Exhibition of painting by Aron Zinstein

“Dry Point and Wet Gouache”

One of Sholem-Aleyhem's saddest short stories, The Enchanted Taylor, ends in a most wonderful phrase, 'Laughter is healthy. Doctors suggest that we laugh.' Looking at Aron Zinstein's paintings is no less healthy. In our sunless and solemn city his art is like a speck of bright Southern light.

Zinstein is particularly interested in people absorbed in their daily chores. That does not only pertain to his genre paintings, but to his landscapes as well: they look as if they are about to fill up with passers-by. The artist watches ardently the life of his unpretentious characters, depicting them with unfailing humor and unsubsiding love.

You will not find any outward Jewish symbolism is Zinstein's works, yet they are deeply ethnic in their essence. Jewish art, urbane in the whole sense of the term, derives its highest inspiration from the daily hustle and bustle, injecting the commonplace with spirituality. In that sense, Aron Zinstein is a Jewish artist.

The gouaches and etchings of Aron Zinstein are tiny fragments extricated from life's interminable flow: stories, incidents, even anecdotes. Those who know and love the artist's larger pieces will be grateful for this introduction to Aron Zinstein's graphics, to the 'minor' works of the great artist.