Israeli artist takes home international painting prize

An Israeli artist took first prize in an international competition of hyper-realistic portrait painting, beating out thousands of other entries with his picture of a man, woman and dog.

With the win, Matan Ben Cnaan, 35, became the first Israeli to take first prize in the UK’s National Portrait Gallery’s BP Portrait Award of neo-realist portraiture since it was started in 1980.

The competition, sponsored by British Petroleum, is one of the major portrait competitions in the world and is held on an annual basis. The winner receives £30,000 and a commission worth £5,000 to be agreed between the National Portrait Gallery and the artist.

The NPG said 2,748 paintings were submitted to the competition from 92 countries. The winning pieces will be on shown from Thursday to September 20, 2015, in the gallery, considered among the finest portrait galleries in the world.

Ben Cnaan’s piece, Annabelle and Guy, is a large nearly square composition showing a man sitting on a chair, flanked by his adopted daughter and a dog. The scene takes place in a stark, sunlit setting.

Israeli observers will easily recognize the chiseled shadows cast by a fig tree and the figures as characteristic of the region’s unforgiving sun

“We were struck by the engaging filmic narrative of this neo-realist painting and the unnerving atmosphere that surrounds it. The painting’s setting and the treatment of intense light and deep shadow was much admired,” judges said of the work in a statement.

Ben Cnaan said the double portrait was inspired by the biblical story of Jephthah, an Israelite judge who vowed to God that in return for victory over the Ammonites he would sacrifice the first thing that greets him upon his return from battle.

To his horror it is his daughter who rushes out in welcome but he upholds his vow and sacrifices his child. Guy and Annabelle are modern-day stand-ins for the biblical story’s characters.

“The tension imminent in the moment of realization of the horrible price one must pay is reflected in the composition,” Ben Cnaan said on the NPG website. “The rough wall and rugged gravel echo the grittiness and grief in Guy’s (Jephthah’s) character, whilst the fig tree, casting an ominous shadow, presages Annabelle’s fate. Her strong posture reflects her own resolve and her role, in both the biblical story and in Guy’s life, in carrying his burdens and misfortune. Being no more than a child, Annabelle attempts to process her tragic fate.”

Ben Cnaan graduated from the Oranim Art College and received a master’s degree in art from Haifa University.

He told Haaretz that upon receiving the first prize in London on Tuesday, he was “very excited,” especially given the current anti-Israel atmosphere in some parts of Europe.

“It makes me happy to know that when it comes to art, politics can be set aside. They judged the painting, they had no idea who I am and the political aspect was not raised even now, they know to set these things aside,” he told the paper.

Ben Cnaan has dealt with biblical themes in the past. Other paintings, like “Najdi,” epitomize simple, recognizable moments in Israeli life. The small canvas, where the protagonist stands cowboy-like against a typical Jezreel Valley landscape, next to a dented Subaru pick up truck, is at once traditional and modern, drawing in equal measure from the traditions of Dutch Old Master landscape painters and the complex Israeli reality of the 21st century.