"I have the desire to embellish reality and this is why I paint
flowers – in all shades and types."

Heddy Kun discovered painting when she was a young girl, but her passion for painting was repressed and vanished with the horrors of the war during which she stayed in the ghetto with her family. After having survived the war and rebuilding her life, she was trained at the Budapest Academy of Fine Arts and in 1956, prior to immigrating to Israel, she exhibited her work at the Academy. After graduation, she immigrated to Israel, found a job with Rosenthal factory as plates' decorator and simultaneously started preparing her first exhibition in Israel, which took place in Tel-Aviv at the Zionist Organization of America House in 1959.

Throughout the years, Heddy painted some 3000 paintings which she exhibited in over 60 exhibitions in Israel and abroad – in prominent galleries such as Gallery Katz, Ben Yehuda Gallery, Park Gallery, Rosenfeld Gallery and HaMartef Gallery in Israel as well as in exhibitions in Sidney, New York, London, Germany, Belgium, France, Italy and Hungary. Her paintings have been sold to many private collectors and galleries all over the world.

The horrors of the war did not extinguish her passion for life; quite the opposite. Heddy Kun is a temperament, lively woman, who, for nearly 60 years, has not stopped enriching her world and her masterful paintings with inexhaustible light and optimism.

"The Impressionists are close to my heart. Cezanne, Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, but I also find Gustav Klimt's uniqueness appealing. The way colors are reflected in the forest views, with so many shades; the deep landscapes that looking at them you can only wonder where to do they continue beyond the canvas; the peace they induce, the joy, the freshness".

She goes outdoors in order to be inspired and find the ideas she needs for her paintings. She always carries with her a small home camera through which she perpetuates the angles she captures. She displays the photographs back at home and finds her inspiration in them. Some of her paintings are translation of the landscapes of her childhood: European villages, rivers, tangled, colorful foliage and pastoralism; some are based on Israeli landscapes: wild flowers, cheerful glowing summer hues, harbors and sea, ancient alleys, boats in the ocean and peace. A lot of peace.

"I love the views of Jerusalem Mountains, the Israeli northern views with the glowing green, and also the old views of Jerusalem and Neve Zedek. Some things have been hidden in me for many years and suddenly come to light. I don't always know how the painting I am working on will end up. The painting is being made as I paint it. When it is finished, I add other details which are missing, in my opinion – flowers, houses, windows, tiled roofs, an additional hue".

FLowers are the main motive running through her paintings and her signature. Wide fields dotted with beds of endless flowers, vases with flowers, balconies with rounded benches and blossoming climbers.

"Flowers are the heart and soul; they are optimism, eternality. The opposite of sorrow. They have so much happiness in them, that nothing else is required to complete the painting. Neither animals nor people".

She fills her paintings with other motives as well: portraits of children and elderly people she has painted over the years and an entire exhibition she dedicated to the ocean, by the name "Oceanscapes of Israel", which was exhibited at the Journalists House in Tel Aviv in 2007.

Shades of purple, red, blue and turquoise to which she fondly refers as "shades which are both warm and cold" and an entire scale of greens. An encompassing, magnificent palette of colors. These are the colors dominating her paintings. She starts out with a pencil sketch, and then works mainly with aquarelles. She lays the first spots of paint, makes adjustments, reviews her work and then adds the suitable bright hues.

"Things that have been hidden in me for years suddenly burst out and become paintings. Forgotten childhood landscapes become a clear picture".

"Heddy is a skillful painter, who masters the intricate work of painting. She is familiarized with all the possibilities out of which she selects those required for her needs.
She is knowledgeable about all the schools of modern art and there is no better proof to that than the way she places objects against backgrounds which are "Cezannesque" in essence, with certain geometry and middle-eastern shades. She features gold as part of the colors she applies as background and it serves as a kind of filter for blues and purples and even grays, which eventually creates soft colorfulness".

The last paragraph was written by David Giladi, journalist, translator, writer and art critique, on the occasion of Heddy Kun's 1990 exhibition opening at "Park" Gallery, Tel Aviv.


To view Heddys list of exhibitions please press here.