Dudu Roth

Like a fingerprint — that is how the brushstroke of Dudu appeared to those who knew him closely. But even those who never got to experience his multifaceted personality firsthand can, if they have a sensitive eye, discover in his works the most essential components of his varied and richly layered character.

Musical instruments that recur throughout his paintings were an inseparable part of Dudu's being. From time to time he would pick up a violin or flute and play with it, drawing out sounds that seemed to hint at what he could have achieved had he chosen to. But Dudu chose to paint. His love for the clarinet, guitar, and trumpet he expressed through brushstrokes, placing them in their rich colors among the many figures in his canvases — perhaps testifying to how much of himself he saw in those figures.

Like his father Lou before him, Dudu chose to weave into his paintings the white water tower, which became a kind of family emblem — a mark of identity linking the landscapes born of his creative spirit to Afiqim, the kibbutz where he was born and that remained the home of his heart.

At some point in his life, a clock began to appear in Dudu's paintings. And there was something in the changing position of its hands — a quiet hint that this gifted painter was in the midst of a relentless countdown, as though he knew his time was running short.

Dudu the artist, whose imagination soared, and Dudu the capable vineyard worker, who shared in the daily labor with steady hands, passed away from a serious illness after two years of determined struggle. The son of Mania and Lou Roth, born in Afiqim — athlete, soldier, family man, theater artist both as actor and set designer, but above all a painter who grew into a unique and remarkable creator — left us at the age of 39.

This album reveals only a fragment of who Dudu was. Those who look through it are left wondering about all that might still have been.

— Amikam Assem