From July ’08 Spotlight: I went to the Zygman Voss Gallery at 222 West Superior in Chicago on June 14 for the opening of a new exhibit of work by Moshe Rosenthalis. Rosenthalis was born in Lithuania in 1922 and trained in the style of Soviet Social Realism, but he made aliyah in 1958 and he’s been painting bright, beautiful canvases with echoes of Chagall and Matisse ever since. I loved the contrast between the teals and turquoises of the paintings done in his Jaffa studio, and the pinks and purples coming from his studio in Sfat. Almost every painting is accented by streaks of intensely bright yellow. After 50 years, he clearly still remembers the shock of his first encounter with Israeli sun after years of Baltic cold.
Into Color closes on September 6. For more details, visit www.zygmanvossgallery.com.
