I couldn’t stop looking at it; this work hanging in this beautiful art gallery in the heart of Jerusalem. I whispered to my husband, “We have to go in.”
She stood a few metres away from me, I looked at her silently.
“Excuse me, who took this picture? »
“Well, it’s a Leon Sternberg, it’s called the Rabbi”, said the gallery owner.
“It must be a digital painting, the Rabbi’s face is like a shadow, but on it are the words of the Shema”, I said to my husband.
Already mentally I make room on the dining room wall and try to imagine that sublime work of art hanging there.
“Keep on dreaming”, I hear a voice coming from the sanctuary of my house, my husband. “We already have a picture of the Rabbi there, we have children, a school, after-school programs, rent, a cleaning lady… no space for art right now, honey. I open my eyes again and swallow my pride.
Curious by nature and naturally stubborn, especially after receiving my little speech about what I should give up immediately from my husband, I slide my fingers over the keyboard of my computer and look for Leon Sternberg.
A page opens and a handsome middle-aged European man appears.
“Hello Leon”, I want to say. I scroll down and one after the other beautiful images full of colours, shapes, sizes and combinations. I see jazz, I see famous icons, I see abstract sets and then, finally, The Rebbe appears.
The price is a bit high for us at the moment; the only thing I can do is download it and keep it as a screensaver.
A few days later, I post a picture of my desktop on Instagram, someone with a keen eye can notice details of my desk, such as the picture on my screensaver.
Of all the “humanity” on Instragram, Leon Sternberg himself, a few hashtags later, noticed “his” picture of Rebbe as my screensaver and wrote me a message.
You can imagine how happy I was when I saw a message from Leon on Instagram, how incredible social media can be: ah, the miracles of technology …
The story had begun
It is not a love story, we are both happily married and have children, it is a meeting based on mutual respect and admiration for each other’s work.
Léon loves my writing and I love his paintings. Perfect match, let’s meet and see what happens.
Leon magically appeared at my door a few weeks later. The smile was the same as the photo I had seen on his website, maybe he looked a little older, but he explained that the photo had been taken a few years ago.
We are in our dining room, the children have been locked in cupboards or something, so as not to disturb us.
Everything is perfect, the soda I serve him is cold and sparkling, the coffee is strong and Italian, and the wall is beautifully exposed before Leon’s eyes lit precisely by the last rays of sunshine, as I had planned. He can’t miss it, he has to notice that the big wall needs a picture.
But what a world I live in, mocking myself, and my nerve, at least mentally, thinking that the artist himself would actually recognise that my plain beige wall would look much better with one of his works and that he would magically pull one out from under his shirt that he would hang up himself with 3 screws hidden in his pockets and even sign at the very bottom, in front of me and all my social media followers who will be attending this event.
I come back down to earth as Leon takes off his glasses and starts to tell his story.
“I come from a family of diamond dealers I am from the small town of Antwerp, I grew up without being religious in a well-to-do family, it didn’t take me long to realise that business and the diamond trade were not my vocation in life. I was always looking for something and I didn’t know what it was exactly. I started to get into jazz and I loved it. I play the saxophone and it became my passion, as you can see in many of my works” he says.
It seems too normal to be such an incredible artist, I was expecting a crazy story with drugs, love and God.
“Where exactly is God in all this?” I ask him politely.
“I was not brought up religious, God came at the right time. I was married and lived in Belgium with my Israeli wife, we then decided to move to Zichron Ya’acov in Israel, I opened a restaurant where I also played the saxophone in the evenings but still, I couldn’t find my place in the world.
“One day while looking for a Kabbalah class online, when one click led to another, I found myself looking at an angel’s face with a white beard and piercing blue eyes. His voice was soft and his speech made so much sense that I couldn’t stop listening to this rabbi. He was the Rabbi,” Sternberg says.
Yossi and I are hanging on to Leon’s words and making no noise. A man who looks like an English teacher at Yale, is in fact an artist with a tormented soul and an incredible quest for the true meaning of life and spirituality.
“So, when did you start creating your artwork?” I’m whispering softly so I don’t ruin the moment but want to find out when he became my superhero.
“Only 10 years ago I finally found my way, it started in the simplest way by doing some doodles with my stylus on my Samsung phone. I started noticing a pattern, I thought I could really translate what I have in my mind and brain and create a picture without even knowing how to draw! One of my first pieces, of course, featured my beloved saxophone; four saxophones that create a geometric shape. You have to observe well to understand what it represents,” he says.
This is the beauty of a work by Léon, you don’t know right away what it is, you have to think about it and look at it for a few minutes. Each person has their own interpretation, you can’t stop at the surface, you have to dig deeper and dive into the work”, said Sternberg.
Just like Leon himself, if you stop at the surface you think he sits down and has tea and scones every day at five in the afternoon, but there’s a whole tornado in those eyes.
Although now he transmits peace and wisdom as if he had found what he wanted. Religion and the fear of God have certainly forged his character even though this happened at a later age, he has a thirst for knowledge and literally everything he can find in the holy books.
Since he started creating art, Léon has exhibited his work in famous galleries usually reserved for the wealthy, although now, thanks to social media, Léon has made his art accessible to all “pockets”.
I imagined a crazy art studio, with gouaches and colours exploding on the walls and ceilings, but soon caught up again by his shy smile, “No …”, he says, “I work from a computer, so no splattered paint on the wall or broken wine glasses on the floor I see what you imagine … “He smiles as if he already knows me.
He explains that he uses painting techniques to create his digital paintings directly on the computer. There are different choices of brushes and painting styles that are digitally styled to represent traditional mediums such as oils, acrylics, pastels, charcoal, pen and even media such as airbrush. When the painting is ready, it is printed on metal, glass or canvas.
“Sorry to have disappointed you,” he concludes, “I work in a clean office usually during the day like any normal person.”
“Lighting is very important”, he adds, “once the painting is hung, that’s when it comes to life”.
Exactly!
Léon’s works give the impression that once they have found a wall to hang on, they begin to “live” and find their true dimension, each to its own.
There’s a grey Einstein, a sexy Marylin Monroe, an iconic Liz Taylor and even the supreme Dali with his moustache.
His anachronistic collection is a feast for the eyes. A combination of traditional paints mixed in today’s world “well enough to create a well-balanced anachronism of plastic art”, as it says on his website.
I want them all.
I laugh thinking that I never even cared about art or painting. Until now.
When you see Leon’s work, you are obsessed, you want to see them all, absorb all the colours, it makes you want to change the style of your house and put one of them right in the middle. You don’t need furniture, you don’t need family photos, you don’t need anything. Just good lighting.
Every piece needs attention
“I grew up in Belgium, I had everything, I was good and spoiled. It was the greatest curse and the greatest blessing. It pushed me to understand the real reason why we exist and why I exist; it made me discover God and the infinite love I found for the ‘real world’, for spirituality and religion. It made me discover my art. It made me discover The Rebbe – as a spiritual leader and ultimately as a work of art – one of the best-selling pieces in my collection,” Sternberg sums up.
I get up from the chair when we are ready to part, I have the distinct impression that I have just watched a film and that the lights in the room are going to come on.
Leon’s smile embraces me, I run to my room and take one of my favourite books, called Daily Wisdom, which is inspired by the teachings on the Torah part of Rabbi Lubavitch. I give it to him, I know he will love it.
We say goodbye and just like that Leon disappears as if he had never existed.
I forgot my empty wall waiting for a Leon Sternberg.
One day soon, he will smile at me.
For the moment, I am smiling at the article I have just finished writing about Léon and his beautiful story.
Leon Sternberg lives in Zichron Yaacov with his wife and three children. His plays can be seen at www.sternbergart.com; he can be reached at 050-445-7662.
The author is of Italian origin, lives in Jerusalem and directs Hadassah Chen Productions. Director and performer, Chen also directs the Keren Navah Ruth Foundation, in memory of her daughter, to help families with sick children. [email protected]
Source: Alliance Mag
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