15Oct

RAFFI LAVIE, the Israeli Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.

Review by Helen Nisbet

The afternoon at the Giardini was blighted by a need to pee and to eat, so it was grumpily that we approached the Israeli pavilion. But great art has the power to cut through hunger and bladder weakness and I fell in love with the paintings of the late Raffi Lavie it was reminiscent of Cy Twombly, of late abstract expressionism and of angry graffiti. I was surprised to read that Lavie was not political but wondered if this made him a deliberate choice for such a country’s pavilion. Politics aside I take from this exhibition what I want to and I love his paintings – they are how I wish I could paint and it’s one of the only examples of painting we see.

Raffi Lavie , detail. The Israeli Pavilion.
Raffi Lavie , detail. The Israeli Pavilion.

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