Hadassa Goldvicht hosts Shimon Pinto 

In the vicinity of the tomb of Jonathan ben Uzziel in Amuka, one finds trees on the branches of which headscarves were tied by those seeking a match /as a segula for getting married. The act of tying creates a view of fabrics and headscarves in colorful bloom.

The ties themselves have a presence of prayer and in the painting of Shimon Pinto the tied fabrics and headscarves manifest the primitivist childlike naivety, which shifts between theTzadikim tombs and the peppers his mother used to tie on the window for making spices. The knots and colorful fabrics also have an air of ethnic roots and origins. The paintings of the ties create indirect connections to contemporary culture, to Pinto’s self-taught art, and as he puts it, also serve as connection and a match between the artist/groom and the art/bride.

Shimon Pinto’s Artist Wall at the Artists’ Studios is created in relation to and as an echo of the Wailing Wall, in which concentrated notes are hidden: the innermost wishes and prayers. We find the same concentration, the same passion, in the creation of the Artist Wall, as well as in its environs of the surrounding studios.

At the basis of the painting of the kite featured in the exhibition stands a memory which is a key of sorts to his paintings:

“In our childhood we used to go to the open fields in the summer afternoons. We used to make kites and tie long strings to them. We made the kite from newspapers and reeds we found.

We tied long twine, added long tails and flew the kites until we ran out of string. Meaning, until the kite reached the highest place up in the sky. Then we took out the notes, and on them wrote wishes, we folded them to four, and tore the bottom corner of the note with our teeth, when we opened the note there was a hole-an opening, which we strung at the end of the twine, and the note started to climb towards the kite until it reached up”.

All these are found in Shimon Pinto’s paintings: the tying, the long strings, the climb up and the wish, and his paintings themselves are the soaring note.