Joav BarEl (also written Yoav Bar-El), (1933–1977) was an Israeli artist, critic, and lecturer.
He was an influential figure in Israel's contemporary art scene during the 1960s and 70s.
Biography
Joav BarEl was born on January 28, 1933, in Tel Aviv, Mandatory Palestine, to Aharon (“Aharonchik”) Elkind and Shlomit Cohen Tzedek. He had a younger sister, Mirana Barel-Blay (b. 1939), and a younger half-brother, Joel BarEl, from his father's second marriage. His father was a well-known lifeguard at Tel Aviv's beaches, and his mother was among the founders of HaBima Theater and infused a love of culture, art and literature into Joav and his sister, Mirana. In his early life, inspired by his father, BarEl practiced diving and fishing. His interest in music was also evident from a young age, and he began playing the accordion in his teens.
In his senior year of high school, BarEl enrolled in a training program of the IDF Air Force, in which he studied aircraft mechanics in the US. He served as a maintenance officer in the Air Force and later held the same position in TWA for a few years. During his training in the US, BarEl attended lectures given by the composer Arnold Schoenberg. After completing his military service, he was admitted to study composition and conducting but did not complete his training. Nevertheless, he maintained his interest in classical, popular, and avant-garde music throughout his life.
In 1954, BarEl began art studies at The Avni Institute of Art and Design and moved into a studio in Tel Aviv that doubled as his home. His studio, and the café he frequented, became a gathering place for artists, poets, and writers, among them David Avidan, Yair Hurvitz, Aviva Uri, Prof. Gabriel Moked, Prof. Menachem Peri, Yona Wallach, Jacques Mory-Katmor, Ami Shavit, Benni Efrat, and others.
From 1964 to 1968, BarEl studied psychology and philosophy at Tel Aviv University, focusing on aesthetics and psychology in art. Subsequently, he began a master's degree in clinical psychology, graduating in 1969.
He was interested in Eastern philosophy, primarily in Zen-Buddhism, and in Japanese calligraphy and meditation. He was also an enthusiastic reader of science fiction and was generally interested in altered states of consciousness, which led to his participation in studies on psychedelic drugs conducted at the time by the Ministry of Health.
Artistic practice
BarEl's early artistic practice was influenced by European abstract art. His range of works was broad and eclectic, encompassing expressionist oil paintings, a series of paintings and drawings on paper inspired by Franz Kafka’s stories (1958–1960), abstract stone and plaster reliefs, and zen-inspired ink drawings.
Later in his career, between 1967 and 1970, BarEl produced acrylic paintings, collages, and photographic transfer works influenced by American pop art, using magazine photographs and advertisements as his source. In those paintings, BarEl used industrial spray paint and bright complementary colors. His painting Kennedy Assassination, 1968, was first shown at the "Political" exhibition organized by the 10+ Group in Tel Aviv and received critical responses due to its overtly political nature. It was later shown at the Israeli gallery Tempo Rubato (2014) and was included in the Tate Modern exhibition "The World Goes Pop" in 2015–2016.
BarEl was also one of the first practitioners of conceptual art in Israel. Starting in 1969, he produced conceptual sculptural works and kept a “Book of Ideas”—a notebook in which he wrote suggestions for different artworks he invited fellow artists to execute; he also realized some of those ideas himself.
Writing and teaching
Alongside his own artistic endeavors, BarEl was active as an art critic and lecturer and had a profound impact on future generations of Israeli artists.
In 1959, BarEl began publishing articles and reviews in Israel's most important platforms. He was the art critic for the daily newspapers Yedioth Ahronoth (1959–61) and Ha’aretz (1959–69) and for the radio stations Kol Israel (1964–69) and the IDF Radio (1967–71). Between 1965 and 1971, he was the editor of the art section in “Achshav” (“Now”) Magazine.