Shimon Okshteyn: Loveseat

“Okshteyn, separated by time and space from the Russian modernists of the twenties and leaving behind the French inspired academic approaches of expressionism, produces a different impression of life around him. He is like a tree, which is uprooted by forces beyond his control, the storms of our times; but his roots are strong, imbedded in his art, and transplanted, grows and gives fruit. He is an artist who gets stronger, his vision clear, a hidden intellectual who observes the world around him and shows it in his metamorphoses. He is not ethnic art, not Russian, nor local, but international in scope and understanding.”       ___Emil G. Schnorr, Conservator, G.W.V. Smith Art Museum, Springfield, MA