Amnon David Ar is an Israeli painter. He studied at the Arts and Crafts Municipal High School of Tel Aviv until the age of eighteen. After completing his compulsory military service, he studied anatomy with Oswald Adler. He then spent one year at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, before leaving, because he felt that both the training and the curriculum didn’t provide the skills and knowledge he was looking for. For this reason, Ar decided to organize his own studies, and spent a further year learning painting and drawing with Abraham Bykov. By studying with older artists, Ar has trained himself in a traditional way, and can, at least in part, be considered an autodidact. During his studies, Ar worked as a chief illustrator and caricaturist at Maariv and also at Yedioth Tikshoret. Today, Ar also teaches painting and drawing, with the express intention of passing on to the next generation of artists, his experience, and with it his understanding of the artistic skills of the past. In 2014 Ar moved to Berlin where he has his studio and teaches.
Artistic Style
Ar paints and draws his surroundings – both the people and everyday objects he finds around him in Tel Aviv. He does this, with a realist technique, often preferring to paint objects which are worn, rather than pristine. Robert Fishko, director of the New York City says: "Ar loves the rich variety of forms in visual reality. Instead of hiding or improving its imperfections, he focuses on them with enthusiasm." Dr. Bob Van Den Boogert, Curator of the Rembrandt House Museum in Amsterdam, states: "Ar loves the rich variety of forms in visual reality and instead of hiding or improving its imperfections he focuses on them with an eagerness that recalls Rembrandt's predilection for 'picturesque' subjects... The rendering of the human body still is an artistic speciality which - especially nowadays - only a few painters really master. Ar is definitely one of them: his female nudes are modelled so delicately, and the texture of their skin is rendered in such a convincing way, that they really come to life on the canvas." Dr Van Den Boogert continues: "Ar is one of the great draughtsmen of our time. He excels in rapid sketches, but also in extremely detailed studies, done in graphite and charcoal, or in white pencil on black paper. The expressive power and the plasticity of his drawings have such graphic qualities, that one wonders why he has not tried his skills on graphic art yet. But that may be one of his future projects: perhaps the best is yet to come."
Exhibitions and awards
Solo Exhibitions
2017 "Wie lange hält das Licht" – Exhibition & Catalog, mz project room maia zinc, Berlin
