YOSEF REZNIKOV | RESH
UNITED BY THE POWER OF ART
Mixed media on canvas. 60 x 97 cm.
“Jerusalem remains a favorite subject of the painting; many Israeli and foreign artists have managed to realistically or symbolically express their love for the Holy City through peculiar beauty and unique colors. This topic is very close to our hearts. We have completed a significant number of paintings dedicated to this subject.”
– RESH
An example of the fact that miracles do happen is the biography of Yosef Reznikov. As a professor, he taught at the construction and architectural faculties of the Polytechnic Institute in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. In 1991 Reznikov emigrated to Israel. Age, lack of connections, problems with the language, everyday difficulties, and free time has appeared to push him to paint. Portraits and Israeli landscapes helped him overcome the emerging depression.
Oil on canvas. 60 x 60 cm.
At an exhibition of artists in the city hall of Nazareth-Illit, he met another exhibiting artist, Oleg Shkred, who graduated from the same faculty as Yosef; It just happened a few years later, in Tashkent. They did not know each other at the time.
They decide to work together to overcome the financial difficulties that have arisen. So began to engage in the design of villas and private houses. Their significant first work was an order from the mayor’s office to design the old retaining wall in the city center. The wall was divided by buttresses into five parts. So it dictated a compositional solution. They created five relief paintings from sand and cement dedicated to the Jewish people’s history.
Mixed media on canvas. 96 x90 cm.
The total area of each panel is more than 100 square meters. This beautiful work led to a new order from the city hall to decorate the city’s central synagogue, a big building requiring significant investment and dedication.
Here they made drawings on the walls, relief panels, carvings on the prepared surface, stained-glass windows, and much more.
Mixed media on canvas 60 x 80 cm.
Mixed media on canvas. 100 x 98 cm.
As they completed the work, the synagogue entered the honorable list of the Top Ten Synagogues in Israel.
This led to a beautiful gesture by the mayor’s office, which allowed them to use a public bomb shelter as a permanent studio, with one condition: If a stressed timing arises, the bomb shelter must be open to the public. So repeatedly, they had to be on duty in it.
Mixed media on canvas. 132 x 100 cm.
In this bomb shelter/studio, they created several new artistic styles and developed new directions in painting. Sacrificing their ego, they signed their works as RESH (RESH), an abbreviation of the initial letters of two surnames.
In total, the duo of artists RESH created more than 4,000 works during the past years.
They called one of their developments KFAR-Cubo-futuristic abstract realism.
Most of their paintings are done in this style and were exhibited in Israel, America, Russia, Spain, and Germany.
In addition, their works of art are part of private and public collections all around the globe.
In February-March 2008, they were successfully exhibited at Art Expo New York. In 2007, during the celebration of the city Nazareth Illit’s 50th anniversary, their paintings were presented to the Prime Minister and the Israeli President.
In May 2009, during the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Israel, the Pope of Rome was presented with a unique composition artwork by Nazareth artists from NES, which later became a painting that is part of the respectable Vatican art collection.
In August 2021, they donated their painting to Israel’s new president, Yitzhak Herzog.
