"The Blue Hour 1"
Text by Leïla Simon, art critic, 2020
Reading note
Written in 2020, Leïla Simon’s text accompanies a period of exploration in Abraham Aronovitch’s work. It highlights a moment in which the artist’s pictorial approach takes shape around humanist concerns, a reflection on freedom, and a sustained attention to colour as a bearer of meaning.
Through an analysis of the palette, composition, and the dialogue between figuration and abstraction, the text reveals a painting marked by tension, oscillating between diffuse unease and moments of appeasement. It sheds light on a body of work in progress, anticipating the existential and introspective questions that would later be developed in the series Behind The Obvious.
Critical text
Abraham Aronovitch first introduced his artistic approach through Origin of a Nation, a painting that both reveals and foreshadows the work to come. The palette, dominated by shades of blue, perfectly embodies these beginnings—whether referring to the life of Moses or to the early pictorial foundations of the artist himself.
Titles play a significant role in Aronovitch’s practice, offering keys to interpretation. They frequently address notions of freedom: freedom of expression, freedom under threat, freedom regained, restricted freedom. Love is almost always present, as is the hope that humanity may yet turn away from dangerous paths.
Abraham Aronovitch also pays particular attention to his use of colour, establishing a parallel between chromatic choices and sensory experience. The selection and combination of colours contribute directly to the expressive strength of the paintings. They convey what the artist feels and seeks to share, as his works also materialise his messages. The surface of the canvas is animated by chromatic vibrations as well as by a formal composition oscillating between abstraction and figuration. Aronovitch plays with shadows, flat planes of colour, and opposing movements. At times, the subject seems to dissolve into the material; at others, it emerges from it. Occasionally, the artist incorporates a three-dimensional element into his paintings, extending his reflections further in an effort to articulate his intentions with greater precision.
Depending on the theme explored, the viewer senses either a diffuse anxiety or, conversely, a form of calm. Abraham Aronovitch’s work ultimately invites us into a humanist vision imbued with hope.
1 The “blue hour” is understood here as both the promise of daybreak and a brief moment suspended outside of time and the world—between night and day—a contemplative interval that leaves the imagination free to wander.
See also:
— Chris Cyrille, art critic, "How to figure your face?"
— Francesca Biagi-Chai, psychoanalyst, "An Art that Provokes"