Anne Ben Or - The Return of the Ornament

The word “ornament” refers to a decoration or added motif whose purpose is toemphasize a detail in a building, clothing, or artwork. The source is the Latin wordornamentum, meaning “decoration” – a decorative element, usually on a small-scalerelative to the entire piece. Ornamentation has been widespread since the dawn ofhistory, appearing in a broad range of arts such as architecture, pottery, painting,jewelry, textiles, furniture, and more.

An ornament can be a narrow patterned band on solid-colored clothing, such as awhite blouse on which only the collar and cuffs have a printed or embroidered patternon them, or the “panels” painted on 17 th century Dutch Delftware, attached to the wallin a horizontal row to ornament the entirely white wall.

In 1893, Alois Riegl published his book Problems of Style: Foundations for a Historyof Ornament which made the history of the ornament into an academic disciplinewhich could be researched. As art historian Gideon Ofrat wrote, “It is possible thatthe ornament is the initial, earliest basic element of every design of beauty in thehistory of humanity, and therefore, the nucleus of art, as well. Since the dawn ofcivilization…all people have attempted to decorate, elaborate, add anaccompaniment of charm to their subject, whether by printing geometric forms orprinting organic forms derived from flora and fauna” (“Ornamentation andDecoration,” Gideon Ofrat’s Storeroom, 2016, [https://gideonofrat.wordpress.com]).

During the second half of the 19 th century, outstanding artists and new artmovements reinforced the place of the ornament in the arts, such as the Arts andCrafts movement in England (founded by William Morris and others), Americandesigner Louis Comfort Tiffany, and more. In Israeli art, ornamentation began to beused in the early 20 th century, and was used extensively by the artists of the BezalelSchool of Arts and Crafts, (founded by Prof. Boris Schatz in 1906). Artists such asZe’ev Raban and Ephraim Moses Lilien were influenced by the Jugendstil (theGerman version of Art Nouveau) and the similar Liberty style, the British version,which were imported from Europe.

In traditional painting, the ornament was pushed to the margins of the picture – thetapestry on the wall behind the figure/s, the edges of the tablecloth, floor tiles at thelower section of the painting, and the like. Towards the end of the 19 th century,interest in the ornament arose. Artists emphasized ornaments and sometimes treatedthem with importance equal to the main motif of the painting. In works by artists suchas Vincent Van Gogh, whose Portrait of Mme Roulin (better known as The Cradle);Paul Gaugin (Self-portrait with a Portrait of Emile Bernard); Pierre Bonnard; EdouardVuillard (The Blue Sleeve and many other paintings); Gustav Klimt, Henri Matisseand Pablo Picasso, the ornament was given new life. Suddenly it seemed that theprinted flowers on the tapestry on the far wall, flowers on a tablecloth, and pseudo-Byzantine decorations in gold (Klimt, Portrait of Adela Bloch-Bauer, Judith, andothers) – threaten to take over the entire painting.

 At later stages, the ornament was pushed aside in favor of abstraction andafterwards in conceptual art. However, despite major trends, there were alwaysartists who became interested in ornament and made use of ornamentation. Forexample, Arie Aroch made a series of paintings called “Ornament and Profile.” AriehLubin was inspired by Muslim arabesques, and Henry Shlezniak and Tzibi Gevaplayed with the idea of the ornament in their works. It seems that at present there is acertain revival of interest in the ornament in international art – we need only tomention contemporary American Nigerian artist Kehinde Wiley.

What essentially happens when the ornament begins to take over the entire artwork,or at least to become dominant in it?

In the oeuvre of Israeli (Belgian-born) painter Anne Ben-Or, there are two types ofornaments: the painted ornament (on tiles, on a dress, as a pattern on a curtain ortapestry) and the pasted ornament (collage). At times, there is an evident“correspondence” between her paintings and great masters who preceded her andinfluenced her: in Ben-Or’s Sleep of Reason, there is a certain similarity between thedesign of the figure in Francisco Goya’s etching of 1799 (The Sleep of ReasonProduces Monsters), while the symbiosis between the tablecloth and the pattern onthe tapestry can remind us of Matisse’s Red Room with its ornaments on the tablecovering and the tapestry on the background wall.

Another one of her paintings, Swan and Ghost comprises four different elements: thewhite swan (homage to the Threatened Swan by forgotten 17 th century Dutch painterJan Asselijn); the figure of a Victorian woman (in the center); a tapestry of birds, anda ghost hovering above, (which is coincidentally that of the exhibition curator). The“ghost” corresponds with the artistic photographers (who were mostly English) fromthe late 19 th century and the early 20 th century. The self-defined “Spiritualists”attempted to “prove” (fraudulently, of course, through the technique ofphotomontage) the existence of the souls of their departed loved ones whosupposedly continue to hover around us and accompany us wherever we go.

It seems that in the painting Modigliani Woman we don’t have to look far to find thesource of inspiration. In Angels without Wings, as well, there is an evidentassociation between the position of the two figures and the two cute cherubic angelsfrom the famous religious painting The Sistine Madonna by Italian Renaissancepainter Raphael. Woman with Repeated Circles can evoke in our collective memorythe unforgettable scene from Charlie Chaplin’s film Modern Times, in which the gearsof modern mechanization threaten the sanity of the “little man.” Le ChapeuMerveilleux evokes The Straw Hat by famous 17 th century Flemish painter Peter PaulRubens, from the country which is also Anne Ben-Or’s birthplace. One of Rubens’smost splendid paintings, it is the portrait of his future sister-in-law SusannaFourment-Lunden, fondly nicknamed The Straw Hat by 18 th century British painterJoshua Reynolds although it is made from felt and decorated with a peacock feather,with not a straw in sight…therefore, it seems that Anne prefers to name the hat wornby the young woman in her painting for its magical qualities without specifying thematerials from which it was made.

 In the painting Beyond the Fence as well we can find correspondences, quotations,and homages: the left figure among the three women is reminiscent of the position ofthe head tilted to the back in Picasso’s painting Two Women Running on the Beach.In contrast, Behind the Fence is the title of a novella by H.N. Bialik, engaged in theforbidden love between Noach, the only son of a Jewish family who settled in thetown, and Marinka, the orphan taken in by the non-Jewish neighbor (“The Shiksa”),who lived behind the fence. The fence in the story separates not only a pair of lovers,but also their two different worlds. Nature, the beauty, the open spaces and thetempting fruit always found in the yard of the forbidden neighbor, behind the fence. Itis not inconceivable that this is also a hint about the twists and turns of Anne Ben-Or’s own complicated interesting life.

In the artist’s own words: “The exhibition comprises mixed-technique works: collageof printed fabrics and wrapping paper integrated with oil paintings. I enjoyed theopportunity to create harmony with this unconventional combination of materials. Infact, I actually used printed fabrics as if they were paint from the tube. I wanted toexperiment with overload and mixture of elements alien to each other, placed on thesame surface, seemingly without logic, which – different from the type of painting onwhich I was educated since I began painting. I take diverse materials and attempt tofind a connection between them, thus providing form to my feelings.”

It is worthwhile to trace the process that Anne Ben-Or underwent over the past twoyears: if at the beginning, the ornaments were pushed to the margins, and werepainted by hand, slowly they floated up to the surface, becoming more and moredominant in the painting, and actually take it over. When Anne began to integrateprinted ornaments (especially different style fabrics) using the collage technique, theprocess is interesting and the results are breathtaking.

 Curator: Dr. Doron J. Lurie