Sony photography award winner Roei Greenberg and artist Joseph Carl exhibit together
Joseph Carl's drawings will be on display alongside Roei Greenberg's photographs of Hampstead - Credit: Archant
Roei Greenberg’s photographs will be on display alongside the drawings of set designer Joseph Carl at the Gilden’s Art Gallery
In 1938, artist and set designer Joseph Carl was uprooted from his successful career at Vienna Volksoper opera house, relocating to England to escape the Holocaust. He lived and worked in London as a stage designer from 1938 to ‘47, receiving acclaim for his work creating the sets of plays at Drury Lane, London Palladium, Palace Theatre and other prestigious venues.
Speaking in 1949, Carl acknowledges the considerable impact his time in England had on his work, noting a change in his style. “My use of colours is far less crude than it was when I first settled down in England”.
In addition to impacting Carl’s theatre design work, his time in England also influenced his art, with him making countless drawings of British landscapes inspired by living in Hampstead.
A Man of Contrast will showcase some of these sketches alongside the photographs of Roei Greenberg, the 2014 Sony World Photography Award winner. Drawing together old and new, the exhibit will see Carl’s sketches juxtaposed with Greenberg’s photographs depicting Hampstead’s present day landscape.
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Speaking on the exhibition, curator Doran Polak says: “When you look carefully, many of the elements of these buildings really haven’t changed a lot, and his drawings seem so fresh and up to date”.
In 1953, Carl moved to Israel, going on to work for Israel’s national theatre Habima. It was in Israel that curator Doron Polak first saw Carl’s work, though not until after his death.
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“I was given a collection of drawings by his widow. She said she didn’t think they were very special ones, but if I appreciated them I could get them out of the closet and have them. I thought they were absolutely amazing”.
Discovered in an abandoned roof a few years ago, the drawings celebrate Carl’s connection with Hampstead. The exhibition presents two artists’ perspectives of Hampstead, joined by their striking similarities with one another.
A Man of Contrast is at Gilden’s Art Gallery from October 5 to 6.
