Kukula notes “Many people say that my characters resemble dolls. For me dolls represent immortal youth. But they are also the remains of something that has passed, and when they are antiques, of someone who has died. The first antique doll I bought was one produced by the German-Jewish firm Kammer & Reinhardt at the beginning of the twentieth century. While this delicate bisque doll survived two world wars, both the manufacturer and the original owner are gone forever. So the very immortality of any artifact is always reminiscent of the death of something intimately connected to it. As I began making sketches for this exhibition I realized that precisely because art is immortal it is also morbid. Art survives—it carries within traces of its dead producer. So it represents not only the eternal, but also the ephemeral. Art becomes artifact. Being the crumby narcissist that I am, I have noticed that I produce art in order to leave my own artifacts—in other words, my own death mask. And so the whole process of painting becomes rather macabre, like writing your own requiem.”
Kukula is one of my top fav artists. Born in an isolated village north of Tel Aviv, her artwork is both influenced by classical art forms and contemporary pop culture. Dreamy feminine, mostly doll-like characters are depicted in surrealistic backgrounds and surrounded by symbolic objects. The paintings (oil on board) shown here are from her “Immortal Artifacts” series.
Kukula notes “Many people say that my characters resemble dolls. For me dolls represent immortal youth. But they are also the remains of something that has passed, and when they are antiques, of someone who has died. The first antique doll I bought was one produced by the German-Jewish firm Kammer & Reinhardt at the beginning of the twentieth century. While this delicate bisque doll survived two world wars, both the manufacturer and the original owner are gone forever. So the very immortality of any artifact is always reminiscent of the death of something intimately connected to it. As I began making sketches for this exhibition I realized that precisely because art is immortal it is also morbid. Art survives—it carries within traces of its dead producer. So it represents not only the eternal, but also the ephemeral. Art becomes artifact. Being the crumby narcissist that I am, I have noticed that I produce art in order to leave my own artifacts—in other words, my own death mask. And so the whole process of painting becomes rather macabre, like writing your own requiem.”
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