Many of those who have talked to me in recent years about Israeli art and collecting works on paper – had to listen again and again (and this is the place to apologize) to my discomfort with marker drawings on paper. So I thought we’d open it up here for discussion.
Apparently markers are a wonderful drawing tool, and I speak from practical experience as well: a simple and sensitive medium that responds to every reaction and vibration of the hand. You can think of it as a real extension of the hand with an infinite range of lines and spots, which always produces surprises as well.
Indeed, in Israeli art – both in the past and today – there are artists who work with the medium of markers seriously and virtuosically, in black only and of course in color as well. Even from the small and random collection in my possession presented here, one can see in the works of drawing with a marker the wonderful versatility and the personal handwriting that is always revealed.
Look at the drawings of Ludwig Schwerin, David Handler, Marcel Yanko, Aharon Kahana, Menashe Kadishman (which I received today), Mirit Cohen, Audrey Bergner, Sharon Fadida (in the photos), and of course the well-known works of the marker artists (only a partial list): Dov Feigin, Naomi Siman Tov, Aviva Uri, Ruth Schloss, Galia Hili Pasternak, Diana Kogan, Zoya Cherkassky-Nnadi and Nurit David (not represented here), who complete an entire historical mosaic of this technique. Maybe it’s even worth another exhibition beyond the small group marker exhibitions that have been in museums and galleries recently.And all this – even before the great groups of illustrators who work with markers that are active today, who expand this medium in other directions.
But – and here I come to dissatisfaction:
Markers are a modern medium that may prove short-lived, too short for works of art worthy of preservation for posterity. As we know, modernity, for all its technological achievements, always has a dark side of instant and clinging to the here and now, which forgets that art should perhaps also have a cultural significance for future periods.
Indeed, most markers – unfortunately – fade quickly, and lose their vitality in a traumatic way right when exposed to light. Although in recent years there have been technological developments (such as the Lightfast markers) that claim to give them better durability, and there are a variety of artist-level markers that are supposed to have a more stable pigment structure, but we have not yet accumulated enough history and distance in time to stand for their true nature.
In the conservation aspect – works of markers on paper are a bundle of trouble. The vulnerability and fragility of the materials condemn many of these works to ruin. I will mention, for the sake of a sad example, the work in my possession by Yitzhak Danziger, which is drawn with markers and whose condition has deteriorated, due to previous poor storage conditions by its previous owner.
And finally, it should be honestly said that artists should not preoccupy themselves in a calculated way with the question of the survival of their works as a threshold condition for creation. It is clear to me that the very creation and the urgency of the expression outweighs any technical/collective/preservation consideration that is going to happen to the work, and as many artists say – “This will be the problem of the collector or the owner”. On the other hand, over the generations many artists (Leonardo is not a good example) did put a lot of thought and care into the materials and colors they used, out of a conscious or deep instinctive feeling of wanting to create something meaningful (and perhaps even eternal) for generations upon generations to come.
In conclusion, every time I look at the work drawn with markers I feel a little like I’m looking at a conceptual “vanitas” work involuntarily: that the material from which it is made also embodies its ruin – a beautiful flower whose time is predetermined, like the well-known Dutch motto from the 17th century: “Early ripe, early rot”.
In the future I hope that the works will somehow survive due to progress. And you in the meantime – keep drawing with markers.
