David Reeb
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Acrylic or Israeli helicopter and soldiers with Hebrew alphabet.
At 42, David Reeb is Israel's
"only political artist," in the
words of gallery owner Noemi
Givon.
Many of his pieces are paint-
borders, superimposed on im-
ages including interior scenes
of his studio, the fancy IBM
building in Tel Aviv, and ab-
bin-Arafat White House hand-
are simply geometric games,
shake, show a shift as the peace
process itself has shifted. His
1994 "Jericho Parade" shows
cars and throngs celebrating
Palestinian autonomy.
blocks of brightly colored shapes
or repeating images, like letters
or stylized, staring eyes.
Taken as a whole, the paint-
ed versions of news pho-
tographs, familiar scenes of
stract geometric patterns. A
cheeky piece called "Public In-
stitutions" presents the Tel
conflict between Israeli soldiers
and Palestinians. Some feature
armed, helmeted soldiers and
Palestinian children. Some
show soldiers arresting Pales-
tinians. Others are slightly
Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv's
city hall, and the army head-
quarters located in downtown
Tel Aviv — with three strands
of barbed wire carefully paint-
ed across all three.
political protests, perhaps hop-
ing that someday he'll run out
of subject matter. He also
paints urban landscapes of a
whitewashed Tel Aviv, criss-
crossed with antennas and tele-
more subtle: A series from the
late '80s features the "Green
Line," an outline of Israel
drawn according to its pre-196'7
Mr. Reeb also proves that he
can change with the times.
Works from the past year,
painted after the famous Ra-
phone cables. The scenes are
like the city itself, gritty yet ap-
pealing, far removed from a
tourist's Tel Aviv. Other pieces
He doesn't limit himself to
ings seem to flash one after an-
other, lending the illusion of
channel surfing. At a major ret-
rospective of Mr. Reeb's work
held last summer at the Tel
Aviv Museum of Art, the fast-
paced paintings clicked by, as
if from CNN to a test pattern.
Mr. Reeb manages to balance
between art and protest, pro-
jecting a painful awareness of
his surroundings.