Articles

Exploring the Social Persona –Fanny Horowitz

Fanny Horowitz explores the role of women in her figurative paintings and the persona that they take on in society.

Fanny Horowitz’s figurative paintings focus on the social persona that women take on in their every day lives. Using technical skills and a love of color, Fanny creates intimate and mysterious worlds in which the viewer can take part.Leaving the context for her subjects vague, Fanny invites us all to interpret each piece in our own way. While one person might see a woman checking herself out in a mirror, another person may see someone with insecurities, making sure that her makeup or clothes are perfectly in place. “For me, painting is setting out on an adventure. I choose to paint simple and unassuming motifs from the world around me,” says the artist.Fanny draws inspiration from the Impressionist movement and the intense colors of Fauvism. Her works are drenched with color, with subtle but firm depictions of light and shadow. She uses vivid oil colors and mixes endless shades and sub-shades for each piece. These methods generate a sense of mystery, prompting the viewer’s imagination to form a unique, individual experience.Those moments of grace that she creates are an escape from a noisy, outside world to a place that is tranquil, allowing the viewer to dive into the depths until they lose their sense of external time and place, entering and observing inner emotional worlds and landscapes, and searching for a lock that opens a door to spiritual sustenance.We had the chance to sit down with Fanny and discuss her work and process, and we were far from disappointed. Read on to learn more about this fascinating artist!I think the first and most obvious question on everyone’s mind is, why women?

When I first started painting, I explored my environment from my own personal point of view. By observing the technical aspects of light, shadow and transparency, as well as line, color, and the ways in which colors bounce off of different surfaces, I saw a whole different world around me. I initially started with the paintings of accessories, which led me to explore the social persona of the female. I found photos of women by browsing social media, and then I noticed that on social media, everyone is posing to the watchful eye of society. All those selfies! People portray themselves the way they want others to see them. I continued with this theme because it is amazing to look and see what people want to convey by this social persona that they show.

So the still-life paintings actually came before the portraits. What are the objects, such as clothing, jewelry, or perfume meant to represent?

I started exploring and painting very plain still-lifes from objects that I found around my home. I started with bowls and jewelry and then moved on to my own personal accessories, like a coat, a transparent gown, a bracelet, sunglasses, and stilettos. The endless layers of information, beauty, and mystery that I suddenly revealed, thrilled me to a great extent. It was an amazing new world for me. Looking at all my still life paintings, I suddenly understood that the essence of accessories is to communicate subtle information, to add beauty and mystery, or, in other words, to help create a social persona.

“We usually use accessories more in public than at home, they are status symbols, and we give very profound thought to them, even though we may not admit it.”

Do you paint these images from your imagination or real life?

Some of them I took myself and some of them I just found on social media and thought, “This is amazing, I must paint it!” By painting, I put a focus on something that I see. Everybody else can see it too, but this is MY particular focus.

Why do you choose to portray women with little to no context?

I like the mystery it creates. It also leaves space for the viewers to replay the scenes in their own intimate lives. It lets them become emotionally involved in what I’m doing in the space, and when they don’t have to be decisive, it leaves space for them to change their minds when in another mood, to tell themselves other stories. I think that painting is a way of communication. You have a way to touch the soul of someone else. I get very excited when people tell me, ‘Oh, I know that woman!’ or ‘This is me!’ when looking at one of my paintings. They identify with the piece. I’m satisfied to know that it makes them think, laugh, and interact with my art. That is the main point.

She, In the World of Her Own by Udi Rosenwein (curator)

The light, which varies according to the time of day, determines for Horowitz what the painted object looks like and, in order to probe a particular moment of the day, she makes use of photographs » Continue reading

A Moment of Grace by Amili Gelbman (curator)

Fanny Horowitz is a figurative painter – she converses with objects. One can see a reorganization of world orders evolving in her paintings, based on feelings and a perception of space that has an emotional regularity » Continue reading

A Moment of Grace by Hagit Shahal (artist)

Fanny Horowitz’s paintings look towards the “unimportant,” “boring” details which make up the daily and mundane reality of our lives, and empower their being and the beauty inherent in them » Continue reading