The existential oeuvre of Moshe Gershuni (* 1936 in Tel Aviv) spans a period of over forty years. Uncom­promising and evocative, his prolific production of paintings, drawings, and sculptures has an unmedi­ated quality that is reflected in his working method. Spreading sheets of paper on the ground, he crawls over them, with his bare hands immersed in paint like blood-dripping wounds. Many paintings include historically loaded symbols and handwritten Hebrew passages from Jewish prayers, which turn the bumpy, overflowing surfaces of paint—his seemingly invol­untary, pre-lingual compositions—into a living theat­rical performance, a frenzied ritual. Sensual and con­ceptual, emotional and critical, authentic and well-staged, his works transcend oppositions, infusing his­torical commemoration with the cathartic immediacy of the painterly act. Ausstellung/Exhibition: Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin 12.9.–31.12.2014

Text by: Sarah Breitberg-Semel, Ory Dessau, Udo Kittelmann, Doreet LeVitte Harten