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Friday October 9, 1998

Spontaneous Peres visit causes stir at SOMA gallery

NOMA FAINGOLD
Bulletin Staff

It was Marie Shek, cultural attaché at Israel's Consulate General in San Francisco and wife of Consul General Daniel Shek.

"She told me to get ready," Kramps said, "because in an hour, we would have a visit from Shimon Peres."

The former Israeli prime minister and Labor Party chairman had arrived in the Bay Area for a three-day stay, primarily to promote the Peres Center for Peace. The organization is dedicated to improving Israeli-Palestinian relations through joint business ventures and other projects.

The gallery visit was a spontaneous decision. During dinner Saturday at San Francisco's Hayes Street Grill with the Sheks, UCSF Nobel Prize-winning neurologist Dr. Stanley Prusiner, Consul Eran Etzion and others, the conversation turned to Prusiner's research. Then it moved on to literature and cultural topics.

When Marie Shek, a expert on contemporary Israeli artists, showed Peres a book featuring Patkin's work, Peres said he wanted to see the gallery exhibition and meet the artist.

The impromptu visit caused a flurry of activity at the gallery before Peres' arrival at 8:30 p.m.

"Before I knew it, the secret service was there with their cell phones, ear pieces and mishugas," said Patkin, who has lived in New York for 20 years. "It was such a trip."

Kramps, who is also from Israel, says Patkin is one of his country's most successful artists, with works in the collections of New York's Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney and the Guggenheim. Yet Patkin, whose work has been honored internationally, said few accolades have thrilled him as much as spending 30 minutes with the 75-year-old Peres.

"I was so moved, I had goose bumps while he was here," Patkin said. "It was not about meeting a star. This was about meeting greatness. This man represents a dream of a beautiful and idealistic Israel.

"He's a real man of faith, and I'm not talking Judaism," he added. " I more than admire him. I believe in him. He makes me feel great about being from Israel and about being Jewish."

The exhibition of paintings titled "Judenporzellan" (Jewish porcelain) was inspired by what Patkin calls an "absurd" circumstance surrounding three generations of Germany's noted Mendelssohn family. Moses Mendelssohn, an Enlightenment philosopher and religious reformer who fought for Jewish civil rights in the 18th century, was a successful businessman and the family patriarch. His grandson Felix was the 19th-century composer.

During Peres' visit, Patkin told him the story behind "Judenporzellan." In late-18th century Berlin, Frederick the Great of Prussia forced Jews to buy inferior, overpriced porcelain objects from the king's struggling factory before receiving permits of any kind. Moses Mendelssohn had to purchase 20 lifesize porcelain apes to get a marriage license.

The images in the exhibit are whimsical, yet they contain an underlying sense of torment, revealing the pain of anti-Semitism. Patkin and Peres methodically went from painting to painting, Patkin explained his technique of stenciling, cutting and weaving with chrome-coated paper.

Meanwhile, all 20 guests were nonchalantly trying to watch Peres' every move. A gourmet spread went untouched. No one sipped champagne.

Kramps took digital pictures and asked a friend to videotape the event. Secret service agents surrounded Peres. Said Kramps, "There was electricity in the air. We were all nervous."

Peres and Patkin traded clever barbs and literary references, comparing Chekhov and Shakespeare.

According to Patkin, Peres said, "Chekhov characters suffer but get over it. In Shakespeare, they all die."

"There's a few times in your life when in walks the perfect audience," Patkin said. "He's sharp as a whip, sensitive and fatherly. It was mesmerizing."

Before Peres left, Patkin gave him one of his favorite works from the show. As Patkin was signing the back of the 2-by-2-foot painting, Peres interrupted him, urging the artist to sign the front, saying, "Hell no, I want everyone to know."

Patkin noticed that when he handed Peres the painting, white plasterboard powder from a newly built wall got all over Peres' dark suit. "He was just so charming," said Patkin. "He didn't seem to mind."

Perhaps the message Patkin wrote in Hebrew when he signed the piece made up for the suit mishap. It read: "To Shimon: Thank you for everything."

While Peres was only in the gallery for 45 minutes, the excitement lingered for the entire evening, said Kramps. "We're still kind of feeling the hype of it."

During his visit, Peres also had several speaking engagements and met with Silicon Valley CEOs from Israel.

"He was here to foster investments, and he does it in every domain -- with economic, social and cultural projects," said Daniel Shek, who was Peres' spokesman when he was foreign minister in 1986-87.

Peres also has family here. His son Chemi has been in Palo Alto for several months with his wife, Gila, and their three children, setting up an Israeli venture capital firm in Silicon Valley.

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