BEYT - NAIMA - ART

 

 Born in 1949 in former Leningrad, immigrated to Israel in 1979.

 

      Education and Teaching:

1972 - Master'Degree, Mukhina Art Academy, St Petersburg, Russia
1986 - Senior Lecturer drawing at Bezalel Academy of Art, Jerusalem
1989 - Associate Professor, Belarmin College, Kentucky, USA.

 

 "Okun portrays this whole human comedy, this cruel existentialist satire, in the classic language of art, which he peppers with grotesque caricature. Accordingly, an affinity (among others) with the satiric caricatures of the British artist William Hogarth lies hidden behind the imposing affinity of these works with classical Renaissance painting: here, a reference to Michelangelo and the monumental human form, there, references to motifs from the paintings of Botticelli, Raphael, Lucas Cranach, among others. “I arrived in this country from the Hermitage,” Okun reminds us of Leningrad and the environment of classical painting in which he grew up before he immigrated here in 1979. Indeed, we cannot but wonder at the rare expertise of the artist, his phenomenal draftsmanship and his understanding of color; we would be hard pressed to find comparable examples in our region (emphasizing, accordingly, Okun’s deviation from the language of the “Hershberg” school of Israeli realism). Besides his exemplary control of human anatomy, where Okun succeeds is in his ability to endow the topography of the human body with the gentle qualities of landscapes, and fill the cellulite-riddled skin with delicate, nuanced, picturesque textures."

 

                                  Gideon Ofrat