Menashe Kadishman by Arturo Schwartz

On a bright May morning of 1993 Ofer Lellouche told me, “you must meet Menashe Kadishman, you will like him, he is a Flabelaisian personage, and one of our most important sculptors.” At the time my knowledge of lsraeli art was very poor, I remembered his performance at the Venice Biennial of course, but was not familiar with his further developments. I asked: “what kind of sculpture does he make now?” Lellouche’s Iapidary answer perfectly epitomized the personage, with a smile: “He sculpts as a painter and he paints as a sculptor.” The appointment was made for the following day in his Tel Aviv studio. Lellouche, my wife Rita and I arrived a few moments before the set time and we waited for him at the top of the staircase. A big – really big – man appeared, dressed as always in his uniform: a white shirt floating over white shorts, and holding three brightly colored balloons, in the shape of a mermaid and two Disney characters, flying high above him. He climbed the stairs with an agility that contradicted his weight.
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