Admist all the ferment in the local art world, Dan Ophir maintains his distinctiveness. His talents unite his professional expertise and wealth of experience in graphics of all sorts with his sensual and personalized style of painting, anchored in the scenes  of his childhood, drawing unconsciously upon his ethnic roots, and stemming from a particular and explicit worldview.

 

Dan Ophir grew up in the colorful Shebazi neighborhood  bordering Tel Aviv and old Jaffa. It was an area which absorbed the sights and the smells of Jaffa with her singular Eastern Mediterranean character , as well as the bustle and liveliness which marked the then- young city of Tel Aviv. His father had come Israel from Istanbul in the pre- state days. Dan studies Graphics and paintings in Israel Institutes of Technology and in the Avni Institutes of painting and Sculpture.

 

In 1962 he was appointed one of the founders of the Ministry of Defense's publishing house and for about ten years, he supervised production of assorted publications, including the impressive albums which   employed photography and graphics document the Six Day War of June 1967. For about five year, Dan Ophir has been charge of the publishing division of Everyman's University in Ramat Aviv.

 

 This division included an extensive graphics department , which does the layout and artwork for the educational material produced by the special university . Dan Ophir brings an artist's touch to even the most routine activities of the publishing division. Because of his poetic sensibilities, he is drawn to painting, at which he frequently works In the late hours of the night.

 

Many subject captivate him bet he invariable paints scene   deriving from his ethnic heritage and childhood, and set, of course , in the land of Israel . His paintings and drawings of the Eastern Mediterranean seashore constitute a distinct  unit itself.

 

Many works are expressions of his yearning to render in brushstrokes the cities of Jerusalem, Hebron and Bet Lehem, Jaffa, Arce, Caesarea and Tiberias as well as Massada, the Sinai Peninsula and Lake Kinnerteth. Certain motifs appear repeatedly in these: minaret- shaped towers and buildings crowding one upon the other, which massed together, give an effect of the fortified and protective wall.

 

Within the wall , drenched in strong sunlight , is a suggestion of a complete world, internally color full and cut off from the outside, a community- outside- hitself . The many shorelines  with their lapping waves which show up in Dan Ophir's painting evoke the primordial appearance of the steadily – disappearing untouched land between Tel Aviv and Jaffa harbor, which he sees each day on his way to and from work. His work clearly indicates the impact of this recurring visual experience.

 

While these Israeli seascapes are definite depiction of the Eastern Mediterranean coast, the also exhibit elements of intellectual abstraction.

 

Noteworthy in this connection is a series of six words collectively entitled "The creation of the world" and inspired passages from the book of Genesis. Dan Ophir followed the series of abstract , colors graphics works with another series – "Primordial Forest" his approach to these works and his execution of them attest to an artist's struggle to come to terms with certain ideas  , dating probably from his childhood days.

 

This interesting series includes three other abstract representation of the biblical events: The exodus from Egypt  of the children of Israel and the miraculous parting of the Red Sea.

 

Of late, Dan Ohir has applied his brush to glass, creating colorful scene of, mostly, the land of Israel. An entire scene is painted on the surface of a small , round, convex piece of glass, making this technique unlike conventional glass- paiting . The round glass- pictures, vivid and transparent , are dynamic as well as decorative , and live a strong impression when glimpsed .

 

Dan Ophir's artwork, taken as a whole, emphasize decorative elements and is charged with the emotion their maker feels when creating scenes of the country in which he was born and raised , to which he has given of himself, and from which he has also received much.

 

Rivka Kaznelson 

1982