The interviewers quoted Gerhard Richter: “my concern is never art, but always what art can be used for.” Then they asked Chen Bachar what he thinks art is for today.
His answer ran beside The Clown, a small oil portrait that does what he describes: it stops you, and it does not leave you indifferent.
The Clown · Oil on canvas · 40×30 cm – View the artwork
The question
As you have remarked in your artist's statement, you use human universal channel to enter peace and connect with great love. As Gerhard Richter once remarked, "my concern is never art, but always what art can be used for": what is your opinion about the functional aspect of Art in the contemporary age?
ARTiculAction Art Review – Josh Ryder & Barbara Scott
In Chen's words
Someone said that art is the soul of our society, I do not remember who said it, but I believe it with all my heart. Art is not valued by society today in a sensible way. I see a world where those who let out their soul and expose it to criticism are people who should be most appreciated. What does not happen now for the most part.
I appreciate all the kind of art that does not come to harm the world or its viewers. It's no problem to shock the audience, I think it is a real art if it makes you stop, wonder, do, change something in yourself, that excite you to tears, that connects you to other places in your soul, art does not leave you indifferent and doesn't hurt you.
Art sends a message even if it is abstract, I believe that art should be communicative. Art that transfer's a sense of authenticity. The constant search of artists to leave a message, or mark in the world will always be there. I am in favor of some more searching, experimenting, mind opening of new inner and outer worlds. To Excite, that is why I am in this world – excite and excitement.
I highly admire Contemporary Art and as the digital era evolves I'm attracted more and more towards past techniques. For example, work in tempera, that really brought me back to past lives how they use to cook and prepare the colors used, it was very exciting for me.
Chen Bachar
About the work
The Clown is a close-up of a man with a red clown nose and blue suspenders, his gaze turned away from the viewer. The costume says comedy and the face says something else. That gap is the kind of feeling Chen wants art to leave behind.
His mention of tempera is worth noticing: an artist who also works digitally, choosing to mix pigments the way painters did centuries ago. Some of those tempera works are in the gallery.
More from the interview
- Chen Bachar Interview: Ten Questions from ARTiculAction Art Review
- Steve Jobs: Why the Portrait Is Split Across Two Canvases
- John Lennon: A Pop-Art Portrait Built on Colour Psychology
- Venice and the Choice of Materials: Oil, Watercolour, Spices and Sand
- Amy Winehouse: Between Speaking to the Audience and Staying Mysterious
- Mama Rachel and a Late Start: From Programmer to Painter