During one of our visits at the studio of the Israeli painter Jan Rauchwerger, I noticed shelves with statuettes made of ceramic clay. My initial assumption that this is part of Jan’s personal collection, proved wrong – all these works were created by Jan himself.

It turned out that Jan Rauchwerger has been sculpting for many years now, though not taking it very seriously. He has never exhibited these, one could say that he sculpts for his own pleasure. Usually, the statuettes are female figures, many times evolving organically from his works with model.

Nevertheless, and recalling the saying “a sculptor’s painting”, I would not call this “a painter’s sculpture”. I see there a play with the plastics of prehistoric figurines. Some of the statuettes could easily be imagined greatly magnified and cast in bronze.

Jan the sculptor is evidently experiencing the joy of creation, “having fun” – as plainly as a kid would have, after finding a piece of clay on a sea shore.

Leonid Zeiger

Click here for the interview with Jan Rauchwerger (year 2011) and a link to his personal site