G. Adam (Gila Balas), Kol HaAm, 26 January 1962
A first exhibition by a young artist. A debut appearance in the art world carries with it either surprises or disappointments. One goes to such an exhibition driven by curiosity, with the aim of getting to know a new person and a new artist, to enter into the confidence of his experiences and hidden emotions, and perhaps even to find in them an echo or expression of one’s own experiences… But a shadow of apprehension also accompanies you: perhaps you will encounter yet another puller-of-lines and smudger-of-paint, more or less competent—and nothing more.
As we went to Abed Abdi’s first exhibition, these thoughts accompanied us with greater force and persistence than usual. For Abed Abdi is a young painter presenting his work for the first time, and his exhibition is also the first exhibition by an Arab painter in Israel since the establishment of the state. For reasons that evidently require special analysis and clarification, the power of plastic creation among members of the Arab people living in Israel has not found expression. Among the causes may have been, inter alia, insufficient and misdirected education, and the absence of an artistic environment and statement. It is therefore easy to understand that the first exhibition of a young Arab painter is a major event not only in his own life, but may also be an event of considerable importance in the cultural and artistic life of his people in our country.
If anyone expected to find in this exhibition a rich, decorative colorfulness characteristic of the magnificent Arab artistic tradition, they were disappointed. If, on the contrary, someone feared encountering garish, jarring colors, they were surprised. Abed Abdi’s colors are restrained, calm, cultivated, and warm. In this respect he is no different from young Jewish artists of this land. Like them—he is, in essence, Israeli! And like the best among them, he has adopted a modern culture of color. What is unique to him is that he senses color intuitively, for Abed Abdi is a sensitive and delicate young man.
As a native of Haifa, he is enchanted by the body of his city and his picturesque neighborhood, Wadi Nisnas. His painting Opposite the Painter’s House is one of the most beautiful works in the exhibition. Its colors are radiant yellows—quiet and suffused with a sense of serene happiness. In Halisa Neighborhood at Night the atmosphere changes: from a black background faint lights shimmer in the windows of houses whose forms have blurred and been swallowed by darkness. This painting stands on the border of abstraction without crossing it, and is imbued with deep emotion. In the colored drawing no. 18, the Wadi Nisnas neighborhood appears exposed, naked as it is in winter, without the caress of the sun that bestows beauty upon its houses in the other works.
The landscapes of the land close to Abdi’s heart—urban and village landscapes of Arab towns and villages such as Acre, Abu Ghosh, Tabgha, and the villages of the Galilee—occupy an important place in his work. The finest and most cohesive of them is the Port of Acre: a strong oil painting, rich in color and surprising in its handling for so young a painter. Special mention should also be made of the landscape Gan HaEm, a balanced painting in dark tones. In the color paintings one can sense still life and flowers through the young painter’s particular sensitivity to color in subtle yet rich tonalities.
We aspire to see in the work of every young painter not only a depiction of his surroundings and personal emotions, but also an expression of his thoughts and his attitude toward life and its events. Had Abed Abdi, as a young painter belonging to the Arab people, contented himself with painting landscapes and flowers alone, this would have been deeply regrettable and would have diminished his uniqueness and importance as an Arab artist. But he has shown that his heart is not estranged from the suffering of his brothers. A significant place in the exhibition is occupied by free compositions that vibrate with life and express the principal problems of his people. Two compositions of refugees—of which the better is the small no. 2—and a painting on the theme of a cemetery are very interesting from the standpoint of the treatment of the subject, despite their artistic weaknesses.
Here we should also mention the portraits, especially that of An Arab Girl, in gray tones—delicate and restrained, conveying deep sadness. Abed Abdi’s drawings are still weak, although in the drawing Abu Khamis he achieved an artistic success thanks to the emotion that creates a sense of wholeness and rhythm.
Abed Abdi is undoubtedly a talented, sensitive, and promising young artist. He did not have the opportunity to study much due to the harsh conditions of his life—a fact that allows us to appreciate his talent even more. At the same time, however, we believe that if Abed Abdi continues to study and succeeds in gaining professional command over the problems of drawing, color, and composition, he will emerge as an important pioneer of Arab-Israeli painting and as a good, serious painter within the family of Israeli artists.
