Saint John artist Herzl Kashetsky is still perfecting his craft Herzl Kashetsky , a painter from Saint John, says that the past and the ...
Saint John artist Herzl Kashetsky is still perfecting his craft
Herzl Kashetsky, a painter from Saint John, says that the past and the present always talk to each other.
Pictures, paintings, and magazine clippings from over the years cover the walls of his Canterbury Street studio.
Kaspersky planted an orange tree from seed 40 years ago. It is now 7 feet tall and spreads the afternoon light across the street.
A bronze plaque that says "INNER SANCTUM" is watched over by two plaster cherubs that were saved from the renovation of the Imperial Theatre.
Both Kashetsky's father and uncle sold old things. In the 1950s, when he was a child in Saint John, he and his five brothers and sisters were "exposed to a lot of aesthetics," like furniture, glassware, china, and paintings. It taught me to appreciate things that are well made and older."
Joseph Kashetsky was Herzl's older brother. He was an abstract artist who showed so much promise by age 25 that the Atlantic Advocate wrote a story about him in 1965, along with Jack Humphrey, Fred Ross, and Miller Brittain.
In 1972, he and Herzl put on their first show together. It was a joint show at the UNB Arts Centre, which was run by Bruno Bobak.
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Tragically, the brothers' first show together was also their last.
Joe died of a heart attack two years after that.
The words "That was in the family" were spoken by Herzl. "I've had a heart attack three times in my life. At the age of 61, my father passed away after suffering a heart attack.. Joe kept saying that he was having signs of a heart attack. They told him to go home. " His death said Herzl, who is now 72 years old, "really made me feel like I had to follow in his footsteps." "He gave me so much hope, but now he can't do it."
Herzl has had a successful career as an artist by any measure. In 1992, the University of New Brunswick gave him an honorary doctorate. In 2011, the Sheila Hugh Mackay Foundation gave him the Strathbutler Award for Excellence in Visual Arts, and in 2012, the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal was given to him. Despite this, he has the impression that something is lacking.
When he looks at Joe's work, he gets the feeling that he doesn't really know Joe.
Because he is no longer here, we will never have the opportunity to get to know him. We'll never really know what he was trying to say in these pieces."
Herzl has carefully kept his brother's drawings and paintings. They include mysterious figures with haunted eyes, sketches of buildings, and a series of circles drawn with a technical pen that, in Herzl's words, "would take the nerves of steel and the patience of Job" to do. A 50th Anniversary Exhibition of Joe and Herzl Kashetsky is on display at Fredericton Gallery 78 until September 24. There are 12 pieces by Joe and "21 or 22" by Herzl. The body of work that he produced over the course of 14 years, as well as the quality of that work, will be his legacy. Imagine if he had lived another 48 years and was still alive today. If he kept working, he'd be 81. What a shame!"
"On the other hand, it's fun to celebrate that time and have that anniversary show again. And I've been painting for the last 50 years, which is great. There will be 24 pieces by Joe and 21 or 22 by me in the show."
Ascension, an oil painting by Herzl, is one of the best pieces in the upcoming show. It shows a silhouetted figure climbing a ladder out of warm salmon-colored light and into a place that can't be seen.
Herzl said, "The future is what we do not know." "That's the darkness the figure is moving into. It could happen today, next week, or next month.or next year. And that's how everyone's lives turn out. We are all on this journey through life into the unknown."
The other works include beach stones, woodcuts from the 1970s, drawings of the inside of his studio, and what Herzl calls "calligraphic drawings," which are portraits made out of his own handwriting.
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