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Toward Abstraction: An exploration of the Afro-Syrian Rift in Israel
For the past several years, Anna Dvorak’s work focused almost exclusively on the geologic rift zones of Colorado. Rift zones beguile with their appearance of calm and permanence, yet they are borne of tumult - unleashing pattern, form, structure and intense color in the wake of explosive, almost unimaginable stress on a geologic scale.
In her most recent series of paintings, Toward Abstraction, Anna’s focus shifts to a sometimes subtle, sometimes stark treatment of the Afro-Syrian Rift. Caused by the separation of the African and Arabian tectonic plates, this region is sometimes known as the Great Rift Valley of the Middle East and East Africa. Like her many series of Colorado paintings, this work evidences Anna’s ability to capture the tension and beauty of geologic rift zones. It shows the subtlety of her approach: starting from natural points of reference, but, through a consistent process, layering flows of acrylic across unstained canvas, moving her away from a direct treatment of the subject matter, moving the canvas ever closer to abstraction.
This series of paintings largely follows the Afro-Syrian Rift, drawing inspiration first near the top of the Great Rift Valley, high above the Kinneret (or Sea of Galilee), fed by the Jordan River to its North. More precisely, the Gamla paintings (I, II, and III) evoke the historic site of Gamla (in the present-day Golan Heights). Gamla (named for the historical, mountain top city’s jutting resemblance to the hump of a camel) was recorded by Josephus Flavius, leader of the Jewish rebels before becoming a Roman citizen, as the Northernmost (and second to last) of the four Jewish cities to fall to the Romans during the Jewish-Roman wars.
These paintings, then, also mark an additional layer to Anna’s work. While this series focuses primarily on direct reference to the natural features of Israel’s geologic rift zone, she could not complete these works without also, at least indirectly, reflecting upon and capturing the historic – and current – tension so apparent throughout the region.
The series moves next to the south of the Kinneret, where the Sea of Galilee again meets the Jordan River. The Southern-most point of the Kinneret holds deep historical importance: As, among others, a place of religious pilgrimage, the site of the baptism of Christ, and the first kibbutz established by European Jewish immigrants to Palestine early in the 20th Century. But it has also been, throughout much of history, a region of great social, religious and political conflict.
Anna has captured today’s relative calm of Caesarea with one painting in this series, Caesarea. Along the Mediterranean coast a short distance from the Kinneret and the Afro-Syrian Rift, are the archaeological remains of city of Ceasarea. Built by Herod the Great between 25-13 BC to honor the Roman emperor, Caesarea is recorded by Josephus Flavius as the site of the massacre of Jews, which led to the Jewish rebellion and the ensuing Roman war. As one of the most important historic ports in this region of the Mediterranean, Caesarea saw much conflict as the historic site of the rule of Pontius Pilate, the place of imprisonment of the Apostle Paul, the capital of Palestine following the Roman razing of Jerusalem, a site of Persian conquest, and a focal point (particularly for ocean passage) during the Christian-Muslim battles of the Crusades.
The Afro-Syrian Rift is not only a geologic border, but, in many respects, remains a political border as well. In the mid-20th Century, three countries historically shared a common border on the Kinneret: Israel, Syria and Jordan. Another disputed border closely parallels this Northern portion of the Afro-Syrian Rift: that of Palestine and Israel. One painting in the series, Ein Gedi (oasis), directly references the Green Line, which, formally, is of a political nature: The 1949 Armistice line established at the close of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, apparently drawn via a green pencil during armistice negotiations. (The Arab states involved in the conflict were Syria, Jordan, and Egypt.) Aerial photographs reflecting the impact of irrigation and rain patterns on the flora at the Israeli-Palestinian border illustrate the intense physicality of the Green Line as well: In many areas it is quite literally green on one side, arid on the other.
This contrast between the aridity and fecundity of the region can be seen in other works within the show, but is most apparent in the painting Ein Gedi (oasis), inspired by the beauty and near-surrealism of the naturally occurring oasis that borders the Northwestern region of the Dead Sea. The fabled beauty of the oasis Ein Gedi, referenced even in the Song of Songs, holds true today – and is a testament to the natural wonder and beauty of geologic rift regions.
To be sure, Anna’s approach in Ein Gedi also begins to capture the stark beauty of the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is, in many respects, the epicenter of the Afro-Syrian Rift (and is the lowest point on the Earth’s surface). The starkness and fluidity is evoked more directly – and bluntly – in the works Dead Sea (Ein Gedi) and Dead Sea.
Further South along the Dead Sea, Anna’s series turns to the historic plateau Masada, built high above the Dead Sea (originally as the summer home and fortress of Herod the Great). Masada, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is best known as the site of the last of the four Jewish cities to fall to the Romans during the Jewish-Roman wars (according to Josephus Flavius). Although the geological and historical record is not clear, some historians believe the Romans enslaved Jews to build a massive rampart up to the gates of Masada along the Eastern border of the high-cliffed plateau, so that the Romans could breach Masada’s gates to achieve final victory in the Jewish-Roman war. Flavius Josephus records that the Jews atop Masada drew lots on the eave of the breach, dictating which of the men would take the lives of the other residents, leaving only one last individual to commit suicide in defiance of Jewish law – and in defiance of the Romans.
The paintings Masada (east) and Masada (north) aptly capture the harshness and brutality of the landscape around and atop Masada. They only begin, however, to alude the harshness and brutality of its history.
The metaphor of layering and sedimentation carries into the final two paintings for the series, Jerulasem I and II. No words can fully convey the complexity of the layers of civilization that comprise the city of Jerusalem –physically, spiritually or politically. It is, in the same moment, a city of incredible majesty and profound tragedy. These final paintings, then, may both reference and, in the same moment, break from the natural tension of the rifts and of the layers. But they assuredly serve as a visual prayer for peace within the region.
This show is dedicated to Ronnie Abbo and Geula Gelberger.