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Lot Essay
Painted in 1965, Végétation Joyeuse, is a monumental diptych. It is a wonderful example of Simon's later painting style. Yohanan Simon is best known as the painter of the Kibbutz communal life. His depictions of the workers on Saturday, their free day, wearing blue shirts and playing with their children, are well known depictions of Israeli reality in the 1950s (see lot 66).
In the 1950s he developed an interest in the desert wilderness of the Negev. Following a visit to Brazil and the rain forests of Latin America in the mid 1950's, various forms of vegetation began to occupy his pictorial language. In Végétation Joyeuse, bright colours and free flowing shapes have captured his attention. He moved away from the strong defined lines of his earlier Kibbutz paintings and developed a harmonious, brightly coloured and happy style. 'The late Simon, who freed his surrealist imagination, was a one-person painting school. After many years of leading and inspiring a group of artists, he enjoyed swimming against the current and reveled in anything rejected by the Israeli artists of the 1960s and 1970s. His work was colourful instead of monochromatic, he used rich textures instead of "arta povera", his work was optimistic instead of tragic and doubtful, sensual and erotic instead of intellectual, a-political instead of politically charged art' .(T. Tamir, Yohanan Simon: Dual Portrait, Tel Aviv, 2001, p. 163).
In the 1950s he developed an interest in the desert wilderness of the Negev. Following a visit to Brazil and the rain forests of Latin America in the mid 1950's, various forms of vegetation began to occupy his pictorial language. In Végétation Joyeuse, bright colours and free flowing shapes have captured his attention. He moved away from the strong defined lines of his earlier Kibbutz paintings and developed a harmonious, brightly coloured and happy style. 'The late Simon, who freed his surrealist imagination, was a one-person painting school. After many years of leading and inspiring a group of artists, he enjoyed swimming against the current and reveled in anything rejected by the Israeli artists of the 1960s and 1970s. His work was colourful instead of monochromatic, he used rich textures instead of "arta povera", his work was optimistic instead of tragic and doubtful, sensual and erotic instead of intellectual, a-political instead of politically charged art' .(T. Tamir, Yohanan Simon: Dual Portrait, Tel Aviv, 2001, p. 163).