Gideon Gechtman


Gideon Gechtman was an Israeli artist and sculptor. His art is most noted for holding a dialogue with death, frequently as it relates to his own biography.

Biography

Gideon Gechtman was born on 17 December, 1942 in Alexandria, Egypt. He moved to British mandatory of Palestine with his family in 1945. He studied at the Avni Institute of Art and Design in Tel Aviv, Hammersmith College of Art in London, UK, the Ealing School of Art in London, UK, and Tel Aviv University.
After returning from London with his future wife singer/actress Bat-Sheva Zeisler, he created minimalistic art that was typical for that period. These works were described to "didactically demonstrate structural and figurative change in material and appearance." Gechtman taught at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem and the Art Teachers Training College of Beit Berl Academic College.
In 1973, Gechtman had his first solo exhibition in the Yodfat Gallery in Tel Aviv. The exhibition, named "Exposure," signified Gechtman's increasing interest in the connection between art and the biographic dimension. On the walls of the gallery were enlarged photographs of the body shaving process before the open heart surgery that Gechtman underwent in 1973. Also in this exhibition were real and fabricated documents regarding Gechtman's medical condition. At the closure of the exhibition, Gechtman put up obituaries for himself in Israeli dailies Haaretz and the Jerusalem Post, as well as around his home in Rishon LeZion. Gechtman later commented on the reactions: "Teachers from Bezalel said to me: 'Have you gone mad? You frightened everyone.'" The obituaries were a returning element in Gechtman's art for years to come.
In 1999, he exhibited a remodelled hospital environment under the name Yotam, in the name of his son, who had died in 1998.
Gideon Gechtman died of heart failure on 27 November, 2008. He was 65.

Education

Category:1942 births
Category:2008 deaths
Category:Egyptian emigrants to Israel
Category:20th-century Egyptian Jews
Category:Jewish Israeli artists
Category:Israeli photographers
Category:Jews from Mandatory Palestine
Category:Artists from Alexandria
Category:People from Rishon LeZion
Category:20th-century Israeli sculptors
Category:20th-century Israeli painters
Category:21st-century Israeli sculptors
Category:21st-century Israeli painters
Category:Academic staff of Beit Berl College