Tal R, 10/4/16 - SAIC’s Visiting Artists Program Lecture

Tal R was born in Tel Aviv to a Danish mother and Czechoslovakian Jewish father. Raised in Denmark, his childhood was defined by his family’s split identity: the orderly Scandinavian society of his maternal side contrasted with his father’s experience as a Holocaust survivor. Drawing provided Tal a needed escape during childhood. He says, “for me, drawing was the same as dreaming at night: you don’t decide what to dream about; you dream about what you need.” Tal’s self-identification as an outsider, caught between two worlds, fueled a fertile artistic landscape of shifting realities.
The duality of Tal R’s heritage is recognized in his work, which offers sensations both celebratory and sinister. Saturated color is weighted by shadow; café and street scenes, festooned and radiant, are simultaneously claustrophobic and labyrinthine. His subject matter is intentionally easy to describe, but meaning-as in dreams-is enigmatic. Tal R works with a variety of media-collage, sculpture, installation, painting-and intuitively culls imagery from diverse sources. He cites the Yiddish word kolbojnik-“leftovers”-as a loose definition for his process of gathering inspiration. Historical and art historical references abound: threads of expressionism, fauvism, and symbolism run throughout, as do nods to traditional Scandinavian art, art nouveau, and outsider or children’s art.
Presented in partnership with SAIC’s Department of Painting and Drawing