Malka Tsentsiper

This exhibition was a part of "Riga - cultural capital of Europe" events.

Malka Tsentsiper has received winner award of the Moscow Int'l Art Festival "Tradition and Conteporaneity" 2009 that took part in June 2009 in Moscow exhibition hall Manez.

Malka Tsentsiper works in different genres, techniques and materials: creates sculpture, paints landscapes and still life, masterly combining the reality and abstract, using for each one of them a unique artistic language. Although extremely versatile, Malka's painting, graphics and sculpture are dedicated to one big Jewish theme, bringing humor and all-human love to the forefront of her creation.
Her works are full of mighty colored and plastic expression, they sound like powerful chords of life triumph, like the inspiring world-famous "Hava Nagila", with the words "let's rejoice and be happy!".
Malka lives in a country which was brought to life from non-existence. Very likely, that is the reason why her art doesn't convey the sadness which can be heard even in the kind and life-asserting "Hava Nagila".
The metaphoric and slightly ironic concept of the artist's images is based on her childhood memories. Malka was born in Vilnius – the city which was called "northern" or "Lithuanian" Jerusalem, where Jews lived free to follow their own cultural and religious traditions already in 18th and 19th centuries. Even after the WW II the Jewish life in Vilnius was in full swing. The traditional family life-style, its customs, its holidays – all these were part of the artist's life, remain part of her memory and are reflected in her art. The Jewish customs and traditions in the after-war Vilnius were very close to those of the shtetl – small townships of Eastern Europe. For artists and writers the shtetls became the centre of original national culture, the source of a new Jewish art already at the beginning of the 20th century. The quest for a national and artistic self-identification is clearly reflected in literature – from Shalom Aleichem to Bashevis Singer, in numerous theatrical performances, in works of such artists as El Lisitsky, Haim Soutine, Marc Shagal. Artists and writers created an image of the shtetl with its own poetry and expressiveness. They were able to express the long-suffering, mystical and unrestrained national spirit, with its provinciality and pride, daring love for life and sincerity. Before Marc Shagal there was no recognized Jewish artistic tradition. Therefore it is only natural that his paintings, conveying the identity of Jewish people, became inseparable from the image of shtetl in Jewish art, and his innovative art style became a medium on which much of the modern Israeli art is based. Nowadays the shtetls, wiped out in the Holocaust, remain only in the memory of people. They became a symbol of lost eastern European Jewish reality.
While painting this lost world, Malka Tsentsiper is guided by traditions of the great masterpieces of the 20th century. At the same time "her shtetl" – seen through the eyes of a free human being, living in a free state, shines with bright, clear colors, not at all alike the somber palette of her predecessors. For two generations of artists born after the WW II, the memory of shtetl, colored and romanticized as time went by, became a kind of national legend, a folklore, generously flavored with the unrivalled Jewish humor. "Laughter through tears" that is present in the Jewish classics has vanished from modern Jewish art. Through the years is replaced by different kind of laughter: ironic and kind, combining the wisdom of Biblical and Talmudic parables, the sayings of great philosophers, the common sense of tzadics, and the jokes of local wits. Leon Feuchtwanger expressed the essence of the Jewish humor by comparing it to salt which, dissolved in water, is unseen, but its taste is felt straight away. This quality is very typical to Malka's art: humor is everywhere and is inseparable from her works.
Malka creates her own, happy and romanticized world of the Jewish shtetl, revealing before the viewers its different aspects in each new work. On her canvasses weddings are celebrated, and happy people dance to the kleismers' tunes. The perfect musical ear of the artist is felt in the color-and-music rhythm of her paintings. The lack of definite lines, some incompleteness of her paintings leave a feeling of a swirling, dynamic movement and even a kind of "multi-voiced" sound.
The colors of all Malka's paintings are the happy ones, but each new work has its own emotional hue - that might be joy, hope, love, kindness or poetical inspiration. The artist endows each aspect of happiness with its own color. Happiness can be transparent and therefore not easily noticeable, but at other times it splashes with fountains of paint. Unwillingly the viewer finds himself under the magic spell of the streams of color and light, pouring from the canvas.
Malka devotes herself fully to the canvas, colors, clay and forms. The material "charged" by the artist, responds with a powerful stream of energy. Each work is full of passion and temperament – it is felt in each line, in each stroke of brush, in the whole palette.
The paintings and sculpture of Malka Tsentsiper breath life, deal with a great variety of themes, affect different levels of perception. Behind the visible outlines there are hidden idea and mood, and they influence our feelings. Yet on a deeper level – these are associations already appealing to the unconscious. A wide range of creative possibilities finds its realization in new esthetic and plastic forms.
Malka discovers in modern life the "eternal" national images, coming to life again and again thanks to the genetic code, inherited from the ancient predecessors. In her sculpture and paintings the artist avoids any personal traits, anything temporary, any immediate resemblance. Her images can't be pinned down to any particular time or place. She uses unexpected plastic solution: in her sculptures concaved space and transparent emptiness are the essential figurative elements. Malka makes the everyday, even banal themes feel like a historic narrative ethos, emphasizing only on the "root traits" of the image or the event. A long-time married couple ("20 years together") is touching in their sincerity of feeling; a barefoot and timid "Thinker" who couldn't "think" hard enough to earn a fortune, stirs a deep emotion, and short-legged and long-nosed "Dandy" and "Lovelace" look extremely attractive.
Many of Malka's works are autobiographical. The artist avoids a direct resemblance, reproducing mainly an atmosphere of love and intimacy, only too natural after 37 years of a happy marriage.
The main characters of Malka's sculptures and paintings are not really heroes. They are life-loving eccentrics, who don't quite fit the established order. They fly to the skies, they disappear into each other – they are governed only by the storms of their feelings, where attraction of love and friendship is definitely stronger than the gravity. The reality often changes faces, the moments of love and everyday life become a mystic scene: and behold - where a moment ago we saw our contemporaries, now we see their grandmothers and grandfathers. And indeed, each generation re-evaluates the same values, holds the same beliefs and the same doubts – it always was and will always remain.
It is not easy to define the main qualities of the artist's talent. One thing is obvious: Malka Tsentsiper bestows joy upon us, tunes us into happiness and keeps us there. Her works are very different and yet so easily recognizable. The artist follows her own path in art, she is true to herself, to her creative intuition and to her life-long credo.

Olga Vladislavovna Morozova,
Ph.D. in art history,
senior staff associate of the A.S. Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts. Moscow

Malka Tsentsiper was born in Vilnius, Lithuania (fmr. USSR) in 1947. In 1966 immigrated to Israel.
Malka Tsentsiper studied Mathematics in Technion, Haifa (1966 – 1969), and Musicology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1970 – 1973).
After completing her university studies during the next 20 years Malka Tsentsiper worked as computer programmer. At the same time she started her Art studies: first at public courses in the Israeli Museum and at the Center of Arts in Jerusalem followed by studies and practices at private studios of known Israeli artists. About 15 years ago Malka Tsentsiper has left her previous occupation and fully devoted herself to art. Today Malka’s paintings and sculptures are known in Israel and abroad (USA, France, Spain, Mexico, Greece, Germany etc.)
Member - The Professional Visual Artists Association of Israel
Association Internationale des Arts Plastiques (International Association of Art) (aff. UNESCO)

Main Group Exhibitions:
1999 - Paintings, Cultural Center "Riverdale", New York, USA
2000 - Paintings and Sculptures, The Bible Museum, Tel-Aviv, Israel
2003 - Painting, "Fashion" exhibition, Ein-Hod Gallery, Artist village Ein-Hod, Israel
2004 - Salon des Artistes Independants, Paris (incl. catalog)
2005 - Paintings, “Landscapes of Israel” exhibition, The Bible Museum, Tel-Aviv, Israel
Paintings, “Hot Summer” exhibition, Ein-Hod Gallery, Artist village Ein-Hod, Israel
Paintings, 1st Int’l Salon of Small Format, Paris (incl. catalog)
2006 - Sculptures, “Holocaust” exhibition, The Bible Museum, Tel-Aviv, Israel (incl. catalog)
Paintings, “Circus” exhibition, Ein-Hod Gallery, Artist village Ein-Hod, Israel
Paintings, “Untitled” exhibition, Ein-Hod Gallery, Artist village Ein-Hod, Israel
2007 - Paintings, Exhibition Center, Haifa, Israel (incl. catalog)
Paintings, Cultural Center of Modi’in, Israel
2008 - Paintings, “Femina” and 60 Years of State of Israel exhibition, National Art Museum, Clij, Romania
Paintings, 60 Years of State of Israel exhibition, Galerie Z, Paris (60 Years of Israel Art Album)
Paintings, 60 Years of State of Israel exhibition, Beit Asia, Tel-Aviv, Israel
2009 - Paintings, “She and He” exhibition at Beit Amiad Exhibition Hall, Jaffa, Israel (incl. catalog)
Paintings, Jerusalem House of Quality, Jerusalem, Israel (incl. catalog)
Paintings, "Cheval de Sable" Gallery, Paris (The Israeli Artists Book)
Paintings and sculptures, “Baker Street Workshop” Gallery, Jaffa, Israel
June 2009 - Paintings, Art Festival “Tradition and Contemporaneity”, Moscow, Russia (incl. catalog)
Winner of the Festival in the nomination “For unique national originality”
2010 - Paintings, “Secrets” exhibition, Ein-Hod Gallery, Artist village Ein-Hod, Israel
2011 Paintings, “Business Art Salon”, Espace Pierre Carden, Paris, France
2012 Paintings, “Kaleidoscope of Israeli Art”, Museum of Russian Art, Jersey City, NJ, USA
Festival of Naïve Art, Katovitze, Poland
Paintings, Salon d’Automne, Franco-Israeli Autumn Art Salon, Jaffa, Israel
Festival of Naïve Art, Jerusalem, Israel

Main Personal Exhibitions:
2002 - Sculptures, "Ophir" Gallery, Tel-Aviv, Israel
2003 – Paintings and Sculptures , "Amaliya Arbel" Gallery, Tel-Aviv, Israel
Paintings and Sculptures , Ein-Hod Gallery, Artist village Ein-Hod, Israel
2005 - Paintings and Sculptures, ZOA House, Tel-Aviv
2006 - Paintings and Sculptures, City Gallery, Jerusalem, Israel
2007 - Paintings, “Lighthouse” Gallery, Jaffa, Israel
Paintings and Sculptures, Kriger Center of Performing Arts, Haifa, Israel (incl. catalog)
2009 - Paintings and Sculptures, “Purple Gate” Gallery, Ein-Hod Artist Village, Israel
2010 - Paintings, National Art Museum, Minsk, Belarus
Paintings, Mark Shagal Memorial House and Art Center, Vitebsk, Belarus
Number of Exhibitions in Former USSR
2011 - Paintings, Jerusalem Theatre, Jerusalem
2012 - Paintings, Saint-Petersburg, Russia (during Israeli Art Month)
2013 - Paintings, Latvian Museum of Naive Art, Riga, Latvia

Additional:
Participation in a Yearbook “Art in Israel 2004”, v.2
Participation in “60 Years of Israel Art Album”, Tel-Aviv – Paris, 2008
Participation in “The Israeli Artists Book”, Tel-Aviv – Paris, 2009
Participation in “Best of Worldwide Artists” Album, USA, 2010
Represented by Agora Art Gallery, New York, 2004
Represented by “Purple Gate” Gallery, Artist village Ein-Hod, Israel, 2005-2007
Represented by "Cheval de Sable" Gallery, Paris, 2009 - 2011