Jaakov Blumas

Astrid Mania What brought you to Hamburg and to HFBK?

Jaakov Blumas I was born in Lithuania, in Vilnius. When I was 17, almost 18 years old, I emigrated to Israel, where I lived for eleven years.

Astrid Mania When was that? Was that at the time when the Soviet Union allowed Jewish citizens to emigrate to Israel?

Jaakov Blumas Exactly. I emigrated to Israel with my family in 1972. In 1982, I applied to the Hochschule für Künste in Berlin (heute Universität der Künste). I should mention that I had already been to a so-called art school for gifted children in Vilnius, which had a very academic notion of art. I was at regular school until 2 p.m. and then went to art school four times a week. We didn’t learn to think there, but we learned a lot about feeling and skill. It is a very specific tool that was helpful to me in many ways and a great burden on the other. In Israel, I also painted in a realistic manner. Actually, I had studied civil engineering. But when I was 27, I decided that I wanted to study art after all. In Berlin. So, I sent my portfolio there. And then I was invited to take the entrance exam.

Astrid Mania But you didn’t like it in the end?

Jaakov Blumas (laughing) I didn’t pass the exam! I had quit my job, given up my apartment, sold my furniture, and had gone to the exam. I have to admit, when I think about what I did, I wouldn’t have accepted it either. There was a pile of rubbish in the main hall, and we were supposed to do something about it, but I couldn’t think of anything. I was so stressed, so I started to sketch a corner of the space. It was absolutely uninteresting. But I had a three-month visa for Europe. And then I went from one academy to another, and also to Hamburg. By pure coincidence, I had a conversation with Mr Graubner. He looked at my portfolio and said: “Yeah, looks like crap, I will have you.” So, first, I was a guest student, and then I took an exam and was accepted into Graubner’s class. That was in 1983.

Astrid Mania How did you communicate? You probably didn’t speak any German yet.

Jaakov Blumas No, no German at all. I got by with English, and I listened a lot. Since I couldn’t say much in German, I had to listen. That was okay. That was very interesting. It was a very exciting time for me.

Astrid Mania The question of how we communicate with each other is still of relevance today, if not more. You were certainly not the only student who was not from Germany. Did everyone have to learn German back then?

Jaakov Blumas Actually, yes. There weren’t many foreign students though. From the six years I was at the academy, I remember a group of Chinese students. But otherwise? In my class, there was also a Korean student, Insuk, and a Japanese student, Kioko.

Astrid Mania How many students were you at all?

Jaakov Blumas The class was very small. There were between four and six people, no more. The conditions were absolutely privileged, paradisiacal. And we all worked, seven days a week. From 10:00 in the morning to 10:00 in the evening. Graubner also had a professorship in Düsseldorf, or rather he had the professorship mainly in Düsseldorf and was also in Hamburg. Every three weeks for one or two days. But that was enough for me.

Astrid Mania How would I imagine your graduation? Did you have to take an exam?

Jaakov Blumas Yes, we were among the first students to have an exam. Before that, you were just finished at some point. I only did the diploma for my parents. I never looked at it again in my entire life. I had to do a kind of exhibition at the time. With what I had been working on anyway. And then a commission came along ...

Astrid Mania Sounds like it is done today. But nowadays, our students also have to submit a written paper.

Jaakov Blumas That I didn’t have to do. But I wrote a lot, just for myself.

Astrid Mania Did you have to take seminars in theory or art history back then?

Jaakov Blumas No, you could, if you wanted to. But of course, we were all very, very intensely engaged in art history. Independently. We did visit lots of exhibitions, all over Europe. Those that were important to us. The Venice Biennale, for instance, and, of course, documenta... Back then, I think, the curators didn’t seek so much attention for themselves. That only changed with Catherine David, I feel. I was at the last documenta for just one day. And I don’t think I have ever seen such a boring exhibition. All those contributions from artists who wrote down their thoughts and considered them to be revolutionary... When we were students, we had thought and written all of that, more or less, word-by-word.

Astrid Mania We are sitting in your studio in Hamburg. That means you obviously stayed and are still working as an artist. How did that come about? As you used to be quite adventurous, I feel?

Jaakov Blumas It wasn’t a conscious decision for Hamburg. And not against the city, either. I found very good working conditions here. That was the decisive argument.

Astrid Mania What did you do after you finished your studies? How did you establish yourselves in the art world?

Jaakov Blumas First, I had the Hamburg scholarship, and then another scholarship. And we organized exhibitions together. It was a very intense life. I think you can compare that time back then to riding a bike. As long as you kept pedaling, you made progress. But you have to keep going.

Astrid Mania Were you able to make a living from sales?

Jaakov Blumas More or less. It fluctuates a lot, but yes. And I taught a lot, at HafenCity University and for at least ten years at the HAW.

Astrid Mania What about your practice? Has your practice changed since you left the academy? I would imagine it already did quite a bit during your time at HFBK. Graubner doesn’t exactly stand for representational, academic painting.

Jaakov Blumas It has changed a lot. Actually, I wouldn’t call myself a painter. I would rather say that I am an artist who paints. My earlier works were dark historical narrative pictures. Then there was a turning point. Because I noticed that if my pictures aren’t there or my co-producers walk past my pictures, the images I’m interested in don’t come about. And then I started to study perceptual psychology. Why do we see what we see? What do we miss? How does seeing actually work? And that changed my relationship with the recipients. In the beginning, they were “just” viewers for me. I used to say that I’m not interested in the viewer. But I quickly realized that that’s not true. And so, the viewer became my co-producer, and I asked myself how much freedom my co-producer should have. On my website, there is a series of one-minute clips which I call “instructions.” They show you how you can interact with my works, how to activate them. I’ve gained a lot of knowledge over the years, all of which is in my work.