Bela Gold

About

Bela Gold

Walls and Cloud
Carlos Ashida

In recent years, Bela Gold’s work has revolved around two main lines of research: The first, which is strictly technical, experiments with hybrid systems of graphic representation. In this field, Bela Gold has achieved an effective synthesis of photographic resources with printing procedures involving gravure and intaglio that have made it possible to achieve results in keeping with her artistic goals. Indeed, by using high-resolution digital recording techniques, this artist has managed to print in relief, exploiting the malleability of the paper, textures and characters and producing an enormous visual richness.
At the same time, Bela Gold, profoundly affected by events related to the Holocaust, has rooted her artistic discourse in memory and oblivion. The long succession of violent events that preceded and followed this dark chapter in the history of man prove that the monstrous tragic dimension it achieved does not in itself guarantee its permanence in the collective memory as a lesson that would prevent the possibility of similar atrocities from happening. However, the weight of the event, rather than facilitating its transmission, has made the artist aware of the need to perform a delicate operation regarding the choice of tone for disseminating it.
Indeed, the vast number of testimonials describing events provide a collection of gruesome data and images with an enormous impact. Nevertheless, this artist, out of a sense of respect for the pain suffered, refrains from using them, opting instead for a low-key iconographic treatment, in which her narrative is offered in an oblique, elegant, austere and eminently poetic way. The starting point for Bela Gold’s work is the discovery of a handwritten letter, a postcard, a luggage label, a terse, bureaucratic notice, in other words ordinary documents left behind by their owners a few moments before being swallowed up by the deadly machinery. These insignificant pieces of paper are extremely moving since, contrary to expectation, they are survivors that have come down to us to offer their fragile testimony.
The low-profile strategy Bela Gold has adopted also reflects the complex mechanisms of memory and its counterpart, oblivion. Certain events that go beyond understanding may, like a defense mechanism, be denied, or studiously ignored since they are unacceptable to reason. Conversely, the spectacle of the inconceivable may create a morbid fascination, similar to the vertigo produced by gazing at a deep abyss.
The way Bela Gold appeals to her public is quite different. Firstly, this creator assumes her status as an artist and confirms her conviction that the tools of her trade are able to transmit her message. From this platform, Bela Gold’s work takes the form of aesthetic seduction rather than argumentative convincing. That is why her work does not directly offer us anything other than the artistic qualities of her iconographic repertoire. This remarkable illustrator does not make things easy for those wishing to approach her work. The phrases that appear in her images are not translated, there are no explanatory labels or titles providing additional information, just a brief reference to the origin or nature of the material used. At the same time, the restrained use of color or even its absence gives her engravings an almost abstract quality. The resulting general expression is that of a coded message, a palimpsest whose possibilities of interpretation will occur insofar as the spectator is sensitive to the power given off by the original document, a magnetic energy that forces its way through the language barriers, lost fragments and harmful effects that time has inflicted on its material support and even the delicate veil the author has placed over it.
In both its curatorial and museographic conception, this exhibition presents an anthological selection of Bela Gold’s recent work, which together creates a scale model of the long process of experimentation and reflection in which this artist is involved. Walls and Cloud is a fragment of an open series that is still under development, born of a major obsessive, totalizing effort that gradually discovers its raison d’être. In this respect, this exhibition is a stage setting in which the works ─like blocks of stone, both because of their material appearance and the metaphorical, symbolic meaning of stone─ are used to put up solid walls forming a dyke that contains the avalanche of oblivion. Flying above this sober fortress, like a nimbus cloud surrounded by thunder and lightning casting its soothing shadow of hope over ill-fated days, is Paul Celan’s poem Fuga de muerte. The combination of permanence and fugacity, weight and lightness suggested by this selection of works also defines the limits within which any historical judgment should be made: firm judgment combined with loving compassion.

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Website: http://www.arteven.com/bela_gold.html
http://belagold.artnowonline.com/

Work

2010

SOLO SHOWS

TWO - VIEWS OF MEXICO/BELA GOLD-NAOMI SIEGMANN/MEXICAIN CULTURAL INSTITUTE, SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS.

THE BOOK OF MEMORY ll/HOLOCAUST MUSEUM- HOUSTON, TEXAS.

TWO VIEWS OF ART FROM MEXICO/BELA GOLD AND NAOMI SIEGMANN/CANAL STREET GALLERY/HOUSTON, TEXAS.

2010

GROUP SHOWS

SELECTION AND PARTICIPATION IN:
GRAPHIC IDENTITY AND TAMARIND INSTITUTE-50 YEARS EXHIBITION
MUSEO NACIONAL DE LA ESTAMPA, MEXICO.

EXHIBITION: CONTINUOUS LINES.
MUSEO DE ARTE CONTEMPORÁNEO- TAMAULIPAS-TMPS. MEXICO
SECRETARIAT OF FINANCE AND PUBLIC CREDIT.

MABAT AL ISRAEL EXHIBITION-
INSTITUTO CULTURAL MEXICO- ISRAEL
26TH FESTIVAL OF MEXICO IN THE HISTORIC CENTER

MÉXICO VIVO FOUNDATION
EXHIBITION-AUCTION
MUSEUM OF MODERN ART

2009

SOLO AND GROUP SHOWS

53rd VENICE BIENNIAL 2009/ARTISTS’ MUSEUM –GROUP PARTICIPATION/CULTURE KIOSK SOUVENIR ART/MARKERS 7 – ISRAEL.

MOSTRA DE MAIL ART INTERNAZIONALI - LA SPEZIA/ITALY

"MABAT AL ISRAEL" TRAVELING EXHIBITION, INSTITUTO CULTURAL MÉXICO ISRAEL, A. C/ISRAELI EMBASSY IN MEXICO, presented in Israel/at JEVEL ESHKOL, in Gvulot Kibbutz, during the opening of BEIT MÉXICO (The Mexican Center), July 2009.

SELECTED ARTIST FOR 1ST BIENNIAL OF CONTEMPORARY MEXICAN ENGRAVING 2009-INBA-MUNAE IAGO-ROJO URBIOLA FUNDATION

PARTICIPATION IN ON-LINE EXHIBITION AT SAATCHI GALLERY .html (LONDON . WORK UNTIL 2009.

2008

PARTICIPATION IN ON-LINE EXHIBITION AT SAATCHI GALLERY .html

SOLO SHOWS
WALL AND A CLOUD/INTERNATIONAL CERVANTES FESTIVAL/ORGANIZED BY CARLOS ASHIDA/MUSEO ICONOGRÁFICO DE GUANAJUATO.

GROUP SHOWS

MUSEO DE LA ESTAMPA TOLUCA, EDO DE MÉXICO, ALTERNATIVE VIEWS OF ILLUSTRATIONS IN MEXICO. SYMPOSIUM ON ILLUSTRATIONS AND ENGRAVINGS EXHIBITION.

2007

SOLO SHOWS

WORDS AND SILENCE GALERÍA METROPOLITANA–MEXICO CITY

GROUP SHOWS

DIVINE INTENT ALTERNATIVE CIRCUIT. VENICE BIENNIAL- VERSION 2007-MARKERS VI. THE ARTISTS MUSEUM. VENICE.

MOSTRE IMPROBABILI 7 INTERNATIONAL MAIL PROJECT. SCHEGGE D'ARTE PER UNA REALTÀ NON ORDINARIA VENECIA, ITALIA.

FROM RUINS TO SPLENDOR. GALERÍA L ÁRT 23- TRES, IN CONJUNCTION WITH MACO FAIR- MEXICO CITY, MEXICO.

INCISIONES GROUP SHOW, GALERIA LA SIEMPRE HABANA “LA SIEMPRE HABANA” GALERÍA LOUIS C. MORTON. MEXICO CITY.

“WORDS AND SILENCE” CONGRESS, WITH: LUIS RIUS CASO, DR. GEORGES ROQUE, DR. ELIA ESPINOSA, ESTHER CHARABATY, TERESA ARQ
ALTERNATIVE FORMS OF ILLUSTRATION IN MEXICO. SYMPOSIUM ON ILLUSTRATIONS AND ENGRAVINGS EXHIBITION

2006
SOLO AND GROUP SHOWS

SILENCE SOLO SHOW Consulate General of Mexico, San Francisco, Ca. .

FROM MEMORY TO SILENCE. Galería L ART 23-TRES. Mexico City.

ART BOOKS. Mogen David Hebrew School Gallery. Mexico City. Mexico

GROUP SHOW: GRAPHIC ARCHIPELAGOS. Participation in
Illustrations Folder of 40 artists to commemorate 30th Anniversary of Manuel Felguerez Gallery, UAM, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana.

PUBLICATIONS AND LECTURES-RADIO AND TELEVISION-SELECTION

Contributed 1 article to Book on PROFESIONALIZACIÓN DEL ARTE Y LOS SISTEMAS ARTÍSTICOS. Universidad del Estado de México UAEM- Mexico.

Revista Tiempo de Diseño 02. Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana- Azcapotzalco- México.

Revista CASA DEL TIEMPO- UAM- Mexico, Illustrations
EL USO DE LA TECNOLOGÍA DIGITAL COMO HERRAMIENTA PARA LA
SINTÁXIS ARTÍSTICA

Twenty-five drawings and cover for Twelfth Night or What You Will, by
William Shakespeare, published by CONACULTA.

Participation in round table on Artistic Education in tribute to Juan Acha at Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas, UNAM.

CUNG Sulkin, Paloma. Tierra para echar raíces. Cementerios Judíos en México. CNCA / INAH and Asociacion Yad Vashem de México. 2009.

AAVV. Profesionalización del arte y los sistemas artísticos. Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México UAEM, Mexico, 2007.

Revista Tiempo de Diseño 02. Article and Illustrations “El dibujo como proceso de configuración para la enseñanza del diseño” Annual publication. UAM, Azcapotzalco. Mexico, 2006
VILLALOBOS, Álvaro (comp.). Profesionalización del Arte y los Sistemas Artísticos. UAEM. Mexico 2006.

GOLD, Bela / TOLEDO Ramirez, Francisco Gerardo. EL DIBUJO COMO PROCESO DE CONFIGURACIÓN PARA LA ENSEÑANZA DEL DISEÑO. UAM - MEXICO, 2003.
Presentation of E-book. Casa del Tiempo. UAM. Presented by: Luis Ignacio Sáinz, Eduardo Bernal and Miguel Ángel Echegaray. 2003

Publication of her work in ONE ART, ONE WORLD, ART NOW INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION. 2010, MIAMI- USA

Speaker at “2010 Conference for Latin American Teachers of the Holocaust” HOLOCAUST MUSEUM IN HOUSTON, TEXAS, USA. 2010

Guest artist in Jumex Collection. “Art in Construction.” Produced and edited by Channel 22.
Topic: “Material: Conquest and Seduction,” with: Alfredo Gavaldón, Laurie Litowitz and Bela Gold.

2008
Interview by Dr. Andrés Roemer, Channel 40, Project 40. Program entitled “ENTRE LO PÜBLICO Y LO PRIVADO”- 2007

2006
Participation in “Lend me your eyes," program, conducted by Angélica Abelleyra, Channel 22. 2002. Interview conducted by Nora Patricia Jara in Grupo IMER, Radio 94.5. “21st Century Women” program.

PARTICIPATION IN PANELS

2009
Peer committee that evaluated the degree of consolidation of PROMEP faculty members, PUBLIC EDUCATION SECRETARIAT.

2008-2009, 2010, Selection committee for graduate scholarships and research stays offered by governments of Canada,
Japan and France. Foreign Affairs Secretariat (SRE).

2007
Selection committee for scholarships offered by Government of Canada for 2008-2009 academic year. SHCP

2006
Panel for Program to Promote Artistic Creation and Development in Puebla. Secretary of Culture of the State of Puebla

2003
Panel Mexico-New York Artistic Residence Program. FONCA.

2002
PANEL for State Prize for Drawing, Painting and Illustration. San Luis Potosí, Mexico
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Education

Bela Gold holds a doctorate in Design and New Technologies from the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Unidad Azcapotzalco (UAM-A); an M.A. in Visual Arts from the National University of Mexico (UNAM); and a B.A. in Fine Arts from the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem.
Since 1979, she has been a professor-researcher at UAM-A. She coordinated the bachelor’s degree course in Art and Design (project approval pending) and won the PROMEP-SEP performance award for the period from 2003-2010.
She has received the following awards: Honorable Mention for the Herman Sctruck Illustration Prize in Israel in 1975; Painting Prize at the 1st Nestlé National Painting Biennial, Mexico, 1992; Omnilife Grand Prize 2000, Guadalajara, Jalisco, for Illustration/Engraving and honorable mention in the 2nd Alfredo Zalce National Painting and Engraving Biennial, Michoacán, Mexico. She won the PROMEP-SEP Prize for 2003-2010.

She was a grantholder of the Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes for the Exchange of Artistic Residences between Mexico and Canada at the Banff Center for the Arts and a Member of the National System for Art Creators on two occasions: 2001-2004 and 2004-2007
She obtained a doctorate in Design and Visual Arts, New Technologies in 2009, from the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana.
She won the ACADEMIC MERIT MEDAL for obtaining the highest grades in her year and for the standard of her doctoral dissertation: A POSSIBLE ARTISTIC VISION at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana
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