Louis Ferreira de Moraes (Brazil), “Big Fish of the Guarau River”, 2007, Acrylic on canvas, 50×100

 

 

Where can you find the only Naïve Art gallery that displays works from the four corners of the planet?  OK, it’s a rhetorical question – the answer is in the title of this post.  GINA Gallery of International Naïve Art is a case in point of why I love this country and love doing this blog.  Only in Israel can you walk into a gallery and see naïve art from 25 countries around the world.

Maria Julia Fraile (Spain), “A Spring Festival”, 2005, Acrylic on canvas, 38×55 cm

 

There is a good reason that most Naïve Art galleries don’t display art from other countries; the gallery is logically established where there are lots of Naïve Artists to provide a good solid supply of quality works.  Makes sense, right?  It also makes sense that there would not be a Naïve Art gallery in Israel since there have been and are very few local artists who focus on this genre.  However, when you hear this story, I hope you’ll agree that it also makes sense that the world’s only international Naïve Art gallery is right here, 20 kilometers south of my home, at GINA gallery www.ginagallery.com in the heart of Tel Aviv.

 

 

                                 

                                                                GINA GALLERY

 

 Dan Chill should have been born in the land of Israel, but thanks to the conscientious US Consulate in Jerusalem in 1940, his father, an American citizen, was told that because Rommel was threatening British Mandate Palestine from the South and the German Panzer Division was threatening from the North, the American government would not be responsible if anything happened to the Chills and their young daughter if they didn’t leave the British Mandate within 2 weeks. Departing the land of Israel was not an easy decision. Dan’s mother’s family originally came here in 1809.  Heartbroken, they decided to emigrate.

      

Dan grew up in Florida and New York City.  After attending New York University and completing a joint JD and master’s degree at Harvard’s Law School and JFK School of International Affairs, he worked as an attorney in Boston.  Yet his heart was always in Israel.  With each war here, he felt progressively worse about being in the comfortable USA.  Working to raise money for the young State just wasn’t the same as fighting for the country with which he felt deeply affiliated.  Visiting a sad and depressed Israel after the Yom Kippur war, the Chills felt it was finally time to make aliya.

 

 

Soon after arriving in Israel in 1975, Dan joined Israel Aircraft Industries as assistant general counsel.  It was while traveling for them in 1983 to negotiate a sales contract with the Honduran government that he caught sight of a painting in a small gallery across the street from his hotel.  Captivated by the brilliant colors and genuine innocence portrayed in the painting, Dan made his very first acquisition of Naïve Art.

                                                

Tito Lucaveche (Spain), “Cake Shop in Majorca”, 2005, Oil on canvas, 41×33 cm

 

Legal work for IAI followed by four years with the Eisenberg Group and then 12 with Indigo fortuitously took him to the far corners of the world where he was able to pursue his growing interest in this unusual, off beat and very optimistic style of art.  “I began to seek out Naïve Art galleries during my travels.  I was curious to meet the people who created these charming works,”  Dan explained. “When I traveled to a country where I knew there was a possibility to find indigenous artists of this genre, I’d give the concierge a good tip and often he’d be able to track down galleries and artists.  Gradually, I found myself building a personal connection with artists and various galleries around the world.  But what happened next came as a complete surprise. 

 

Barbara Rochlitz (Brazil), “Tropical Paradise”, 2007, Oil on canvas, 50×70 cm

 

“Of course each new acquisition found a place on the walls of my home and office.  Suddenly I began to see a strange pattern in the behavior of our guests at home.  They’d enter the house and instead of the usual conversation about family and friends, the topic of discussion was inevitably about the art on our walls.  People were captivated and fascinated by the innocent, simple stories and rich colors.  I was able to tell first hand stories about how the painting came about because in each case I’d either met the artist or heard his story from the gallery director displaying the work.

 

“At work the effects of these colorful, heartwarming paintings were even more tangible. Dealing with legal matters, visitors were often tense, the subject matter sometimes contentious.  The art was an inevitable ice breaker. Attorneys, clients, adversaries would come into my office and soon become engaged in a pleasant conversation regarding the disarming art gracing the walls of my office, transporting us all to a distant, pastoral land. People found themselves smiling.  The tension level dropped dramatically.  Business was conducted in a much more positive atmosphere.

 

                                                                              

                                                                                  

 Barbara Rochlitz (Brazil), “Playing”, 2007, Oil on canvas, 40×59 cm

 

“It suddenly occurred to me that people’s reactions were indicative of something very special.  They seemed to naturally take to this art that celebrates the human narrative by portraying some event in the artist’s life or a story they heard.  I realized that I had unintentionally done something revolutionary by gathering together in one place this unique indigenous Naïve Art from a wide range of countries.  I realized I could create something that had not yet been done in the history of the world  – create a gallery of Naïve Art from around the world.

 

Natan Heber (Israel), “Simchat Tora”, 1970, Oil on board, 47×75 cm

 

 

                                                                                        

 Eduardo Ungar (Argentina), “A Feast of Flowers”, 2007,  Acrylic on canvas, 60×60 cm

 

 

                                                 

Michael Falk (Israel), “The Orange Grove”, 2006, Oil on canvas, 80×70 cm

 

 

“If I could transform my avocation into my vocation…???…and so was born the GINA Gallery.”

 

Dan continues to travel the world.  However, instead of negotiating contracts, he’s visiting artists in Brazil, Argentina, France and scores of other countries where he’s discovered a coterie of quality naïve artists.  Those discoveries are the result of a good deal of homework, visiting museums and exhibitions, reading about the local art markets, building files and knowing who to meet and which artists to visit.  The all-important ‘home visits’ are one of Dan’s favorite aspects of this business.  Hired translators and drivers facilitate these endless adventures where Dan learns first hand how each artist – always self-taught – came to paint that particular story in his or her singular style.

 

                                                                                           Maria Laura Bratoz (Argentina), “”Where is that Movie?”", 2007, Acrylic on canvas, 50×50 cm

 

Since opening on Dec. 4, 2003, under the artistic direction and (when Dan is abroad) day to day management of Ifat Reiss, Dan’s new vocation evolved from showing paintings of 75 artists from 10 countries to representing and displaying the works of 275 artists from 25 countries. 

 

There’s definitely something special about these enchantingly innocent scenes of an idealized world devoid of political or social commentary.  Perhaps the joy they inspire is the reason it is said that more people have visited GINA Gallery than any other single art gallery in the history of Israel.

 

For Dan, it’s very much about the human factor; each painting that hangs in GINA gallery has a story behind it and one way or another, Dan Chill discovers that story to bring home and share with the hundreds and hundreds of visitors to the gallery each month – an experience, it seems, that can only be had in Israel.

Haim Harbon (Israel), “The Sea Shore of the Promised Land”, 1969, Acrylic on board,64×96 cm