I am considered a painter who is out of the ordinary. I have developed an original, sophisticated technique, using rich and natural materials. I have built a deep, personal, abstract artistic language, contemporary without following the trends. My particular strength is the pictorial quality and the professionalism of my painting.
Through my painting, I express my sensibility with regard to the current world. I hope to touch the interiority of the viewer, to spark a reaction. Every picture is a message which offers the possibility of an inner experience. To paint is thus a form of my moral involvement in the world.
1. Please, Mr Feldmann, tell us what is art for you?
Art is communication, contact with the world. Art is the ability to convey a message that has meaning, human, moral and spiritual value. This is the essence of my artistic work on the theme of creation: to allow the viewer an inner experience.
This personal experience is not imposed, but only suggested. It depends for each one of his interpretation, his understanding of the message according to his own spiritual experiences. This complete freedom of the viewer, who can perceive only colors and matter, comes from abstraction.
It is in my nature not to impose on the other his behavior, his personal connection with the world. I have therefore voluntarily built a communication language - artistic, abstract, deep and complex - which respects this freedom and does not impose a limited understanding of my message. The experience of interiority is then all the more extensive and profound.
My artistic language is therefore essentially connected to abstraction. Abstraction has imposed itself on me. It corresponds to my inner being and allows me to communicate from inner self to inner self, from depth to depth.
Abstraction allows interiority because it speaks a language of interiority inside the painting.
2. How closely do these ideas relate to your creative process and the actual act of creating the art itself?
My painting is essentially a pictorial translation of a reflection, of a meditation on the theme of nature, of the meaning of creation. The theme of creation, of nature, has a considerable influence on my pictorial work. It is even the basis of it.
I make my own paint myself by mixing only natural materials: best quality natural pigments from Sennelier, a color dealer in Paris since 1887, oil, sand, gravel, gold, etc…
My technique is very sophisticated, complex, as is my artistic, abstract and contemporary language, so that they live up to the message I wish to express.
Yet I do not artificially tamper with the materials I use. They remain natural, unprocessed. These materials are also living and changing over time. In the painting, they reveal the nature of which they are elements.
The painting thus fully expresses the idea of creation, for it is itself an element of nature. The relation to the painting is thereby an experience of relation to nature itself.
The abstraction of language amazingly allows a relationship to nature, it is of course abstract, but stronger than if the representation were realistic. Witness “Les Nymphéas”, abstract works, the outcome of Monet’s impressionist research, or even some of Kandinsky’s paintings during his transition from figurative to abstraction.
3. Tell us about any personal experiences that have affected your artwork and/or process:
I had the opportunity to study with two great artists: famous sculptor Etienne Martin who welcomed me in his workshop at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris; my uncle, surrealist painter Marcel Didi, father of the famous philosopher and art historian Georges Didi-Huberman.
Both trained me, passed on the professionalism of their work to me: the precision of the technical apprenticeship, the exigency of the artistic quality, the refusal of any ease. They also encouraged me in my vocation as an artist.
More profoundly, they introduced me to the contemporary artistic language. The art of painting respects rules, rules of composition, colors, perspective, etc. … Abstract art has of course fewer rules than the representational painting, but its rules, more concealed, do however exist. From these common rules, every artist develops a language of their own and which itself obeys its own personal rules, like the grammar of a language. I had the fortune to observe Marcel Didi working in his workshop, to see him develop his language on the canvas. It is a rare privilege, because artists prefer to keep the fruit of hours, or years, of searches, secret to themselves. It was for me the key to constructing my own language. I owe them a lot.
My choice to live in Israel has had a considerable impact on the evolution of my painting.
I left, gave up Paris, international arts center, meeting place of artists, expression of trends and artistic movements. I chose to live in Israel and to paint in Galilee, in the countryside, in the nature of mountains, far from everything, including Israeli art centers in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem. This very strong choice allowed me to develop a completely original artistic language. It is completely contemporary, with a contemporary technique, but very different from the current way of painting. My painting is of today, but outside the trends. It is personal, authentic, free.
4. What cultural and/or historical influences, if any, have affected your artwork and/or process?
In Paris, following my family education, for a long time I studied the painting of the big artists in museums and exhibitions.
I spent a great deal of time to look, to study, to discover, to understand, to pervade me. I have considerable knowledge of painting and the history of painting. I have, in me, more than a picture gallery, an intimate knowledge of our artistic heritage.
My artistic language is resolutely contemporary; one can find the influence of big waves of the 20th century there.
Surrealism, on its search above reality. I maintain an interior relation with nature, the landscapes, the mountains. I take the forms of nature, the landscapes, and I give them a new form, outside reality. I introduce them into my artistic language.
Expressionism, in the strength of its impact. I use a large quantity of paint, in numerous layers, for every picture. And the materials which I use are of high quality. These choices affect my paintings and increase their impact.
Abstraction: I have always been attracted by abstraction. My language is neither realistic, nor decorative, not figurative, nor illustrative. I would even say anti-illustrative. Rothko has influenced me. I love his artistic language, the subtlety of its colors, their intonations, the absence of aggressiveness.
Many artists of the XXth century have influenced me, particularly:
Paul Cézanne through the beginning of the construction of the abstract language.
Kandinsky through his search for the construction of an abstract language emerging from a figurative language.
Matisse has a separate place. I admire the quality, the very high level of quality of his painting, the ease of his compositions and his use of the color.
Paul Klee through his search for a subject matter, for a meaning, and his high quality of painting.
My painting allows whoever looks at it to have an experience of interiority.
My painting does not impose the meaning of this experience, it does not try to convince, it has no aggressiveness. It respects the one who looks at it in their inner freedom. It just offers them the possibility of this experience of interiority.
The artistic language is an international language and the question of interiority, the search for the sense of creation, concern all of humanity. This universal meaning also connects with Judaism, as far as it is a representative of the moral consciousness of the world.
My own spiritual path, in the orthodox Judaism, allows this expression.
5. Which of your work stands out as a highlight, a favorite, or a significant point in your creative growth and development? and why?
Moriah, painted in the 80’s, is the pictorial origin of my relationship with nature, in a period of creation that was distant from it. It marked this passing to nature for me.
Moriah is painted in a completely abstract language. It is nothing but white spots and cracks. Only the ridge line marks the mountain.
Yet the impression of the mountain is extremely strong, imposing.
I was working in a studio in Jerusalem, in the city, on abstract compositions. Later on, I moved my studio to Galilee, in the countryside, with a view of a huge mountain.
My creative process thereby started from Moriah’s pictorial work carried out several years earlier. I have deepened my relationship with nature, and the theme of the mountain has come back many times.
6. What about your art or your artistic process stands out from other artists?
My artistic process is very professional, natural and original.
The techniques which I developed personally are extremely sophisticated and complex. Their professionalism creates the astonishment - the curiosity - and the admiration of other artists.
I use only use natural pigments, certain metallics, very expensive and of very high quality, from Sennelier (paint dealer in Paris since 1887). I make my paint myself, by mixing pigments with oil and other natural materials such as sand or gold.
My technique and my contemporary language serve a message.
The professionalism and the quality of my artistic process are felt by whoever looks at my paintings. They serve my artistic language, because they give it a better capacity of impact.
I created a very sophisticated, complex and deep contemporary artistic language, so that it is as high as the message which I wish to express.
The evolution of my artistic creation depends on my personal, spiritual and artistic research on the theme of creation and nature. My painting has a very profound contemplative meaning; it reflects my inner life, of which it is the channel of expression.
The development of my artistic language is therefore not under control. It is done by itself, organically, and does not pursue a predetermined goal.
7. If any, what themes (cultural/social/political) are present in your artwork and why?
Painting is one of my personal forms of involvement in relation to the world, the way of expressing my sensibility regarding current events. The involvement of each tells their value. It is not in fame or wealth. It is in their human moral involvement. Some have paid for it with their life. Other people do not feel concerned by the sufferings of their contemporaries.
With painting, I try to bring something to whoever looks at it, to touch his interiority. I express my sensibility in relation to the world to affect his own relation the world. I involve him in a meditation, to obtain an internal reaction. I try to address the most profound depths inside the person. It is a dialogue of interiority with interiority.
I do not paint by thinking of what the person is going to feel by looking at my picture. But, by expressing there what I carry, I know that they are going to be touched by this message.
Painting in itself is a way of expression. Do not to ask me to say with words the content of the particular message which makes that every picture is different. The picture itself is significant. Of course, I am not opposed to commentaries. But, from my point of view, my paintings don’t need any explanation to be understood.
The complexity and the depth of my artistic language, its structure, result from the complexity and the depth of the message which it expresses.
The Jewish studies which I pursue obviously nourish my own interiority, my questioning with regard to the world, and thereby, my artistic creation.
8. Do you have any personal stories or special events that have influenced your life and/or work, or any details that you feel are important to note?
My grandfather is for me a model of involvement in the world. He opposed the rise of Nazism and anti-Semitism in the 30s. Resistant from the very beginning in 1940, he was betrayed and arrested, tortured then shot by the Germans on August 8th, 1941. He paid with this life his commitment to the defence of justice and freedom.
My involvement as an artist partially stems from him. He taught me the real value of a life.
My life is nourished by the in-depth look of my Jewish studies and the contact with the landscapes and the nature of the land of Israel.
I pass on these experiences through a contemporary pictorial language.
9. What has been the most gratifying experience for you as an artist?
During my last exhibition in Jerusalem, I met a man who told me that he was depressed. Each time he was feeling too bad, he came to see my paintings. And, he felt better. This exchange was for me more gratifying than all artistic awards or professional comments.
10. Do you now, or have you ever worked with/belonged to any art organizations, charities, artistic groups, etc.? Please list:
I had created a think tank to deepen the relation between art and Judaism. This group of artists included painters, among them David Rakia, and poets, one of which was the famous Israeli poet Beni Shvili. I gave numerous conferences in this framework, in the center of studies and orthodox culture in Jerusalem. I left this group after various years, by evolving towards a more orthodox Judaism.
For several years I was a member of the association Amnesty International.
11. Has your art ever won any awards?
Recognition has been awarded through the praise of major intellectual figures in Israel, including painter David Rakia and Jerusalem Prize for Literature laureate Beni Shvili. He wrote a poem and an article on my painting.
Several important articles in the Israeli press and of Israeli personalities such as the Rabin Dov Berkovitsh.
During my exhibitions there have been several conferences about my painting given by famous art critics.
Many of my paintings are with private collectors in Paris, Milan, Moscow and more.
12. What obstacles have you encountered in life that have contributed to your creative process?
It is difficult to distinguish or to list the links between the inevitable obstacles in any life and my artistic expression.
13. Please would you give us keywords that you think characterise your art:
Nature, creation,
Contemporary, professional, quality, technique,
language, message, depth, impact,
original, outsider.