The Rogatchi Art Gallery(C) & The Rogatchi Foundation
Forefathers is the collection of the contemporary spiritual paintings by the internationally renowned artist MICHAEL ROGATCHI. According to the project’s curator, professor Julia Weiner ( London), ‘while there are numerous depictions of the central Biblical characters in history of art, ther series comprising images of all Patriarchs and Matriarchs as such had never been done before. In this sense, the series is unique in the history of art’. The core of the collection is The Patriarchs and the Matriarchs series interpreting the Torah key characters from the modern perspective and in great detail, with many original allegories.
The collection has been very successfully demonstrated at the artist’s many exhibitions world-wide, including Jerusalem, London, Rome, Florence, Warsaw, Krakow, Vilnius, Tallinn, Helsinki, etc. A few works from the Forefathers collection will be shown at the big exhibition at the Begin Centre in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the re-unification of Jerusalem in the spring 2017.
The idea of the The Patriarchs & the Matriarchs had been conceived by the artist as the Ushpitzim series, the seven leaders of the Jewish people whom we are calling into our sukkahs in Israel and all over the worlds during the days of the Sukkoth.
The contemporary spiritual art of Michael Rogatchi has earned wide international acclaim, both from the art critics and the spiritual leaders of our generation.
Rabbi Shmuel Kaminetzki, the holder of the Max Fisher Prize for Excellence of in Jewish Education, has written in his foreword to the Forefather collection: “ In the Michael Rogatchi’s outstanding series of immense talent and warm, ebullient Jewish soul of the artist, we see our Forefathers brought back to life on canvas, their integrity and holiness so eloquently and creatively put forth with every brush stroke, making it seem as if we are looking at the very Jewish soul that we inherited from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”
The well-known British art critic Francis Miller has written the following: “The triumph of the human spirit is celebrated in the work of Michael Rogatchi.” Out of many and different Michael’s works, this is certainly important characteristic of his important series bringing the essential leaders of the Jewish people throughout the history of the nation, closer to us today, in his remarkable Forefather series.
Here is the Inna Rogatchi’s (C) musical art video-essay on her husband’s unique art series:
The Rogatchi Art Gallery (C) & The Rogatchi Foundation