Michael Rogatchi (C). Duetto in Red. 2017. The Rogatchi Art Collection.
At Strabens Hall we frequently come across individuals who have a firm commitment to using their talents, influence and resources to make a real difference to others.
Philanthropy is a topic that we often discuss with our clients – and more specifically, how best to make a meaningful impact with charitable initiatives. A prime example of such people are Inna and Michael Rogatchi who have an unwavering dedication to using their remarkable artistic talents for the greater good.
If you looked in a pictorial dictionary for a definition of ‘polymath’, you might see a photograph of the Rogatchis. Inna is a writer, scholar, lecturer, film maker and art photographer. Michael is an artist, but with an MSC in Neuroscience.
In 2013 they received an award for ‘Outstanding contribution to the Arts and Culture’ – the first time that this award had been received by a couple of artists rather than an individual, and 2016 they exhibited their works together for the first time. The exhibition was fittingly called ‘At the Same time’.
Michael Rogatchi (C). Bolero. Original art composition. Triptych. Part II. 2000-2002.
Whilst Inna and Michael are both renowned artists, their works manifest themselves in very different forms. Michael’s work follows a rare genre of ‘metaphorical expressionism’, and is the only living artist who has had a personal retrospective at the Tampere Hall, Scandinavia’s largest art museum. Inna’s art is an original form of photography, and has resulted in her being the first individual to win the Volo di Pegaso Italian National Art, Literature and Music award twice.
Michael and Inna’s work can be found in the premises of the European Union and European Parliament, fitting indeed for this couple who are truly European, as they split their time between Finland and Italy.
Inna Rogatchi (C). Venetian Evening I. 2018.
Whilst their artistic achievements are so notable, what really sets the Rogatchis apart is their commitment to charity. They were co-founders of ‘Arts Against Cancer’ where the Honorable Chairman was Rostropovich and subsequently established the Rogatchi Foundation to take a more targeted approach to their charitable activities.
They promote art and culture, support moral heritage, help young talents, and provide for the elderly and needy, specifically focussing on orphans. They passionately believe that art and culture can play an exceptionally powerful role in philanthropy and in making a difference to those in need. The Rogatchi’s life is a whirlwind of activity and as the couples’ artistic endeavours become more widely known, their schedule becomes busier. It is clear that as much as their artistic passion drives them to do more and more, it is the knowledge that much of what they do is ultimately for the greater good that gives them their drive to succeed and is the true inspiration behind their passion. Their latest initiative is to support children’s art education and to this end they are producing 65 limited edition prints of ‘Duetto in Rain’ which will support this ‘For the Artists of Tomorrow’ project.
As a private client adviser, there is little more fascinating than understanding what motivates clients. In the Rogatchi’s case, it is clear that their desire to leave a legacy and to demonstrably improve the lives of those less fortunate than themselves is the fuel of their many artistic achievements.
Michael and Inna Rogatchi. Florence, Italy, winter 2018. Photo: Marusca Pagliuca (C). The Rogatchi Archive.
EXCERPTS FROM REVIEW BY CHARLOTTE GAIT, LONDON, the UK
It is Michael Rogatchi’s magically coloured oil paintings through which he feels he can truly express himself. His ability with the medium is overwhelming.
Abduction of Europa. Oil on canvas. 90 x 70 cm. 1998.
The other magical aspect of Rogatchi’s art is his ability to express the innermost of the protagonists on his canvases. People’s souls come alive in the Kafka-esque stunning surrealist works by the artist”.
The Art of Overwhelmed Heart : Michael Rogatchi and His Zion Waltz series
by Irina Lazarev (C)
May 2017
Shabbat Shalom newspaper, 5/2017
The new series of the artist is felt as quite close to me because of its spirituality, the mood transcended by the art work, and that peculiar musicality of the Rogatchi’s works. Indeed, every single work in the Zion Waltz series as if filled with sounding music. These works are as if breathing. They are living their own life. The joy provided by these art works is certainly not just of an aesthetic character. These works are evoking one’s thoughts, they are awakening and igniting one’s imagination. Those works are inviting their viewer for a journey. Where to? What is the destination? I will try to understand it.
Here is the Rogatchi’s Jewish Melody. Huge circle of a moon as if being drunk with the sound of melancholic music; against it there is a moving figure of the violinist who stays firmly on the weightless feature of inspiration. The artist uses just two main colours in this work, blue and yellow, but how many shadows of those colours the artist did manage to get onto his canvas. One gets the impression of not simply hearing music from that canvas, but gets the sensation of the music getting more and more volume, filling all the space of the work – and beyond it.
The other work, Under the Jerusalem Skies, provides the other kind of melodic sensation. This bright and intense in colour work as if filled by light through and through. It gives to each of us a possibility to see the ancient and eternal Jerusalem through our individual lenses. In front of this work, we have a luxury of imagining our each’ own Jerusalem looking at this superbly intricate art.
Among the other works, Zion Waltz, the title work of the series, is very original and powerful, both in the idea and its realisation. The artist created two doves, with their wings being interplayed into the David Star in a fine harmony; an accordion player is sitting on his shaky stool, and you have sensation of being completely inside that special world of touching and never-ending Chassidic niguns.
Simcha ( Joy) diptych could be seen as the work build on contrast, from the first impression on the composition. While the man’s figure is super-energetic and is striking in its freeze on the peak of the frantic movements of a dance of joy, the woman figure is so incredibly gentle; her weightless being is floating over the entire world. But soon you are getting the harmony of those two figures put by the artist together in his incredibly impressive diptych. You can see this harmony in the meaning which Michael has put behind his characters, in their both’ so palpable intention to get into the light, into the joy, to be happy.
The work Ljuli-Ljiuli. Lullaby is simply stunning. Its personages are getting to one’s heart directly and in no time. The musician there is hugging his violin and also his most precious treasure in his life, his wife and their baby. The father’s chin does not pressed onto a violin in would be expected motion, but his head and all his attention in this world is turned to his baby who is sleeping peacefully under the sounds of his father’s lullaby. There are some critics’ opinions on this work that we are talking on modern classic here. I cannot agree more on that.
Michael Rogatchi (C). Liuli-Liuli. 2016.
From My Grandmother’s Song canvas, we are as if hearing those dear to so many of us Yiddish songs known by us by heart since our early childhood. Here is white-snowed little goat over a child’s cradle; here is little hen, and there is dreaming cow, all of them are coming from this work of Michael along with familiar, dear scent of our childhood. This scent is spread over one’s family home, and it infuses into itself one’s family, parents, extended family, the entire Jewish people. We all are there, on that canvas.
And the people, all of us, is the theme and heroes of yet another work from the series, The Way of Jewish People. Millions of stars there are striving towards the Window of Knowledge, towards our Tablets. And you are hearing inside yourself the words of the morning prayer: “ And I will make your successors as many, as stars in the heaven and as sand on the sea shore”.
This is my personal perception of the Michael Rogatchi’s new art series. There is no doubt in my mind that everyone would find something personal among those engaging works, and certainly something purifying and uplifting, as well.
There are also a couple of Michael’s recent works which are not the part of the series but it is important to reflect upon them, too. These works are Kiddush and No Place for Wagner. Both works belong to the notable art collections in London, both were created by Michael for his friends, well-known people in the world Jewry, the former long-term chairman of the Western Marble Arch Synagogue Mr Stanley Simmonds and famous Rabbi Lionel Rosenfeld, the senior Rabbi of the same synagogue and internationally renowned cantor, the leader of The Shabbaton Choir.
Michael’s wife Inna Rogatchi shared with us their recent memories with regard to those two special works: “The Marble Arch Synagogue known also as the World Jewry’s London Address had been over-packed at the moment when Michael entrusted his Kiddush art work to the community long-standing chairman, our good friend Stanley Simmonds. Despite so many people present, at the moment of the work’s handing, there was a complete silence within the Synagogue. And the silence had been very warm one. Everybody has admired the work which has been placed in the big Synagogue Hall for several days, so people could see in it detail and from a close distance.
Another work which has find its new London address recently is No Place for Wagner which Michael has created for our dear friend, Rabbi Lionel Rosenfeld known also as a Singing Rabbi and the leader of the famed Shabbaton choir. Rabbi Lionel is the Senior Rabbi of the London Western Marble Arch Synagogue, the one where Lord Rabbi Sacks was working at for many years before coming the chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom, and where he still administrates the High Holidays every year. Talented musician, courageous and brilliant man, and fantastic Rabbi, Lionel has mentioned that “this work’s title weights more for me than some ten other paintings”. Both the Rabbi and his family just love this work of Michael’s, and its meaning, too”.
In the Autumn 2017, Michael and Inna Rogatchi are planning their joint exhibition at the premises of the Western Marble Arch Synagogue in London; the exhibition will be dedicated to the High Holidays.
It is important to note that Michael Rogatchi has created his new Zion Waltz series thinking on two important jubilees in the modern Jewish history, the 50th anniversary of the re-unification of Jerusalem in 2017, and the 70th anniversary of the Independence of the State of Israel in 2018.
This year, the government of Israel has decided that the honour of the lighting the one of the torches at the ceremony during the Independence Day would be given to the representative of Diaspora, for the first time in the history of Israel. Dr Hannu Takkula, the leading Finnish Member of the European Parliament, who is well-known for his long-standing support of Israel, did officially nominated Michael Rogatchi as the candidate for lighting the torch.
In his Nominating Letter to the Israeli Minister of Culture Miri Regev and the Ministerial Committee for Ceremonies and Symbols, MEP Dr Takkula wrote the following: “All his life Michael Rogatchi has devoted to glorifying the Jewish people in the global scale; glorifying the Jewish people’s joint past, present and future. Michael’s art works portraying the Jewish world has been shown all over the world. His philanthropy supporting various Jewish causes, as in Israel, as in Diaspora, is continuing for thirty years. In anything he creates and does in his international artistic career and his charitable activities, Michael always is led by the most important for him principle, his unquestionable love for Israel and its people. Quoting the world famous Jewish artist and philanthropist, chairman of The Rogatchi Foundation, Michael Rogatchi, “the main quality of Jewish people is our togetherness”. This is exactly the line which has been chosen by the respected Ministerial Committee as the main criteria for the choosing the candidate from Diaspora to light the torch at the Independence Day ceremony”.
What one can add to this description of an artist, a man, a Jew? Maybe, just this: however huge is an artist’s contribution into a cultural heritage of his people, the main value of any kind of art is its impact on a human being. If an artist’s works makes one to think, if it provides nourishment for one’s mind and heart it means that it has been not created for nothing.
I entitled the story about the Michael Rogatchi’s newest art series thinking about Pushkin and his poem about overwhelmed heart. For great Russian poet, the reason for creating his immortal verses was a different one. As for me, I feel the similar emotions many years and centuries later: the heart beats up, it is overwhelmed with the feelings of uplifted emotions. The feelings which were numbed to some degree by the daily routine are reborn. And this all has been happening due to the new series by Michael Rogatchi and his images, his Zion Waltz. Is such impact not the main value of the new success of this great modern master?.. It surely is.
The JerUSAlem Connection Report, Washington D.C., USA
February 12, 2017
MOTIF OF TREES IN THE ART OF MICHAEL ROGATCHI
Michael Rogatchi (C). Under Skies of Jerusalem. 2016.
Under the Skies of Jerusalem is the last of the new ZION WALTZ series of large oil canvasses that Michael Rogatchi has completed recently. The exhibition of the Rogatchi’s 30 art works has been invited to celebrate the 50th anniversary of re-unification of Jerusalem as the official part of the celebration later this year. It would be also shown at the festivals of Jewish culture in Scotland, London, Australia and USA.
Two other art works, Adagio-40 and I Love You Much Too Much, named after famous Yiddish tango, are also the recent works of the artist.
Michael Rogatchi (C). Adagio-40. 2016. The Rogatchi Art Collection.
Accompanied art video portrays very well-known Jewish Melody original art series of Michael Rogatchi –
Michael Rogatchi (C). I Love You Much Too Much. 2016. Private collection, Estonia.
The series had its inauguration at the IV World Litvak Congress in Vilnius, Lithuania, as the only solo art exhibition there and it had its six months’ exhibition at the Vilnius Public Jewish Library in the capital of Lithuania. Later on, it was shown in Tallinn at four-moths prestigious art exhibition at the Tallinn spectacular New Synagogue. The series will be exhibited in London in the autumn 2017.
INTRODUCTION TO THE PRINCE’S TRUST SPECIAL CHARITABLE ART AUCTION, LONDON, the UK
Weaved by Light. Oil on canvas. 90 x 70 cm. 1996. Private collection, Edinburgh.
Weaved by Light os a powerful work from 1996 by the acclaimed artist Michael Rogatchi. His ability to capture a sense of elemental freedom, in which light appears to physically create and define the figure, shows his mastery of the medium and intense sensitivity to the human condition.
FROM THE INTRODUCTION BROCHURE, THE PRINCE’S TRUST CHARITABLE ART AUCTION, OCTOBER 2009.
First published in the SHALOM magazine, Ukraine, September 2015
Michael Rogatchi (C). April Melody. 2015.
Getting closer to the heights of beauty in art is always a miracle. It is the miracle of discovering new, original and precious things, not just in our environment, but also inside ourselves. The joy of such discovery is overwhelming, it touches powerfully one’s innermost being. It also acts as the drive to share these powerful impressions widely. This is exactly the complex of feelings that Divertimento, the new original art series by Michael Rogatchi, invokes.
I was lucky enough to write about this artist before. He is the one of the most talented contemporary masters, and his works adorn many leading museums and private collections world-wide, including some top celebrities’ art collections in the United Kingdom, Israel, Italy, France and the USA.
It is quite obvious to me that Michael possess a talent of celestial origin. This artist is able not just to be inspired by the music he is listening to and knows very well, but also to recreate it on his canvases, almost literally.
How on earth he is able to depict that weightless gracefulness of Chopin? How does he create on his canvases Mozart’s finest depth so palpably? I am at a lost for an explanation, but I do know that just a glance at Michael’s works provides you with an instant ‘concert’ in your mind assembled by your favourite melodies of music geniuses that you know by heart from your childhood.
Michael Rogatchi. Amadeus. Little Night Serenade. 2015.
Michael has told us that his “Divertimento series is a project dedicated to the enlightened memory of our dear friend Slava (Mstislav) Rostropovich. Also, one of the series’ works, Piano Concerto, is in homage to our other close and very dear friend Maestro Evgeny Kissin who had seen the work already and liked it a lot”.
The new series is presented as a whole in a musical video-essay created by Michael’s wife, Inna Rogatchi. This video is amazing, it is a small masterpiece. The music there works in complete unison with the paintings.
Inna has commented on the unique harmony of her husband’s new art work and the music she found for her art video on the series:
“I love the authentic old records. It always brings the energy of the musicians who have recorded it alive, to me. The music in this video-essay is a truly rare archive record of the famed Moscow Radio Orchestra done in the turbulent and dramatic year 1937. The orchestra is conducted by Oskar Fried, an outstanding composer and musician who had been a friend and close colleague of Gustav Mahler and the very first conductor who has made, on Mahler’s invitation, a recording of Mahler’s symphony, the Resurrection Symphony. Fried fled Nazi Germany in 1934 and settled in the Soviet Union where he died in August 1941.( When Inna Rogatchi refers to Mahler, one should remember that she is related to the great composer, she is a great-niece of Mahler’s niece Eleanore Rose – IL).
Importantly, the musicians of that very orchestra had been the outstanding ones. They were selected specifically as the plan was that the orchestra would be led by Otto Klemperer who fled Nazi Germany at the same time as Oskar Fried did. Klemperer himself also had been a close friend and colleague of both Mahler and Fried. As we know, due to a number of reasons, Klemperer did not come to the USSR, and his friend Oskar Fried was invited to lead the orchestra in the end of the 1930s.
By invoking this music to create a natural milieu for Michael’s works in his Divertimento series, all themed on classical music, we tried to revive the spirit of those people, the outstanding musicians with a tragic destiny. We wanted that people today would be hearing them alive, even if for only a little bit”.
Inna also says that anything connected with Gustav Mahler has a special connotation to her, as she is related to the great composer. Inna’s great-aunt, internationally renowned violinist Eleanore Rose was Mahler’s niece.
Inna Rogatchi’s Divertismento art video is about four minutes. In such a short time, it depicts 22 of Michael’s art works, all devoted to classical music.
Personally, due to my education, I have a peculiar art taste. It is based on realistic art, on the classical works which I know up to the smallest detail after years of repeated visits to art galleries followed by nightly examinations of thick art albums and monographs.
But Michael Rogatchi’s art is from another planet. His artistic world is a superbly fine one, fluid, and beautifully elusive. It is exquisite art and it is an unique world.
Michael Rogatchi (C). Concerto Per Te. 2015. Private collection, Italy.
Just a few strokes in his April Melody work – and you are as if feeling both cool and sunny light touch of a spring wind on your cheek.
While watching his Nissan Rose work, you are as if hearing some special melody.
Surely, different viewers of this work are having their personal associations, originating from the work’s title which can be interpreted in so many ways. Referring to Biblical Psalms, some could think of ‘the woman who is ascending towards the sun”; others might refer to ‘her who is striving for success’. But it well may be also a reference to the Hebrew name of the spring month of Nissan which is also close to the word Nizan, a bud – as you can see it so graphically in this remarkable work.
Michael Rogatchi (C). Nissan Rose. 2015. The Rogatchi Art Collection.
While a melody sounds in your mind, – and Michael’s works from this series are all ‘sounding paintings’ – one can remember a beautiful line from the Song of Songs: “The flowers appear on the earth. The time of the singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.”
Several works from the series gets a viewer into the world of Mozart, the favourite composer of the artist. Michael has created his own, now trade-marked and critically acclaimed, very special image of Amadeus, back in 1991. His Amadeus is very original, interesting, but most importantly, alive one.
It is a rare treat, to see this Mozart on various works by Rogatchi. His Amadeus sparks a whole load of thoughts creating yet another, intellectual dimension of Michael’s art on music.
To ‘consume’ that famous Amadeus by Rogatchi is a rare intellectual pleasure, and it is also an invitation for one’s own intensified intellectual work.
Michael Rogatchi (C). Amadeus. Ultimo Credo. 2015.
During his intensive career, Michael has created many works featuring music and musicians, so there is little surprise that currently The Rogatchi Foundation (www.rogatchifoundation.org) and their partners are building up a big exhibition Michael Rogatchi: The World of Music. I have no doubt that the exhibition will have an overwhelming international success.
To support my confidence, some notable private art collectors who own the works by Rogatchi, are making the similar point. One of the European friends and avid collector of the artist has noted that “Michael’s art works are aspiring to a unique quality: one can literally hear music coming out of his canvases”.
One work in the series stands out for me, in particular, Family Concert. A man and a woman are featured there, both with musical instruments in their hands. Their faces are inspired ones, bows in their hands are flying. But most importantly, they seem to be inseparable, they are the whole.
I was thinking on what has made this very work so attractive to me? And I have realised that the work reminds me very much of the Rogatchis as a couple. This artistic couple is a very special ‘alloy’; those two talented people are united in between themselves in a puzzle-like motion; they are complimenting each other in a remarkable way.
Inna and Michael Rogatchi are very well known internationally not only due to their numerous creative projects, but also because of their long-standing charitable activities.
Some while ago, Michael and Inna were awarding personal stipends to the best boy and girl students of the Dnepropetrovsk Jewish Schools in Ukraine. That time, the winners happened to be David Ariel Shapiro and Racheli Rudovski.
As Racheli told us later, during the ceremony she had a glance at David and realised that it ‘had been a gift from Heaven’. A year later, Racheli and David got married. The young couple lives in Vienna, and recently, they have become parents of their first child, a girl named Chaya Mushka.
This one is quite particular, but in my understanding, it is one of the most important results of the Rogatchi couple’s charitable activities. Interestingly, they are still in touch with David and Racheli and are still supporting the young Shapiro family.
Returning to Michael’s Divertimento, the series has been completed now, and the exhibitions are planned for Florence, Italy where it has been conceived and commissioned first, as well as for New York, Austria, and possibly Israel.
Michael Rogatchi (C). Family Concert. 2015. The Rogatchi Art Collection.
Michael is still working on his World of Music, currently making a special work on canvas in commemoration of the 70th anniversary of another dear friend of the Rogatchi couple, the prolific modern composer from Lithuania Anatolius Senderovas.
The musical video-essay of the new series is available at the Rogatchi Art video-channel in YouTube.
To watch it is highly recommended. When you are seeing it, you will get still for a few minutes. You will feel yourself in another dimension. You will be frozen amidst the whirls of the merciless flow of time, and you will feel that your soul is flying high up, following the ongoing flight of the soul of the artist, Michael Rogatchi.
You will feel a fresh mighty flow of things new and beautiful which will overwhelmingly infuse your innermost being – so that you feel a strong imperative to share this new emotional knowledge, a treasure that has become
On Thursday 3 November 2016 at 7 pm, At the Same Time exhibition of art photographs and paintings by Inna and Michael Rogatchi will be opened at Loft Gallery Spazio MatEr, with welcome greetings by the President of the Maxxi Foundation of the Contemporary Arts Dr Giovanna Melandri and the President of the Jewish Community of Rome Dr Ruth Dureghello.
Michael Rogatchi (C). Love-Thread. 2013.
The Finnish artistic couple, Inna and Michael Rogatchi will return to Rome after their very successful presentation of The Lessons of Survival documentary in the Sala degli Arazzi of the Rai headquarters in Rome earlier this year.
On the forthcoming new occasion, Inna Rogatchi will be presenting her art photography works and new art documentary in honor of Rome together with her husband Michael’s of his classical paintings on music, reflecting on their long and intense artistic career.
THE EXHIBITION
The exhibition curated by Ilaria Sergi, and named by the curator At the Same Time is looking at the points of view and interaction of a man and a woman in the world. This vision responds quite well to Inna and Michael Rogatchi, Finnish artists of international acclaim who choose the Italiancapital to show their latest work. The exhibition explores the path between Michael’s painting and music and Inna’s art photography and her artistic vision. In the case of Rogatchis, what is interesting and significant is the factual parallel, the perpetual trend of their work signifying that the couple is united not only in life, but also in art.
Michael Rogatchi (C). Blue Trombone Variation III. 2016.
The tenderness of the gaze, the delicacy, the poetry, the innovation of Inna’s art photography shows a world of possibilities, which intertwines harmoniously with the power of memory, as an instrument of evolution, and the lyric of music told by Michael’s pictorial works .
The exhibition thus becomes an “Atlas of emotions” taking on a dual meaning: telling the story of “life together” using “traces”, albeit different, but which come from the same “feeling”. The medium of art photography is intertwined with that of painting.
THE WORKS
The protagonist of this exhibition is Reality. Perceived and lived “at the same time” by a man and a woman and transformed, through different mediums, into an art photographic image and a pictorial image.
Poetry and metaphor of reality are the ingredients of Inna Rogatchi’s art photography effort which will be accompanied in this exhibition by small essays to tell the spectators in more detail on the poetic allusions represented.
Michael Rogatchi’s works represent an important research work that the artist has created on the big names in the history of classical music.
BIOGRAPHY
Inna Rogatchi is an internationally recognised writer and art photographer. Her main interest is to probe the complex intertwining of relationships between culture and people’s mentality. She has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Italy and abroad, and has been invited to exhibit in Venice, in conjunction with the 69th Venice Film Festival.
Michael Rogatchi is a well-known artist highly appreciated for his romantic and versified works, with over 70 personal exhibitions around the world. Many of his works belong to important public and private collections.
Michael Rogatchi (C). April Melody. 2015.
Inna and Michael Rogatchi are also co-founders and co-chairs of the Rogatchi Foundation, an international charitable organization that promotes and supports the historical, spiritual, moral and educational heritage (www.rogatchifoundation.org).
SPECIAL EVENTS DURING THE EXHIBITION
The Rogatchi Foundation organizes a charity auction in support of the areas and populations hit by the earthquake in Italy last August 24, 2016, with the art works specifically created for this occasion.
The cover story of the issue 3/2017-1//5778 , the Hakehila magazine of the Finnish Jewish community.
SIGNIFICANT ART DONATION TO THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF HELSINKI
By Ruth Jacobson
Hakehila Magazine, 3/2017 – 1/5778
Jewish World
The art collection of the Michael Rogatchi’s Biblical paintings has received a permanent home in Finland
The artistic pair of Inna and Michael Rogatchi is known world-wide due to their exceptionally wide and multi-sided activities. Besides the Inna’s work as an art photographer and artist, film maker and documentaries producer, she is also an outstanding writer, well-known journalist, scholar, historian and lecturer. Her husband Michael who started his career back in 1980s as a promising scientist in the field of neurochemistry, has earned later a remarkable reputation as productive, powerful and original artist whose works has been shown in more than 75 exhibitions world-wide. The Rogatchis who has moved to Finland from St Petersburg in the end of 1980s, also are living and working in Italy, and are very active in Europe, Israel and the USA.
Michael Rogatchi’s original and masterly art, rich in colour and full of symbolism, is breathing with the Jewish spiritual heritage, continues it and develops it further on.
His artistic manner known as ‘metaphorical expressionism’ is richly expressed in many of his works portraying large world of music and arts. Among his recent important works is 15-piece Zion Waltz series of the oil paintings which has been created by the artist in the project of commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the re-unification of Jerusalem and the 70th anniversary of the Independence of the State of Israel. The project had been initiated on the invitation of the Ministry of Culture of Israel.
Michael’s expressive art works which can be seen as clear continuation of the Chagall tradition are to be found in many important museums, public and cultural organisations and notable private collections all around the world.
In their multiplied activities, Inna and Michael are cherishing Jewish historical, cultural and spiritual tradition. They also are active philanthropists who are providing support, among the others, to elderly people in need, and to the cancer-children patients and their families. The Rogatchis are actively practising their international cultural philanthropy from 1989 onward. After intensive and successful work of their Arts Against Cancer international charity, their The Rogatchi Foundation has been established in 2004.
This year, on the eve of the most important dates in the annual Jewish calendar, the Jewish New Year, which is the time of charity, in particular, Inna and Michael Rogatchi and their The Rogatchi Foundation decided to donate a special collection of ten museum-quality art replicas of the Michael Rogatchi’s emphatically expressive works from his well-known Forefather series portraying Patriarchs and Matriarchs to the Helsinki Jewish community. Inna and Michael Rogatchi has dedicated their donation to the memory of their families of Chigrinsky-Elovitch-Bujanover and Reiss-Litowsky-Rogatchi.
From the donation, the five art works depicting important Biblical heroes ( Abraham and Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron and Samson) will adore the walls of the Helsinki Jewish community’s Club premises, while another five works dedicated to the Matriarchs and portraying Sarah, Rebecca, Leah, Rachel and Miriam will find a natural for them place at the community’s Sara House for Elderly.
At the art donation event at the Jewish community in Helsinki on September 13, 2017, the president of The Rogatchi Foundation Inna Rogatchi had explained on why they have decided to donate to the Helsinki Jewish community namely these art works:” We are very glad to be able to contribute to both young and elderly, to bring some of our art to the places of gathering of children and youth, and to the home for elderly people in Helsinki. Donating to the both places at the same time aims to achieve certain harmony which is essential principle of life. The meaning of this harmony is renewed every year at the time preceding the Jewsih High Holidays. We are very glad to provide these beautiful works of art to the places where they will ‘do a good work’ and will do it for years to come”.
The original Forefathers series, the works evoking thoughts and feelings strongly, had been created by Michael Rogatchi during the period of sixteen years, between 1995 and 2010. The series had been exhibited in Israel and many European countries. “ Michael Rogatchi shares with us not only his immense talent but also the very essence of his warm, ebullient Jewish soul. In his stunning The Patriarchs and the Matriarch, he makes us to look as if into very Jewish soul itself ”, – famous Rabbi Shmuel Kaminetzki describes the nature and character of this special series.
The artist himself comments on his art donation in the following way: “ The art reaches its purpose only if it is peaks to and with people, if it enlightens their life, provokes their thought. It works if it makes the premises of life, in a broader term, charged with the additional, art-created dimension. From that point of view, I am very glad to be able to contribute into the daily life of our friends from the Helsinki Jewish community by the presence in their premises of my art works which had been made by reflecting on the core of the Jewish values”.
The writer is the member of the Hakehila Editorial Board.
REVIEW IN UNO STILE DI VITA LUXURY & ART MAGAZINE, ITALY
By Sue Miller
The Relais Santa Croce in Florence is staging an exhibition, The Life of Two of Us, a new collection of prominent international artist and philanthropist, Michael Rogatchi. The works will be on display until December.
C’est Fini. Homage to Serge Gainsbourg. Oil on canvas. 120 x 100 cm. 2010.
The exhibition is also an opportunity to support two charitable projects between the Rogatchi Foundation and Baglioni Foundation. Past of the proceeds will go to charitable activities in support of the Foundation’s support of Ukrainian orphans project, while further funds will be donated to OrphanAid Africa Onlus, a large project supported by Baglioni Foundation and providing care for orphans and vulnerable children.
In the light of recent events, The Rogatchi Foundation has also decided to allocate some proceeds from the show sales to the International Fund to aid support in Japan, after the recent Fukusima disaster.
The 22 works includes paintings and drawings, all dominated by colour blue and its play of light and contrasts. In it s chiefly with this colour that the artist describes his concept of Florence, a city to which he feels deeply attached. Music is his inspiration and muse, as well, as love, a theme ever present in his professional life and work.
The Relais Santa Croce perfectly frames Rogatchi’s work. The architecture, the stuccos and beautiful frescoes represent the Florence by which the artist was inspired, while the magnificent Music Hall compliments the themes perfectly conveyed by Michael Rogatchi’s elegant, original, fine and fascinating works of contemporary master.
So often, people view the art world as liberal – yet there are many choices for art appreciation for the traditional conservative Jewish home.
There is the most famous Jewish artist ever, Marc Chagall who said that visiting Palestine (Israel) in 1931 gave him “the most vivid impression he had ever received,” and that he was deeply moved by the holy places. As he said, “In the East I found the Bible and part of my own being.” Chagall was raised in a hassidic home and deeply entrenched in Judaism, and noted “Ever since early childhood, I have been captivated by the Bible. It has always seemed to me and still seems today the greatest source of poetry of all time.”
It’s gorgeous work – and of course there is Chagall hall at the Knesset, windows of Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, at Lincoln Centre, the U.N. and so many other places. Every Jewish home naturally would look great with a Chagall, but since for most of us that is not possible unless a copy, there are museums to visit this holiday.
Michael Rogatchi (C). Portrait of the Tree. Oil on canvas.70 x 50 cm. 1996.
And there are more:
Perhaps the most famous Israeli artist ever, Yaakov Agam makes beautiful, breathtaking, upbeat pieces. He has designed so many gorgeous sculptures, monuments and more – and as an artist his passion for the Jewish people and the greatness of Judaism is very evident. His son, Ron Agam (who is a friend) makes amazing colourful gorgeous pieces as well – one of which I have in my home. Just beautiful, coluorful and upbeat.
Mel Bochner is an artist who uses strong words for art – and his choice of words show so clearly that the man is an American Jew. From his piece entitled “The Joys of Yiddish,” which features Yiddish words in bright yellow letters on a black background, where he includes words like Nudnick, Pusher, Nebbish, Mensch, Schmooze, Schmo, and more. Bochner started as a security guard at The Jewish Museum, and today has very valuable art which examines language and its meaning. Some of the pieces are great, strong, and perfect for tough Jews – I love his piece “Head Honcho” for the self-styled “King of The Universe.”
Of course, there’s the awesome Eden Gallery which is in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and on Madison Avenue in NYC which shows various artists focused primarily on contemporary art – and showcase nearly exclusively Israeli artists. They showcase awesome happy, feel good-work – ranging from David Kracov who makes a box with Albert Einstein which is hanging in the office of my PR firm to the breathtaking photography of Lirone. And a walk near the King David Hotel in Jerusalem or from the Alrov Mall up to and including Nachalat Shiva one passes other interesting galleries.
There is also Arutz Sheva writer Inna Rogatchi’s husband Michael Rogatchi, a renowned artist who paints Jewish themes profoundly and inspiringly. Michael Rogatchi’s Jewish art is powerful, attractive and original, and always surprises and delights us.
Michael Rogatchi (C). Kiddush. 2016. Private collection, London, the UK.
And if you are in Israel, the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, the Tel Aviv Museum and others are worth a visit with your family with an eye to the Jewish art.
Art helps inspire me, and is a great experience – and it’s wonderful to have great Jewish artists to enjoy. It will raise the pride of your family to see Jewish art.
Art helps inspire me, and is a great experience – and it’s wonderful to have great Jewish artists to enjoy. It will raise the pride of your family to see Jewish art.
