Nude Winter: Marina Nemtseva and Boruch Lev

Boruch Lev

This looks a  bit  Classical, doesn't it?  It reminds me of an earlier East European immigrant, Elie Nadelman (1882-1946).  Both of them picked up the Greco-Roman tradition by choice rather than by formal education. It's amazing how good both of them got to be at it.




(note: this website, like the Palette and Chisel Gallery, is mostly about members of the Academy.  Boruch has yet to join. But exceptions can be made!)

 

(I've written more about Boruch here )

This was avant garde drawing about a hundred years ago.

 

It's still just as exciting

Boruch has the unusual ability to suggest the infinite on a  small piece of paper.

He's also good at Constructivism.

One of the rare examples of religious art shown at the Palette and Chisel. And even more rare for being so successful at it.

This depicts "The Great Tekiah" -- described on one Jewish site as : "A pure unbroken sound that calls man to search his heart, forsake his wrong ways, and seek forgiveness through repentance. The tekiah called the people to attention and to gather unto Moses. It is the calling note, calling your attention and holding you. It would be in general the summons to listen to God, to receive from Him the orders for the day."

 

 

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In contrast to Boruch, Marina Nemtseva had a very thorough art education --- at one of the elite centers of Classical art in the 20th Century: the St. Petersburg Academy of the Arts.

Obviously, it involved lots of figure drawing - with much greater emphasis on expressive,dynamic  form and design than is usually found in American classical ateliers or the Palette and Chisel.

If museums showed collections of figure drawing by living Americans as much as 17th Century Italians, this piece might well be hanging now at the Art Institute.

Self Portrait

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Here's some work by Marina's father, Viktor Tsvetkov:

 Self portrait

(looks a lot like Marina)

this piece was recently shown at the Russian Museum in Minneapolis