About
Appreciations
The death of a true friend and great artist is indeed saddening, but Robert Nadler is not a man we remember with sadness. What I remember is his laughter, his sense of humour, his somewhat sarcastic look and the endless joy of his personality. He stood head and shoulders above many, an intellect with boundless curiosity. If he bequeathed us anything, it was to laugh, smile, and laugh again.
Every one of Nadler's works is an analogy for an open window onto the world. Every one of them invites us on a journey of colour, light and form; every one creates a world, makes us smile, raises an eyebrow; every one tells a story even before its words take shape in the narrator's mind (and those words are the product of the personal and special view of someone who met the artist by chance).
Robert Nadler's drawings are beyond words, they are a world which has its own laws, a world which is its own creation. Their source might be the world of shapes we know, from the smallest animal to the largest, but if the drawing knows their way of life, the structure of their bodies and has internalised them, under Nadler's hand the impossible is created. We find that wonderful dialogue that is far beyond humanization, far beyond a different representation – it is a world of imagined reality.
Yoav Dagon, Herzliya Museum of Art director and curator, 2001
An architect, painter, illustrator, caricaturist, storyteller, can perhaps be considered, like the Renaissance artist, as one whose creative boundaries are ever-open in all directions. Despite the architectural creation which occupied him so productively for so many years, Nadler needed to express himself in freer forms - in painting, drawing and illustration, but he kept this aspect of his creation out of the public eye. By the time he came to Israel in 1970, his illustrations had already charmed the pages and readers of several books from well-known publishing houses in the US. But here he had to build his creating personality anew, little by little, as he found his way in Israeli society, its images, its landscapes, its people. The first characteristic of Nadler's work is his virtuoso ability in drawing. The pencil, the fountain pen or pen and ink, the brush dipped in the water colours that waft so easily over the paper and create, line after line, compositions that are richly informative while showing us a world of shapes and forms whose roots can only be in his fertile imagination. Then there was his astonishing ability to understand the soul of man and to give it expression in his drawings. Thus we see images which he culled from his immediate surroundings - friends, family, or simply people he selected from his daily life. He could always transmit the character line with precision, make it the "leading" line in a sketch, blurring the distinction between the drawing and the psychological portrait of his subject. Yet another characteristic comes from his vast knowledge of the mysteries of the world of animals. Nadler was a man of tireless curiosity, and we can see in his works that he was well acquainted with the principles of avian flight long before the seagull took to the air on his page.
Yoav Dagon, Herzliya Museum of Art director and curator, 1999
Four principal stations in Nadler's journey shaped his personality and his artistic imprint;
Alexandria, the meeting place of restrained west with the bustling east, the U.S.A. and the visual might of modern architecture; Europe with its architectural settings, detailed urban landscapes inspired by the Renaissance, and Israel, which returns him to a different Middle East, one that awakens in him a yearning for a more poetic past.
A riot of colours, sounds and smells. A meeting of restrained west with variegated, bustling, noisy east.
Alexandria is the first stop on Robert Nadler's journey towards the shapes that have no borders. A spark of mischief lights up in the eyes of the child, and his inquisitive stare searches within the labyrinthine souls of the guests at a tea party, the delicate, glistening tea cups, the red turbans, the ants from the desert, the waves breaking on the shores of the first metropolis. Later, when recreating the city, Nadler's stare is one of loving nostalgia mixed with that same merciless criticism that enables him to create his personal world, his imprint, with such ease, such control.
New York, the next stop on the journey, opens new horizons for Nadler, and the skyscrapers which threaten that horizon quickly become rows of teeth in the jaws of a sleeping crocodile. Sweet revenge for an artist who found in that animal an ally worthy of trust.
Europe adds yet another dimension to his work, and its influence can be seen in the architectural sets that enrich the backdrop to the tragicomedy taking place centre stage. Urban landscapes rich in detail place the story in a specific time, yet reinforce the feeling of the absurd that arises from their protagonists: bored kings and generals starring in a story detached from historical time.
The journey takes Nadler to Israel, and even as he flies over identifiable landscapes they find their way inevitably into the pages of his sketchbook and onto his canvases. We see in them all the longing for a world controlled by a different logic.
Beyond his geographical journey and its influences, what is important in Nadler's work is that he breaks through those geographical boundaries and is able to create, out of his many experiences, a world richer than himself in which we, observing, are invited to share.
Yoav Dagon, Herzliya Museum of Art director and curator, 1998
Its beginnings can be traced back to his childhood in Alexandria, Egypt, where the first seeds of memories were sown, memories which became the medium on which his art developed and grew. His parents' home, his immediate environs, and later the city, were the starting point for the journeys of discovery of a sensitive child, eager to learn - his never-ending curiosity was one of the salient
facts of his personality. He started out to "conquer the world" on his bicycle, absorbing the sights and experiences from which he would later create the works of his imagination.
His love of animals often brought him to the zoo, but unlike many other children of his age, he internalized the force of his meeting with the animals, intensified it and created, years later, the look and the special mien which is so typical of the way in which he looked at the world around him.
You could say that the art of Robert Nadler rests on three bases: an ability to observe, differentiate and learn, and these three together are reflected in each of the subjects he approached. The many landscapes he left behind (be they rural or richly detailed urban ones), the drawing of his memories, the portraits or the images, the numerous caricatures or the drawings of animals.
The artist's sense of humor, his critical eye, give his works yet another dimension, one that is not of the animal world - the smile. The smile comes from the amused look of the observer and is transferred to the drawing itself, to the ostensibly silent animal created from the lines of the drawing or from the patches of paint, in the action of personification that is taking place. Robert Nadler is a master at bringing out the human aspect in any situation with accuracy and sensitivity. He translates the world that he creates for us into human situations, thereby taking another step beyond the desire to translate a reality into the language of painting. His paintings are a world unto themselves, a world that touches on the world of the fable, but unlike those of Aesop, Krilov or La Fontaine. Robert Nadler's fables are a reflection only of his imagination, part of the personal mythology which built up ever so slowly to create a living picture. And it is this rich living picture, which moves from realism to beyond, which gives the animal that special smile.
Yoav Dagon, Herzliya Museum of Art director and curator, 2001
Robert enjoyed words and used language lovingly: but his fullest expression was, most certainly, in his art. His eyes looked outward, but his gaze was inward as he touched pencil or pen or brush to paper or canvas. What Robert saw fired imagination? He thrilled to the world of the visible, but was most attracted to children and animals. His special vision derived from an uncanny ability to penetrate to the core of his subject. His artistic outpouring- could sit at a restaurant table and with razor-swift strokes do a sketch in seconds- was charged with immense gusto, fierce honesty, and biting satire. Exuberantly, unstintingly- at times uproariously- he gave the wonder, awe, mystery, and absurdity of the world to the viewer. He knew how to laugh at the world, including himself. And he did it with humility.
Chayim Zeldis 1998
Art Critics
Architect, painter, writer, dreamer
Herzliya Museum
The exhibition in memory of Robert Nadler lets us peek into the inner world of one of the more complex artists who lived among us
This modest commemorative exhibition of the works of Robert Nadler allows us to see just a small part of Nadler's unusual personality – an artist of virtuoso talent in drawing and painting, a creative architect, a writer with an inner world rich in images, an inquisitive mind and a very special humour. Nadler, who died about a year ago, was an architect who was once head of the planning and design department at a large firm of architects in the U.S.A., where he worked with Henry Moore on the design of several buildings, such as the Hirschhorn Museum in Washington, office buildings, urban complexes, factories and other projects. Commissioned by former president Lyndon Johnson, Nadler integrated a copy of the Oval Office into Johnson's library building in Texas, and again at Johnson's request, drew some pastels which hung on the walls of the White House and in New York's town hall.
Nadler's drawings in the Herzliya Museum reveal an artist whose exceptional talent enabled him to express what he wanted to say. He drew in charcoal and pastels and ink, painted in water-colours and oils, and was a master in etching. Imaginative and surrealistic nuances star in many of his works. Nadler also had a sense of humour that is reflected in his caricatures, that were published in newspapers and magazines in the U.S.A. and here in Israel.
Nadler also illustrated books for well-known American publishers, and in Israel he worked with Keter, Hakibbutz Hameuchad, Am Oved, Kenneret and others.
In an interview for Al Hasharon about ten years ago, Nadler said that coming to Israel in 1969 was a kind of professional suicide for him, but that didn't change his Zionist worldview.
Nadler's parents were Russian and Romanian, and had immigrated to Palestine only to be deported by the Turks. They went to Egypt, where Nadler was born. In 1948 the family moved to the U.S.A.
In recent years, Nadler had tried to fight the massive construction projects that were destroying Herzliya's shoreline. He proposed various architectural projects to the municipality, but the bureaucratic fight was not for him. Ironically, his application for membership of the Artists Association in 1970 was turned down – he was told that his work does not meet the criteria. Nevertheless, he held several one-man exhibitions and was much admired by others in the profession.
In preparing this exhibition, his widow, Tamar, started organizing a catalogue of the hundreds of paintings and drawings that had accumulated in his workroom, and she published one of the children's books he wrote and illustrated – The King and the Shadow. And with the exhibition there is a folder of reproductions of oil paintings, water-colours, etchings, caricatures and an architectural drawing. We must hope for a more comprehensive retrospective of Nadler's work in the future, one that will reflect the multifaceted talents of this special man who lived here among us.
Orit Lotringer
21/8/1998
What is so special in the work of Robert Nadler?
Nadler's paintings are completenesses, an integration of the many and diverse experiences of his life, of what the eye discerns, the heart feels and the brain remembers. He speaks of himself though landscapes, people, animals, buildings, trees, cities, streets and the sea, in a special, plastic-humoristic way with a richness of lines, colours and countless hues of light and dark down to the last detail. "Many seem as if they are one line, but in fact, every line consists of segments, each different from the other, which together create an illusion of movement."
He loves life, and is constantly examining it. The intense light of the Mediterranean and the wealth of colours, the tall cities of America with its roads and bridges and neon lights, staid Europe, rough-edged Israel.
He senses the absurd in life yet does not become a nihilist – nor any other "ist" for that matter. In his eyes, the world is more fantastic that realistic, and the effort goes into giving form to the truth of what his eye sees, translated into senses. So Paris becomes rounded, Tel Aviv is deep blue, and a sea of purple light washes between the skyscrapers of Boston.
Many places and experiences are reflected in Nadler's paintings: Egypt, Europe, America, Israel, people, wars, fears, dreams, humour, naiveté. He was an architect who fought the laws of perspective, and a man of boundless joie de vivre.
Robert Nadler was born in Alexandria, Egypt, in 1934, when Egypt was more open to European influence and its population was a human mosaic of religions and cultures. In his childhood, Nadler made several visits to Europe and Palestine, and later he moved to the U.S.A. with his family.
While still a young man, he chose a double profession: artist and architect. His Pennsylvania high school catered for the plastic arts, and Nadler won prizes in local competitions. He completed his degree in architecture and art at Pennsylvania University, where the art department was strongly influenced at the time by Bauhaus. While studying, he also worked on furniture design under the supervision of top designer George Nakashima.
Abstract was the name of the game at that time, and Nadler, unimpressed, was "compelled" to teach himself. The best east coast museums were his teachers. His plastic-humorous vision responded quickly to the caricatures that appeared in the newspapers and group exhibitions.
For two years he was a soldier in the U.S. army, making animated films and also studying drawing in New York and art theory at Long Island University. After his discharge, he moved to Paris for three years, working as an architect and continuing his drawing and painting studies.
Another year was spent in London, where his second home was its many museums, after which he returned to New York to work in a well-known firm of architects. Over the years he became acquainted with famous artists such as Dubuffet, Noguchi, Calder and Henry Moore.
Among his works during this period were some pastels commissioned by President Lyndon Johnson for his library in Austin, Texas, a series of caricatures for various congresses, some of which were exhibited in New York's Town Hall, and free illustrations published by distinguished publishing houses in New York, London and Geneva.
In 1969 Nadler moved to Israel with his wife and children, and there too he continued life as an architect and an artist. He published books of caricatures and drawings, and had several exhibitions of drawings and water colours.
When a man lives in many cultures there is a danger he will become distanced, looking on from the sidelines. Nadler responded differently. His familiarity with different parts of the world created a "double view" in him, that allowed him to become involved yet stand aside, imbued love yet produced that slightest of slight ironic smiles – a constant experiencing of inside and outside at the same time, which can be seen in his paintings, often in the self-same painting. For example, his painting of the interior of a northern European house with a typical view of New York from the window, or of two women in a room in almost Vermeerian style, where the view from window is of old Jaffa.
This involvement / distance gave birth to paintings in which personal materials and images from the artist's private life are embedded, yet the viewer needs no translation. He can find the meanings in them for himself, because they express a universal truth.
One example of this is a painting called "Reunion"– a group of people known to the artist, at an event which is very particular for him. The viewer immediately grasps the atmosphere of expectation for something undefined. The people are standing together, but there is no connection between them, not even eye contact. This disassociation and unexplained anticipation speak to everyone in the modern world, and the title of the painting adds an ironic dimension.
There is another double in Robert Nadler: since the beginning of his professional life he has walked in two directions – architecture and art. They have much in common, yet struggle with each other, and these tensions can be found in his paintings.
There is the deliberate distortion of perspective, as if he were sticking his tongue out at the restrictive laws of architecture, alongside an attempt to express, through the painting, the spatial vision of inside and out, up and down, at different times of the day and as different qualities of light and shade.
Many of Nadler's paintings are populated by animals (but not one predator among them) – rhinoceroses, birds and countless sheep and goats. Sometimes the peacock's face will be that of the goat, the man's face that of the sheep. The riddle of the horns pulls him as an artist and examiner of nature.
The rhino is a fighter, but is also in danger of extinction, and Nadler seems to be trying to eternalize them in his works. There are paintings in which animals float above their cages after Nadler has set them free with his brush. The animals also carry human messages, like the shell of the tortoise, an expression of fear, which becomes the protective helmet of the soldier and a topographical map of the faces of man. With birds he tries to capture movement in flight and in the roundness of the feathers.
The most noteworthy and warming characteristic of Nadler's paintings is the wealth and intensity of colours. If there be a "template" that left its mark during the childhood of this man, who has lived in so many worlds, it is revealed in colour. "The very first picture of the world that is absorbed directly in childhood, is never obliterated." The first pictures he saw were lit by the shining sun of the Mediterranean, and were an intense mix of the strong colours to be seen in Alexandria.
Over the years, his eye learned to discern between hues and shades of hues or light and colour in different parts of the world, at different hours of the day and the night, during the changing of the seasons – and all these he seeks out in his paintings.
"Paintings are not a matter of chance," says Nadler. "Things have to be seen in movement. All kinds of things are happening at the same time in a landscape, a place, a face, my emotions, which change constantly, and I try to catch that by using detail and tiny segments, brush strokes and shades of colour, and freeze it in the painting."
"I never paint outside," he confesses. "Everything is inside my head, and one line gives rise to another, one colour another, and it's as if I'm following them." When he works, he shuts himself off from every external stimulus or human reaction, and takes care not to "awaken” until the painting stops dreaming itself onto the canvas.
There's no kosher and tref in art. There's good art and there's bad art. There were many who fought not so long ago for what was called "abstract" art , but the abstract is not a validation for modernism and is no safe haven from mediocrity. In a period when innovation for its own sake has become a kind of symbol for originality and modernism, an artist needs a great deal of courage and daring to refuse to allow himself to be swept along in the current, to remain true to himself, because originality comes, in fact, from the successful effort, albeit almost an unconscious one, of an artist to be honest, to be true.
For Robert Nadler, being true to himself means faithfully describing what is dear to his heart, honestly and with love. This is what makes his paintings and drawings, whether oil, water colour, ink or charcoal, an emotion-filled human and artistic testimony.
Noa Ophir
Ha aretz 10/1985
By the Artist
Born in Alexandria, Egypt, 1934.
Mother from Tashkent, Russia. Father from Galatz, Rumania.
My father owned a well-known candy factory in Alexandria, together with his two brothers.
We lived a comfortable life in the outskirts of the city. We were well attended, as was the custom there, with housekeeper, servants, cook, gardener, chauffeur and Swiss governess.
Attended a British School, the Victoria College, as one of their choice mediocre pupils and as such had to be assisted in the evenings by a long string of tutors. French, Arabic, Mathematics, Piano, etc.
After my elder brother came home with a black eye, a boxing instructor was added.
When we attempted to hang the little blond Math tutor in the garden, he left, and my arithmetic never recovered.
We used to travel to Europe for two or three months every summer and during the war years to Mandate Palestine. Then we used to receive soldiers at home and at gardens parties. There were South Africans, French, New Zealanders, Maories etc. I remember marveling at the heel-clicking-hand-kissing Polish doctors from the Anders Third Army. Once a huge Briton named George, with a blown off thumb hid behind the curtains of the dining room in the vain hope of being overlooked by his commander at going-back-to the-front time.
Our school was turned into a military hospital and we studied in an abandoned Casino by the seashore: San Stefano. There I had an Arabic teacher, a sheikh, who used to sit cross-legged on a chair massaging his bare toes when not fully asleep. Our duties consisted in endlessly recopying a few lines which we would bring to him for inspection. He would cross them out methodically to prevent us from resubmitting them and in the event that they would be particularly sloppy he would throw the offending copybook with marvelous skill over a partition into the next classroom.
Since the Axis Powers insisted in bombing only at night the school to my dismay stayed open most of the time.
I had two great loves at that time in this solitary existence: drawing and bicycling to countryside and deserted shores. At that time I decided to become a painter, and since I realized that this was not respectable enough, I would also become an architect. In these two aims, I have never waivered.
We all got tourist visas to the U.S.A during the upheavals against King Farouk and within a week or two we were gone from that world.