Leila Behram, art critic and Rabbi Lionel Rosenfeld:
Inna Rogatchi's images take inspiration from nature, cultural heritage and the human experience. Her rich symbolism creates atmospheric works that invite the viewer into a contemplative inner dialogue with creation, and the meaning of life.
The terrible event of October 7th 2023 and its aftermath has prompted artists, musicians and writers worldwide to respond in their unique and personal way, and Inna is no exception. For Rogatchi’s new collection the painting Abraham’s Lesson One has been given the additional name One to One, to be directly connected to the Jewish Festival of Shemini Atzeret, when the Book of Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) is recited in synagogues. In 2023 the Festival fell on October 7th, which saw the worst massacre of the Jewish people since the Holocaust.
In the Book of Kohelet the Hebrew word “Hevel" features many times, appearing five times in the second sentence alone, and thirty-eight times in the text altogether. It has been translated as ‘futile’: “Futility of futilities, said Kohelet ... .all is futile." However, according to Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks of blessed memory, this is a mistranslation: Hevel means a shallow or fleeting breath. As he writes in his commentary on the Book: “Whatever riches or achievements we accumulate during our lifetimes, nothing is permanent - all is a fleeting breath." The biblical Abel son of Adam was the first human being to die. It is no coincidence that the name Abel in the original Hebrew is Hevel. Nothing is permanent.
Inna Rogatchi’s painting One to One, directly connects with this idea from Kohelet. The viewer is drawn into a timeless discussion with the Creator about earth and moon and the nature of existence, with the mystical Light of First Day of Creation, of which this painting is one of a series.
The materials, colours and techniques that Rogatchi uses perfectly portray this spirit of investigation and discussion."
Simchat Torah. The Gift of Wisdom. Watercolour, oil pastel, wax pastel, pigments, Luminance Caran d’Ache on authored original archival print on cotton paper. 2023-2026. (Posted with permission).
"About Inna Rogatchi Promise work in our collection .
"The relationship between an artist and a viewer has been developed throughout the centuries, but always , it has been originated and ignited by the love with which the author had for its creation, and the reciprocation of this love by a viewer. With time passing, a commercial element has been interfering into those relationships, and today, we can see that it might reach its peak. But still, even such development has been unable to destroy the phenomenon that is known as ‘a pure art’. It is to this category that I relay Inna’s Promise work.
"My meeting with this work was love from the first glance. It was the feeling that originates at an emotional level, and only after, in some while, one experiences a desire to explain to itself what was the reasons that got one’s soul excited. In my case, it was, most likely, matching between my own perception of life with what I saw in Inna’s work: rich colouristic, precisely in the colours and their grades that formed by taste from my childhood. It was also a clear drawing line, and importantly, the mystery of the composition in which everything is in place. All those three elements, in their harmonious way, have created the piece which is called an art creation in the best meaning of the term. Thank you to the author". - Irina Zaborov, art historian, Paris.
Hanukkah. Overcoming Darkness. Watercolour, oil pastel, wax pastel, pigments, Luminance Caran d’Ache, Chinese red paste on authored original archival print on cotton paper. 2024-2026. (Posted with permission).
Hanukkah. Dialogue. Watercolour, oil pastel, wax pastel, pigments, Luminance Caran d’Ache, perle le blanc on authored original archival print on cotton paper. 2024-2026.(Posted with permission_.
Tu beShvat. New Year for Trees. Promise. Watercolour, oil pastel, wax pastel, pigments, Luminance Caran d’Ache, encre l’alcool on authored original archival print on cotton paper. 2021 - 2026. Original: Family Trust of artist Boris and Irina Zaborov , Paris, France.(Posted with permission).