Alexandra Zuckerman: Color Cuts

In this series, her latest to date, Alexandra Zuckerman applied soft pastel on sheets of paper, creating a seemingly uniform, vividly colored surface. Resembling silkscreen prints, the works appear to be the result of a mechanical process, while they were in fact produced through painstaking manual work. Each panel has its own rich and varied hue and unique “cut,” and neighboring works affect one another.

The shapes, inspired by “pattern cutting” and sometimes created with the help of Burda models, reference the process in the fashion industry of turning a design into a piece of fabric that is cut and ready to be sewn. Exhibiting a tension between the colored and white sections of the page, the works are both abstract and highly tactile.

Zuckerman’s conceptual yet material approach belongs within the nonfigurative legacy, resonating with the surrounding works by artists associated with Minimalism, such as Eva Hesse, Frank Stella, and Mona Hatoum.

Alexandra Zuckerman, Israeli, born USSR 1981

Upper row, left to right: Dark Chrome Yellow, Emerald Green, Burnt Umber, Burnt Ochre, Light Yellow Glaze

Lower row, left to right: Light Cadmium Red, Cobalt Green, Magenta, Light Green, Bluish Turquoise

From the “Color Cuts” series, 2021–22

Soft pastel on paper

Collection of the artist

Photo © The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, by Zohar Shemesh