. After WWII he moved to France and later to Israel, where he lived from 1948 until 1957. In Israel he gained precious knowledge of Jewish heritage and culture that has profoundly marked his later artistic creativity. In 1957 Jakov returned to the former Yugoslav state and moved to Sarajevo, to town that was permeated with rich Sephardic cultural tradition, where he accomplished the secondary school of applied arts. Later he studied graphics and graphic design at the Academy of Applied Arts in Belgrade, and between 1966-68 he accomplished the postgraduate study at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Since then he regularly exhibits throughout Europe, USA and Israel. In 1992, at the outbreak of war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, he moved to Vienna where he still lives and works.

Bararon’s compositions, a Vista series consists of, are marked by veduta and figural forms being scenically attuned, whereat the main emphasis is on the colour and not on the form. In their final expression the Bararon’s compositions are colour-tuned by intertwined objective and subjective perceptions – views, painted in the artist’s characteristic manner of applying one colour cast on top of another thus complementing the figurative passing-over between realistic and abstract, and providing the ultimate artistic expressive characteristics. Bararon’s art is produced both thoughtfully and spontaneously at the same time, thus reflecting the painter’s affinity for Jewish culture and tradition, which is written with a unique artistic handwriting.

 

The exhibition will be officialy opened by Mag. Franci Pivec, the vice-president of the Slovenian Union of Cultural Associations; whereas Rivka Saltiel (vocal) and Kurt Bauer (violin) will perform a short cultural programme that will include some traditional Sephardic tunes.

Honorary patron of the project is Mr Smail Festić, honorary consul of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Slovenia. Donors: Elektro Maribor, Weingut Wohlmuth.