THE ART OF
ALEGRE LELE SCHNEIDER
Sonidos De Alla, Sounds from there.
There is no Peace within Lele's paintings that are created from her work in the abstract of one whose pull of the brush describes the personal and difficult experience, which does not heal. Red and more red, in shades and degrees, that are chosen quite suddenly, unconsciously and in a flood of emotions causing the brush to study, internally, the kidneys and the heart. Occasionally, a grey spot will pull itself into a line as if a horizon or crumbling boarder. Sometimes the line will appear in the vertical trying to show calm.
Lele speaks in the language of painting about the trauma during adolescence of her mother being injured in a traffic accident where both were involved. Now, for the first time since she started to paint, she has managed to touch the subject that has troubled her for years.
Lele (Alegre) Schneider was born in Barranquilla,Columbia in 1962 and in 1981 made aliya to Israel. She became a member of Kibbutz Yagur where she is married and raising a family of three boys. She studied at the Academy of Art and Sculpture "Bellas Artes: in Columbia and at the Avni Institute in Israel for 8 years, as well as many courses in painting.
Since 1994 Lele has taken part in many exhibitions. One such an exhibition was "A Green Spot in the City", by artists of the Kibbutz Movement, at Binyanei Ha Homa in Jerusalem in 1996. At that time she was requested to leave a few of her works on permanent display.
About Lele's work.
"I have know Lele's work for many years, since the time we met on Kibbutz Yagur. It seems to me only natural that her close relationship with the elements of nature in her surroundings have had an impact on her artwork and painting. In one way or another it was obvious that her work at the time was of landscapes, of her personal improvisation of the landscape, like a jazz musician interprets a familiar musical piece.
Over the years Lele's works have become more and more personal both in her artistic language and their qualities. Her paintings have become more abstract, minimalistic, with organic shapes represented in nature.
In her later paintings Lele establishes a combination of different languages of painting influenced directly by post modern painting which broke the taboo of one language. Dynamic surfaces painted by an expressive brush mixed with flat almost static surfaces. We are still able to observe different elements of nature despite their low volume in the bottom layers. There is a long life to the works and only on second and third exposures can you view and start to understand the parameters of landscape and of abstract human forms.
Lele uses a hot pallet. The paintings are almost monochromic and from time to time she adds a spot of negative color that maximizes the effect of surfaces rich in color. As you continue to look at the reds in the work you begin to notice browns and oranges in the lower layers, not fully covered. Prolonged viewing of the work puts you in an almost meditative state.
The works are beautiful but, by no means kitchy or cute. The strategy is to capture the viewer with the beauty but, afterwards you feel the messages the paintings cause you to absorb and awaken the experience of beauty out of reach. And, again you experience the intense inner meaning of the artist."
Adapted from Heti Yatziv van Harp, translated by Lisa Rom.