Rámi Méir (''Ра́ми Ме́ир''; born Rahamim Nuvahovich Migirov, 11 April 1962 – 8 April 2023) was a Soviet-born Israeli visual artist, poet, singer, author of song lyrics, idioms and parables. Meir was the chairman of Russia's

Mountain Jewish Mountain Jews or Caucasus Jews also known as Juhuro, Juvuro, Juhuri, Juwuri, Juhurim, Kavkazi Jews or Gorsky Jews ( he, יהודי קווקז ''Yehudey Kavkaz'' or ''Yehudey he-Harim''; russian: Горские евреи, translit=Gorskie Yevrei ...

Union of Artists.

Early years

Rami Meir was born in a

family on 11 April 1962 in

Baku Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world a ...

– capital city of the

Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic Azerbaijan ( az, Азәрбајҹан, Azərbaycan, italics=no), officially the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic (Azerbaijan SSR; az, Азәрбајҹан Совет Сосиалист Республикасы, Azərbaycan Sovet Sosialist R ...

. In the 1990s he immigrated with his family to Israel, where he started learning

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

and other ancient languages to be able to read

religious text Religious texts, including scripture, are texts which various religions consider to be of central importance to their religious tradition. They differ from literature by being a compilation or discussion of beliefs, mythologies, ritual prac ...

s in the original: he thoroughly studied world religions including such books as

Torah The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the s ...

, the

Quran The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Classical Arabic, Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation in Islam, revelation from God in Islam, ...

, the

Old Old or OLD may refer to: Places *Old, Baranya, Hungary *Old, Northamptonshire, England *Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD) *OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, Mai ...

and

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...

Kabbalah Kabbalah ( he, קַבָּלָה ''Qabbālā'', literally "reception, tradition") is an esoteric method, discipline and Jewish theology, school of thought in Jewish mysticism. A traditional Kabbalist is called a Mekubbal ( ''Məqūbbāl'' "rece ...

; he got acquainted with

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

and Greek mythologies. Besides that, he began putting lost parables of different peoples into written form as well as creating

parable A parable is a succinct, didactic story, in prose or verse, that illustrates one or more instructive lessons or principles. It differs from a fable in that fables employ animals, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature as characters, w ...

s, philosophical lyrics and idioms of his own.

Painting

Meir took up painting at Baku Art College while he was taught the skills of engraving of artistic goods and jewellery creating piece works on metal. During his first year of studying, he was elected by students to the internal school's commission focused on selecting students’ artworks for exhibitions of different level. All commission members were supposed to professionally appreciate art. Those new responsibilities inspired Meir to try working in various artistic fields with the use of all kinds of techniques.

Styles and features in painting

Meir created paintings in such styles ss

realism Realism, Realistic, or Realists may refer to: In the arts *Realism (arts), the general attempt to depict subjects truthfully in different forms of the arts Arts movements related to realism include: *Classical Realism *Literary realism, a move ...

symbolism Symbolism or symbolist may refer to: Arts * Symbolism (arts), a 19th-century movement rejecting Realism ** Symbolist movement in Romania, symbolist literature and visual arts in Romania during the late 19th and early 20th centuries ** Russian sy ...

, and

impressionism Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating ...

. The plots of some of his pictures are realistic, but set out by means of profound characters and symbols. That is the language Meir emoloyed to share with audience his great life experience and accumulated knowledge about the world including the role of human being in the entire

Universe The universe is all of space and time and their contents, including planets, stars, galaxies, and all other forms of matter and energy. The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological description of the development of the universe. Acc ...

. Working in realistic a figurative style of painting he built up his own art language, which involved the use of a unique technique of 3-D strokes based on classic methods in combination with glazeglazing. The exclusive artist's feature of "golden stroke", with which each artwork by Meir begins, reflects his special relationship to the creative process. Drawing paintings the artist tended to saturate them with a range of bright colors, which both imparts a positive sense and fills his works with high philosophical meaning. All of this allows us to consider Meir as one of the most prominent figures in contemporary art in Russia and Israel. Jewish studies and culture are one of the remarkable themes in his artworks. With the help of historical records, old postcards, and photos he managed to explore the main industrial arts, everyday life, and traditional clothing of Mountain Jews from the Caucasus and

South Caucasus The South Caucasus, also known as Transcaucasia or the Transcaucasus, is a geographical region on the border of Eastern Europe and Western Asia, straddling the southern Caucasus Mountains. The South Caucasus roughly corresponds to modern Arme ...

regions and addressed all of that to his canvases, which formed a unique series of paintings called Mountain Jews. The creativity of Meir is not intuitive, it's the expression of author's rich knowledge acquired after many years of: studying

world religions World religions is a category used in the study of religion to demarcate the five—and in some cases more—largest and most internationally widespread religious movements. Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are always includ ...

, wisdoms of great thinkers and religious figures, exploring the laws of the

as well as the laws and

principle A principle is a proposition or value that is a guide for behavior or evaluation. In law, it is a Legal rule, rule that has to be or usually is to be followed. It can be desirably followed, or it can be an inevitable consequence of something, suc ...

s of the existence of any form of life. Meir's artworks reflect the knowledge empowered with earth's energy to the globe.

3D strokes

The innovative approach in Meir's art was hid use of the technique of ЗD strokes when making paintings, the result of being educated asb an engraver of artistic goods and jewellery. Meir developed a unique technique of Golden strokes and introduced it into his creative painting process. This technique represented a sort of

performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

Golden stroke

The key secret about Meir's pictorial artworks is the way of "golden stroke" «founding" before he started writing each painting. The symbolism of the word "to found" perfectly captures the essence that the artist makes on canvas with first stroke. Rami Meir has created a system where the first brush on painting founds the content of the artwork being created in matter by the artist at that very moment, and fills it with living spirit. The main special thing of the technique is that the "golden stroke" must be founded by a female person on Rami Meir's canvas.

Rami Meir Art Studio in Moscow

Rami Meir had his own gallery at Grand Furniture mall. Rami Meir Art Studio offers a collection of artworks: more than 60 paintings, chased items, sculptures made of wood and

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite. Marble is typically not Foliation (geology), foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the ...

. There are about 180 canvases in total.

Music

Rami Meir took a great interest in music during his school years when he was 11 years old: he started taking guitar and piano lessons at one of

's musical workshops. At the same age Rami Meir began writing poems and even then he made his first attempts to set the ones on music. But he made his career as author of song lyrics and singer in his mature years. Meir released two studio albums in collaboration with Igor Timakov, – music maker and author of music to songs. They were working on their third record in 2020.

Special project: postcards with paintings

In 2019 Rami Meir introduced a series of postcards with plots of his paintings just before the New Year. Some parts of them represent faces, handicrafts and clothing of Azerbaijan's Mountain Jews. The back side of postcards contains fragments from parables and idioms by Rami Meir. There are 21 postcards in this series totally. The author explained the message of it in the following way: I wish people would send postcards all over again! And through these postcards I want to make people have warm feelings and understanding of one thing: the dear and loved should be appreciated during their lifetime. I could help them express that wonderful feeling that they have inside them.

Creativity

Reviews

The presentation of Hudo Kumek! Tiro Kumek! (God speed you! Torah speed you! ) music album as well as the exhibition of Rami Meir's paintings took place at Radisson Collection Hotel (Hotel Ukraina, Moscow) in 2019. The event was attended by

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

's elite of Azerbaijani and

ethnicities. Nisu Nisuev an artist and member of Moscow Union of Artists, thinks that Rami Meir is a very Multifarious person. A lot of his works have something in common with the style of first impressionists. The artist skillfully conveys his wealth of life experience into the language of fine art. His series of painting Mountain Jews is particularly impressive. Ephraim Amiramov, a singer, mentioned: Rami is a man of great talent. He is a poet, singer and artist. I'm inspired by everything he creates. Garri Kanaev, a music maker, stated: All what we saw and listened to performed by our friend Rami Meir at Hotel Ukraina in Moscow is a real feast of creative work.

Goals of creativity

On the goals of his creativity, Meir said, "I want to embellish the lives of others, to give them the light. I don't only mean the top layer of joy and impression out of nice image and well-done job, the main goal is very integral: to reflect how wonderful the world around us, how heavenly everything around us. It happens when a person comes up to the painting and sees that it lights up with a kind of internal warmth, which is put into the canvas by the artist. The energy of painting is the energy of artist. It makes you smile and feel the excitement of joy, it brings positive thoughts to your mind".

Fallout

Meir performed his service in the

Soviet Army uk, Радянська армія , image = File:Communist star with golden border and red rims.svg , alt = , caption = Emblem of the Soviet Army , start_date ...

. Having found out his professional qualification, his commander ship introduced a new appointment called regimental engraver. In these two years of military service he created about 40 unique objects of art. Unfortunately, in 1983 the majority of those artworks were irretrievably lost during the transportation to all union exhibition held at VDNH (

Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy (russian: Выставка достижений народного хозяйства, ''Vystavka dostizheniy narodnogo khozyaystva'', abbreviated as VDNKh or VDNH, russian: ВДНХ, ) is a perman ...

Personal life and death

Rami Meir was married and had two children. They latterly resided in Israel. Meir died on 8 April 2023, at the age of 60.

Honours

Meir was elected as the chairman of Russia's

Union of Artists.

References

Sources

* Major forms, themes and motifs of the creativity of Rami Meir b
''Natalia Ivanova''
PhD in Political Science, Winner of Tvardovsky National Literary Awar
Новости «Основные направления, темы и мотивы творчества Rami Meir» от автора Rami Meir
* Review of artworks by ''Rami Meir'' (an Israeli artist of Russian origin) by ''Vera Pereyatenets'', fine art

expert An expert is somebody who has a broad and deep understanding and competence in terms of knowledge, skill and experience through practice and education in a particular field. Informally, an expert is someone widely recognized as a reliable s ...

(certified by the Ministry of culture of the Russian Federation with the right to report on works of painting, graphics and applied art (17–20 centuries, Russia
Новости «Рецензия на творчество Rami Meir искусствоведа-эксперта В. И. Переятенец» от автора Rami Meir

External links

Official website Rami Meir

Official page Rami Meir. Instagram

Official page Rami Meir. FaceBook

Rami Meir: Bakuvians are multinational aristocrats of the Caucasus

Russia’s Mountain Jewish Union of Artists has been established

Rami Meir, Mountain Jewish music star, presents his new album

Mountain Jews in the art of Rami Meir

The Bakuvian Rami Meir: I wish people would send postcards all over again!

{{DEFAULTSORT:Meir, Rami 1962 births 2023 deaths Azerbaijani emigrants to Israel Israeli painters Israeli people of Mountain Jewish descent Artists from Baku