The MagazineThe Flip SideIlana Lewitan, artist of hidden truth and double meaning.Apr 18, 2011, Vol. 16, No. 30
• By DAVID GELERNTER
 Ilana Lewitan is a painter of questions too wide or deep for words, whose originality, intelligence, and painterly virtuosity make her one of the most significant surrealists in decades. Her work is now on show at the prestigious Galerie Noah in Augsburg. Possibly you weren’t planning to stop by Augsburg in the next few weeks, but Mrs. Lewitan’s work is bound to appear in America before long. Later this spring she will have a show in Shanghai; she’s had exhibits in Israel and many in her native Germany. The art world is coming to know her.  ‘Altlasten’ (2006) Her paintings are too diffuse for language, like the oppressive feel of a thunderstorm coming on. One recent painting is called simply Nu?—Yiddish for (approximately) Well . . . ?—a way to demand an answer without asking a question. Along with all good surrealists, Lewitan paints dream-imagery. Many of her paintings are tense with uneasiness, wariness, watchfulness, like a charged copper sphere that will strike sparks across a gap if you come close. But they are effective because of her fine drawing, structural sense, technique with the brush, and her striking sense of color. She extends (proudly and boldly) the line of distinguished contemporary painting in Germany. Her work resonates with earlier voices, but her own is wholly original—and so is she. To read more, you must be a Weekly Standard Subscriber We're Sorry,
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