The Michael Hittleman Gallery is proud to offer works by the following contemporary Israeli artists:
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Raphael Abecassis, b. 1953. He is from Marakesh, Morocco. His works combine elements of manuscript illumination, Jewish folk art, and modern Israeli art elements. He is becoming world famous for his colorful biblical scenes, mystic sense of wonder, the approachability of his works and his simple childlike-candor. His drawing style is reminiscent of the Chasidic influence on Chagall.
Larry Abramson, b. 1954. Since the 1980's he has been a major figure in postmodem Israeli art. His works depict nature (plants and landscapes) in a dialogue with the sublime (which cannot be attained) and reality (which cannot be depicted). His art is really about art and how we can attempt to represent things and ultimately "know" them.
Yaacov Agam, b. 1928. The most famous of all Israeli artists. Agam was trained at Bezalel Art School in Israel and received additional instruction in Switzerland. His first major exhibition was at the Craven Gallery in Paris in October, 1953. It was a show of groundbreaking optical and kinetic art. This art which is in motion which changes constantly is a spiritual experience for Agam akin to the mystery of God.
Agam has won many international competitions, awards and commissions. His monumental works grace cities all over the world. He has designed fire and water fountains, “beating heart” monumental sculptures, painted entire buildings, created murals, and decorated synagogues. His latest projects include an Agam-inspired and painted high rise in Mexico City and the design of a seacoast village in Israel.
Agam’s retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum in New York was another career highlight. He has shown extensively in the Far East and designed monumental works for cruise ships, airports, community centers, hotels, hospitals, and cities as well as creating works at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem.
Harry Araten, b. 1936. Araten is a superb watercolorist. He has an original sense of humor combined with a wonderful feel for economic color and line. His works depict the humor and grit we need to make it through daily life.
Mordechai
Ardon (Max Bronstein)(1896
Poland - 1992). One of the giants of Israeli art who was also a major
European artist. Trained at the Bauhaus, he began exhibiting with
the Berlin November
Group in 1928. Among his teachers had been Klee, Kandinsky and Feininger.
Ardon arrived in Palestine in 1933 and became one of the later
directors
of the Bezalel School in Jerusalem. Beginning with pictures of the Judean
hills, he progressed to tragic figurative symbolism evoked by the
Holocaust
then to surrealistic metaphysical symbolism based on Midrash and Kabbala.
His response to the Holocaust was philosophical rather than expressionistic
and his dramatic canvases are organised by meticulously rational composition.
From Rembrandt he took the use of "hidden light" which
he identified with the mystical light of Jerusalem. The watches
(his father had been
a watchmaker), torn parchments, letters, playing cards, ladders, children's
drawings, Kabbalistic symbols are fused into a microcosm of apocalypse
and salvation.
Avigdor Arikha, b. 1929 in Romania. He survived a concentration camp as a youth and a nearly fatal wound in Israel's War of Independence. After studying with Ardon and experimenting with abstraction, in 1965 he stopped painting and took up a Japanese brush and ink to paint directly from nature. After 8 years of intensive study he emerged in 1973 to paint intensely personal imagery - objects close to him and friends and relatives. Today after exhibitions and museum shows all over the world he is considered one the two greatest figurative artists of our tune.
Arie
Aroch (b. Russia 1908 - 1974) was a seminal figure in bringing
Israel from the modern to the contemporary art scene. He was an intellectual
and Israel's ambassador to Brazil and Sweden. Aroch was a founder of the
New Horizons group, but went on to create art works influenced by Rauschenberg
and Twombly. He created a small but incredibly influential body of works
which raised the level of art in Israel significantly - taking it from
a provincial maker of semi-abstract works to a world class creator of
contemporary art. His are among the rarest and most sought after Israeli
art works.
David Aronson,, b. 1928 in Lithuania. He is a Professor at Boston University School of Fine Arts. He is one of the most honored American sculptors. His works have been exhibited all over the United States and the world. He has won a Guggenheim Fellowship. His works are in the collections of many major museums and the Smithsonian Institution. His works are based on the angels who transmit the power of G-d to men. They engage in all kinds of activities which touch our hearts and our souls.
Arie Azene, b. 1934. Brother of Eisemann. He has developed a lucid watercolor style for Jerusalem exteriors and interiors. His scenes of the Dome of the Rock, overviews of Jerusalem, and interiors with oriental carpets are sensuous and beautiful.
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Samuel Bak, b. 1933.
One of the great surrealist artists. Bak deals
with images from the Jewish psyche. Through
visions of birds, factories, pears, broken-winged
angels, Jewish symbols, Bak creates a vision
of destruction, repair and redemption that is
among the most powerful artistic statements
of our generation.
Ido
Bar-El, b. 1959. One of Israel's greatest contemporary artists.
He is a Tel Aviv artist in his typical use of "poor materials."
Ido will paint on pieces of wood, plastic, automobile hood, chunks of
metal and boxes. He redeems these objects with imagery ranging from Biblical
to Star wars. Recently he used aluminum street signs to create a famous
series of paintings. In it he was commenting subtly on the loss of public
authority and the movement from public to artistic authority. One of the
most thoughtful and intellectual of Israeli artists, Ido is much respected
by his peers.
Tuvia Beeri, b. 1929. One of Israel's great printmakers. He studied with Johnny Friedlander in Europe and perfected his etching techniques. His works are abstract landscapes. He uses subtle combinations of deep colors and geometric forms to create classic views of Israel.
Edward
Ben Avram, b. Bombay, India. From his earliest works Ben Avram has used creamy sensual tones reminiscent of his Indian background. His works have the intensity and density of an Indian wedding celebration or religious festival. Schooled in Israel and living now in the Old City of Jerusalem, Ben Avram has risen to become one of Israel's most popular painters. His themes of religious festivals, Israeli cities and Bible stories are fabulous confections - bright with color and warmth and his own magic.
Asaf
Ben Zvi, b. 1953. One of the most important postmodern Israeli
artists. His works are concerned with nature and the environment but also
with intimate events, private scapes and personal objects. Ben-Zvi's world
is poetic and magical. He is concerned with cycles of life. He makes observations
of Israeli landscapes from the gliders he flies.
Yosl Bergner (b. 1920 Vienna). One of the most beloved of all Israeli artists. Bergner grew up in Warsaw and moved to Australia in 1937 where he studied art and served in the army. In the late forties he traveled to Paris, Montreal and New York to study art. He emigrated to Israel in 1950. He uses symbols like kitchen utensils and butterflies to symbolize a lost community. He has many works of haunted children some in party hats searching for their lost youth. His powerful images have won him major public mural commissions and he has won his country’s top honor, the Israel Prize.
Moshe Bernstein, b. in Kartuz-Bereza, Poland. Ends study at Vilno Art School in 1939. Lived in Russia until 1947 then immigrated to Palestine through Cyprus and fought in the War of Independence. In 1949 he took part in the “Immigrant Art Exhibition” in Tel Aviv. Since then he has had numerous shows at museums and galleries throughout Europe and Israel. His works draw their strength from the Jewish reality of Eastern Europe before the destruction. His pictures are bold and powerful with plainness and beauty joined in a moral sense. His figures are symbols of a particular Jewish spirituality.
Aharon Bezalel, b. 1926 in Afghanistan. He emigrated at an early age with his parents to Israel. He is one of Israel's most beloved sculptors and has shown all over the world. His works begin with the familial pair: man and woman, lovers, mother and child, even horse and rider. His works refine these figures to their essence. We sense the relationship of figures to whole, to each other, to their space in a brilliant shorthand.
Avigdor Bezalel, b. 1941. His family was from Afghanistan and he was born in Jerusalem as a divided city. Avigdor who works beautifully in brass and silver has commemorated the reunification of Jerusalem in candlesticks and Hannukah menorahs created of two pieces that join together. He also does Biblical figures in brass and wood and creates beautiful oil lamps.
Samy
Briss, b. 1930. One of Israel's most popular artists who combines
a cubist style with a Byzantine one. His figures are modem icons - frontal
and classic but also humorous and whimsical. Briss' images capture the
strength and vulnerability of modem life.
Slava Brodinsky, b. Birobidjan, Eastern Russia. Having been trained at art school in his home town, he painted monumental works throughout the U.S.S.R. and served in the Soviet Army. He immigrated to Israel in 1991. Mixing sand and other natural elements into his paintings he achieves an extraordinary sense of light and depth in his magnificent landscapes. He has done works in Tuscany and in his home area of the Galilee where the surrounding hills and unique sunlight have become dominant motifs in his work. This skyrocketing artist is collected in England, France, Japan, Russia, Canada and the United States.
Israel Broytman. Canadian artist from Russia. Israel Broytman came to Canada in 1980. His images speak to his longing for his homeland which can be depicted but not revisited. They speak about change and regret while evoking a timeless beauty. Broytman has a master's touch for color and composition.
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Moshe
Castel, (1909-1991). One of Israel's greatest early masters. Castel's
art has spanned the whole history of Israeli modern art. His works range
from pastoral fantasy to modern calligraphy representing the ancient past.
A Castel Museum is being erected in Israel. He was part of the School
of Paris in the late 1920's. His newer works reflect Israel's mania for
its archeological past. He uses ancient feeling imagery that is figurative
and abstract.
Marc
Chagall, 1887 - 1985. The greatest Jewish master of the
Twentieth Century. Born in Russia, he created modern masterworks
in Russia and France. In addition to being one of the century's
greatest painters, he was the greatest stained glass artist of
his time, and a master printmaker. His graphics treat the whole
range of subjects from village life to lovers and flowers, Paris,
Jewish and Biblical themes, the joys and sufferings of the Jewish
people.
Shlomo Chotzen (b. 1910) was born in Germany and came to Israel in 1934. He settled at Kibutz Gat in the years 1937-1942. Later he studied at the Avni Art Academy in Tel Aviv where he became a superb draughtsman. His figurative works are wonderfully conceived and richly colored. He has exhibited extensively both in watercolors and oils.
Gabriel
Cohen (born in 1933 in Paris, lives in Jerusalem) he is one of
the world's most famous naive (not professionally trained) artists. His
works have been exhibited at the Jewish Museum in New York and at the
Israel Museum in Jerusalem. Mr. Cohen's imagination knows no limits. He
has placed Jerusalem in the Alps, he has planes flying around the Tower
of Babel, and the canals of Venice may be alive with gondolas carrying
palm fronds for Succot.
Pinchas
Cohen-Gan, b. 1942. Israel's great contemporary master. Cohen-Gan
is internationally renowned with many museum shows including New York,
Sweden, France, Israel and San Francisco. He was a major voice in bringing
back the figure and subject matter to modern art that was either Pop or
minimal. His art reflects deep political and social concerns. His art
directly confronts man's condition while challenging and commenting on
his fellow artists.
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Amram Ebgi. One of the fastest rising Israeli artists. He is now living in the United States where he has set up a sophisticated printmaking studio. He is primarily a printmaker and his lithographs and etchings are usually brightly colored and embossed. His scenes of Israel and Jewish themes have made him enormously popular.
Lydie Egosi. This young fabric artist and printmaker is becoming
very
popular with her blend of pastel colors and
geometric abstractions of
Biblical themes. Her unique works are fabric
applique tapestries.
Shealso does magnificent screenprints based
on these fabric designs.
Her works are also reproduced now on posters
and cards.
Michael Eisemann, b. 1943. He is the brother of Arie Azene. Eisemann' s impressionistic collages are some of the most beautiful works coming out. of Israel. He is a superb watercolorist and printmaker who spends much time in France. He is becoming internationally popular for his contemporary versions of French Impressionism in graphics and watercolors.
Nissan Engel, b.1931 in Israel. Engel has become an international art star. His magnificent mixed media works and his brilliant etchings have made his reputation. His works relate to his love of music and contain bits of scores, music related cities, compositions, composers and abstract passages of light and color and texture. Much of his work is influenced by early training in stained glass work. Engel spends most of his time in Paris.
Farideh, b. 1942 in Tehran. Farideh is a Jerusalem
based painter and watercolourist who brings an oriental sensibility to
an acute knowledge of western art traditions and Israeli art history.
Her works evoke Monet, Degas and the Nabis as well as Israeli masters
like Zaritsky and Streichman. Her still lifes and landscapes with sunsets
are modern neo-impressionist masterworks.
Claude Fauchere is a French artist who prints his works in Israel because of their superb screenprinting ateliers. His work is a unique blend of the abstract and the figurative that can only be called a brilliant personal style. The street scene pleases with its color and form, but the abstractions intrigue us with knowledge of the artifice and the construct. Fauchere's dazzling colors and lush street scenes have made him world famous in the past decade.
Fima (Efraim Roeytenberg) (b. 1916
Harbin, China – d. 2005 Israel). Fima’s father worked on the Eastern China Railway.
The family settled in Harbin, China. In 1933 Fima moved to Shanghai where he studied art with Russian
and Viennese teachers.
He eventually studied Chinese calligraphy and philosophy, which had a great influence on his subsequent
art and life. In 1949, he left China for Israel. He slowly gained a reputation in Israel and
finally had a hugely successful exhibition at Bertha Urdang’s Rina Gallery. It led to his discovery
by French critics and a move to Paris for the next 41 years. He also showed at New York’s Museum
of Modern Art. He was critically acclaimed in Israel also and had exhibitions at the Israel Museum
and Tel Aviv Museum as well as the Jewish Museum in New York. He returned to Israel in 2002
and even exhibited in Hong Kong before his death in 2005. His integrity, the beauty of his brushstrokes
and colors and his incorporation of Chinese street banners and calligraphy made him one of the
most unique and entrancing of all Israeli artists
Neil Folberg: One of the world's great photographers. (He has often been compared to Ansel Adams). Folberg's father owned Vison Gallery in San Francisco. Neil has moved it to Jerusalem. In Israel he scours the countryside for his incredible images. He has taken astonishing photographs of the Near Eastern landscape, synagogue interiors from around the world, and most recently the "Starry Night" series based on the recent comet sightings.
Perla Fox is a major watercolor painter and printmaker. Her works have been displayed at the National gallery in Washington, D. C. and in Mexico and France. She is also the author and illustrator of The Woodies, Stretching Your Imagination, a children’s picture book.
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Atsmon
Ganor (b. 1960) is one of Israel's most important younger artists.
Like Hilla Lulu Lin Ganor relates contemporary and historical events to
violations of the body and fragmentations of the self. This mixture of
the personal and political and historical in the work of younger Israeli
artists is a visceral response to the events of the day. Ganor's work
is among the most important of these artists. His "Atlas" series
using historical and world maps is a seminal event in contemporary Israeli
art.
Moshe
Gershuni, b. 1936. Once a conceptual artist who sang prayers at
museums and galleries, Gershuni is now an expressionist painter many feel
is Israel's most powerful artist. His works have dealt with war and Israel's
politics and morality. His newest works explore the heights and depths
of religion and the nature of belief.
Nahum Gilboa, b. 1917. After laboring in Safed for many years, Gilboa has become a famous painter and graphic artist. He works in a magic realist style depicting memories of his childhood in Bulgaria and scenes from Israel. The extreme realism and clear visibility of each picture part gives his works their strange and haunting quality.
Albert Goldman, b. 1922 in Alexandria, Egypt. In the Independence War of 1948 during an air raid he was attacked by an Arab mob that thought he was signaling to Israeli aircraft. With great difficulty he fled to Israel in 1951. Immersing himself in art studies and groups he emerged as one of Israel's best known painters. Now he is one of the "old masters." His subjects include Israeli landscapes, especially of Jerusalem.
Nachum Gutman, 1898 - 1980. Beloved
by the children of Israel for his children's
book illustrations and the illustrations for
Bialik's stories, he was also one of the greatest
early painters in Israel. His scenes of Tel
Aviv as a new city and of Tiberias are among
Israel's best art works. He was also a great
printmaker with numerous etchings.
Bracha
Guy. Since the late 1980's early 90's
she is the most exciting artist to come out
of Israel. Her works are in the fauve tradition
of Henri Matisse. She uses extraordinary colors
which vibrate with emotion. Her images of lush
flowers and women reclining evoke passion and
the renewal of life. Her works speak of the
ultimate beauty of creation and the creative
act.
Ardyn Halter (born 1956) is our newest artist. Educated in England he lives on a beautiful farm in Pardes Hanna in Israel. His works are magnificent landscapes in a contemporary British painting style, but their power and expression is reminiscent of Van Gogh. The eye immediately takes in the whole scene, but is then free to roam the countryside defined by his strokes. We are very high on this new force in Israeli art and the influences it will bring to the rich landscape tradition of Israeli painting. Ardyn Halter also shows in England, France and the United States.
Alona Harpaz (b. 1971) is a Berlin-based Israeli artist who confronts today’s glam world head on with her provocative paintings. These works in baby blue, egg yolk and Lolita pink depict figures seemingly standing on the edge of Eden. Alone with themselves and their fantasies they face a world where human aspirations and beliefs confront a reality check. The glitter and stars meet the recognition of an emptiness at the core in figures emerging or trapped in thick layers of white. The mixture of glamour and doubt makes Harpaz one of the most powerful artists of her generation.
Shimshon Holzman (1907 – 1986) Born in Sambor, Galicia. In 1922 he immigrated with his family to Israel and settled in Tel Aviv. He studies at the Histadrut Studio under Yitzhak Frenkel. In 1929 he makes the first of several visits to Paris to study and exhibit. In 1937 he is the winner of the first Dizengoff Prize, Israel’s highest award for an artist. In 1956 he wins another. He is one of the founders of the Artist’s Colony in Safed. Holzman is a master of watercolor technique and his brilliant depictions of landscapes and cityscapes were highlights of mid-century Israeli art.
Marcel Janco (1895 – 1984) Born in Bucharest. One of the most internationally famous of all Israeli artists. Janco began his career as an architect and was one of the founding members of the Dada movement at the famous Café Voltaire in Zurich. Janco continued working in Europe in a cubist style finally emigrating to Palestine in 1941. He becomes an influential teacher and founder in 1948 of the New Horizons Movement bringing Israel into the more modern world of European art. His early abstract style evolves into a bold, angular, linear expressionism based on stylized and abstracted landscapes and figures. Helps to found the influential Israeli art colony at Ein Hod.
Michael Kachan (b. 1964) was born in Armenia. He graduated in 1985 from the Kiev Institute and emigrated to Israel in 1992. His festive works with vibrant colors reflect the best of modern European romantic art. He builds up his unique surfaces with sculpted textures. Subjects range from musicians to lovers and dreams. Though his work suggests the influence of Boulanger and Chagall, it is uniquely his own.
Menashe
Kadishman, born 1932, Tel Aviv. He studied sculpture in Israel and then worked as a shepherd, an experience which was to have a profound influence on his life and imagery. Kadishman studied sculpture in England with Anthony Caro and with Reg Butler at the renowned Slade School of Art at the University of London. He returned to Israel in 1972. In 1978 he represented Israel at the Venice Biennale and brought a herd of sheep painted blue creating an international sensation. He is famous for metal
sculptures affixed to trees and other environmental images as well as cut steel pieces like “The Sacrifice of Isaac.” He has won almost every Israeli art prize, has become Israel’s most famous sculptor, and is the creator of magnificent paintings and graphics. Kadishman has shown in galleries and museums all over the world including numerous shows in Asia. He is truly the heart and soul of Israeli art.
Irit Kalechman, b. 1950 in Israel. Her works reflect her emotion-filled life in Israel. She has raised two children following the death of her air force husband at age 34. She lives in northern Israel under threat of rocket attack. Her works are jazzy collages of the contemporary scene in Israel. Airplane imagery is tucked into many of the works. They are light-filled and Mediterranean infused with prominent feminine imagery. For all of the tragedy, her works retain a sensual French charm in the spirit of Matisse.
Shemuel Katz, b. 1926. Originally trained as an architect, Shemuel Katz' views of Israeli cities and life have been reproduced on cards and posters all over the world. His views of Israel are a part of the reality of life. Katz' strong structure gives his drawings and prints their authority.
Liliane Klapisch, b.
1933 in Cachan, France. Studied painting in
Cachan and Paris.
She has lived in Morocco and immigrated to Israel in
1969. She works and lives in Jerusalem and
Paris. Klapisch began as a figurative artist
but switched to post-World War II abstraction
in Europe and was part of the famous Realites
Nouvelles Group. After her rise in Paris art
circles, she abandoned abstraction for a return
to observing nature and figurative painting.
Her work in Israel has concentrated on several closely
observed subjects: her studio interior and
views from its windows and construction sites.
The construction site paintings deal with the
intrusiveness of human undertakings in the
landscape, the violation of nature, and the
Arab and foreign workers who are harnassed
to do the labor.
Based on close observations of the world around her,
an extraordinary sense of color and
Israel’s blinding light, her works are achievements
at the profoundest level of the painter’s art.
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Gabi
Klasmer, b. 1950. Israel's best young painter. Klasmer began as
a conceptual/performance artist, but his powerful mask-like paintings
brought him to the top of the young Israeli artists. Since 1979 he has
taken up themes from jars to space figures and dealt with topics ranging
from politics to Biblical images and time and change.
Alexander
Klevan (born 1950) brings the newest
major influence, Russian, in Israeli art's rich
tradition of absorbing styles from all over
the world. He was born in Siberia. His works
show an extraordinary drawing ability and a
great sense of light and shadow. There is a
lyrical melancholy about them and a depth that
looks past the surface realism to the poetry
of life. His sense of light and color create
an impressionist spontaneity that has come alive
since his move to Jaffa.
Gregory Kohelet, b. Russia. Kohelet is the son of a sculptor. He first studied art in Tashkent. At the academy in Moscow he absorbed European influences from Giotto to Modigliani. In 1990 he emigrated to Jerusalem for its light and divine inspiration. His work is informed by Byzantine icons, literary references and music.
Avram
Kohen-Tzedek, b.
1949 in Philadelphia, Pa. He studied art at UC Berkeley. His neighbor, novelist Chaim Potok, said he was the inspiration for the character of his artist hero Asher Lev. In 1970 he continued his studies at Bezalel in Jerusalem and made Israel his home. He is well known as an illustrator of books and magazines, but his shtetl figures are his most personal creations. His work is a wonderful blend of tradition and modernity.
Moshe
Kupferman, b. 1926. Kupferman had a one-man show at the Pompidou
Center in 1987. This Paris show will travel to the U.S. He is a powerful
abstract expressionist painter who is regarded by many critics as not
only Israel's best painter but one of the world's best painters. He was
included in the prestigious drawing show at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington,
D.C. in 1984.
Raffi
Lavie (b. 1937) is one of three artists (along with Arie Aroch
and Aviva Uri) who led Israeli art into the contemporary art world in
the 1960s. A major force in Israeli art, his works are likened to those
of the American Cy Twombly. His art reflects the spirit of Tel Aviv, with
its walls of poster remains and graffiti. A master of subtle colors and
composition, Raffi is a superb abstract expressionist. He has taught and
influenced many of Israel's major artists.
Mordecai Levanon,
b.1901 Transylvania – d. 1968 Jerusalem. Levanon emigrated to Palestine in 1921. He studied
briefly at the Bezalel School and worked as an agricultural laborer. He continued his studies
with Yitzhak Frenkel (Frenel) and finally moved to Jerusalem in 1938. He is best known for landscape
and cityscape paintings and watercolors done in an expressionist style depicting Israel as a
mystical land of the spirit in shimmering colors. His use of symbolic structures and glorious
colors create a sense of mystical transcendence. His last works were done in Safed and Jerusalem
from 1965 to 1968. His work is linked by style and energy to the Jewish School of Paris artists.
Levanon won the Struck Prize, the Jerusalem Prize and the Dizengoff prize. He also represented
Israel at the Venice Biennale.
Pamela
Levy, 1949 - 2004. Pamela Levy was born in Iowa and emigrated to Israel
in 1976. She was one of the foremost young Israeli painters before her sudden death.She received
many awards and was shown in American and European galleries. Her works are difficult and
depict Israel as a haunting vision linking paradise with a sense of vulnerability and threat.
Her works are unforgettable and disturbing. The good life is presented as on the edge.
Sandu Liberman, 1923 - 1977. One of the most famous realist artists of our time. He was beloved by collectors the world over for his haunting faces and studies of lovers, women at prayer, children, families and nudes.
Itzhak
Livneh, b. 1952 Ashkelon, Israel. An artist of international standing. Livneh
is one of the world's best pure painters. His canvases explore the visual process. Early works
hinted at a narrative while creating eerie scenes of cars, buildings and seacoasts at dawn or
sunset. Later works have explored interior spaces down to folds of clothing, tablecloths and
jewelry. Recent paintings have explored the elements of vision: color, spatial relationships,
how images are formed. Livneh is about to have a major museum retrospective in Israel. He is
the winner of the Jaques O'Hana Prize and the Hermann Struck Prize.
Hilla Lulu Lin, b. 1964 in Israel. She is
the star of Israel's youngest generation of
mature artists. Her works uses her own body,
photographs, video, and installations to comment
on eroticism, reproduction, and gender issues
in a world of mass culture and consumerism.
She also creates politically charged works.
She has already participated in major exhibits
at galleries and museums in the United States,
Israel, Europe and Japan.
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Batia Magal, b. 1953 in Israel. Batia is the hottest Israeli artist in years. She is an acute observer of the 1990's and the club and cafe scenes in Israel. Her pieces use lush colors, stained-glass effects, and a mixture of images from women and flowers to animals and textured objects collaged in them. The works are an unusual celebration of civilized living and the continued fecundity of life and the imagination. They are a tribute to the feminine side of life.
Yuval Mahler, b. 1951. Mahler is a very popular young artist. His works show a brilliant wit and an insightful study of human behavior. All of this is combined with wry humor. He uses a range of strong and sweet colors which add to the human quality of the works.
Isaac Maimon, b. 1951. His warm palette has been influenced by early 20th-Century European art. His works have a strength created by his drawing mastery and his sense of composition. He combines nostalgia for a simpler city life and a bygone era-with a sharp eye for the human comedy and universal themes.
Michoel Muchnik, b. 1952 in Philadelphia. Muchnik is one of the foremost Chassidic artists of our time. He lives in Brooklyn and works in a folk art tradition. His creations began with whimsical figures and homespun scenes using Jewish images and traditions. His newer works evoke mystical symbolism and allegory. These new bark paintings and graphics display and antique biblical effect and are quite lyrical.
Michal
Na'aman, b. 1951. Israel's most important woman artist. Subject
of a major exhibition and retrospective at the Tel Aviv Museum in 1999.
Her works are complicated, mysterious, symbolic, provocative and shocking.
She uses Biblical imagery, Freudian symbolism, historical material, mythology
and many other sources to explore gender roles, religion, politics, Jewishness,
Israel, and family relations. A giant of contemporary Israeli art.
Baruch Nachshon, b. 1939. Nachshon is growing in reputation quickly as a painter of beauty, feeling and depth. He is deeply religious and his works reflect his love of Israel's landscapes and his own mystical religious visions.
Adriana Naveh (b. Argentina). Adriana Naveh has studied witht the great Israeli artist Jan Rauchwerger. Like him she is an artist who has experienced repressive societies (Rauchwerger is from the former Soviet Union). Their works turn inward both in the psychological sense and especially in depictions of intimate scenes. Still lifes, interiors, nudes are the major subject matter. Her works seek a beauty and perfection that is oriental in feeling. The soft focus and rich earth colors are a warm and calming personal vision.
Joshua Neustein (b. 1940) is one of Israel's most famous modern artists. His works on paper have been shown worlwide and he has spent a good deal of time as a New York based artist. His paintings on paper involve folding and tearing which reveal the past of his people in stunning book-like presentations. Many of his intimate works on paper are philosophical exercises on history, memory, truth and the artistic exercise. His works are in museums all over the world and he has created many special projects in Europe, Israel and the United States.
Lea Nikel (b. 1918 in Zhitomir, Ukraine). She is the grande-dame of
Israeli painting. Lea Nikel has won the Sandberg Prize from the Israel
Museum and the Israel Prize - the country's most prestigious honor. She
has also won the Gamzu Prize from the Tel Aviv Museum and the Dizengoff
Prize from the municipality of Tel Aviv. A brilliant abstract expressionist,
her works are in numerous museums including the Tate Gallery in London.
Her lyrical works are marked by brilliant colors, great energy and a strong
underlying structure. She has lived and worked in Paris (1950 - 61), New
York (1960's and 1970's), Rome (1967 - 70), Central African Republic,
and a number of cities in Israel where she is still working today.
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Israel
Paldi (Feldman)(1893 - 1979).
One of the great early Israeli masters. Spent his childhood in Switzerland
and came to Palestine in 1909. Studied at the art academy in Munich; lived
in Constantinople. Participated in early Tower of David exhibitions as
a rebel student of the Bezalel School. His works are defined by the "orientalism"
popular at the time. This is a romantic-idealistic view of reality, a
tendency towards the primitive and naive, and centered on oriental elements
and on School of Paris techniques.
Abel Pann (born in 1883 in Kreslawka, Russia and died in 1963 in Jerusalem) he was the son of a rabbi who headed a Yeshiva. He studied in Paris at the Academie Julien and with Bougereau and Toulouse-Lautrec. He is world renowned for pictures depicting pogroms in Russia and for a lifelong series of illustrations of the Bible. These biblical works are heavily inspired by art nouveau techniques. Dramatic events, gorgeous costumes, oriental mystery, threatening skies, and larger than life characters are all part of his biblical vision.
Dan
Partouche, b. 1936 in Tiaret, Algeria). Comes from a design background
primarily in theatre sets. At eighteen he immigrated to Israel and joined
Kibbutz Chanita in the Western Galilee overlooking the Mediterranean.
Influenced by such artists as Zaritsky, Streichman and Stematsky his works
are nature oriented with a preference for flowers. Since the 1970's Dan
Partouche's dramatic floral compositions have become world famous. He
has a huge following in flower conscious Japan.
Jan Rauchwerger, b. 1942.
Ukrainian born Jan Rauchwerger is one of the
finest artists ever to work in Israel. He is now
an internationally recognized master. Following
a major retrospective at the Israel Museum
in 2004, he is having another retrospective in
Moscow. While some of his works are reminiscent
of Bonnard, he is his own master. Concentrating
on the everyday of housescapes and interiors, nudes,
still lifes, and domestic animals, he brings a
phenomenal sense of color and a sensitivity to
every nuance of subject. At first glance, his works
seem simple, accessible and non-provocative. After
repeated viewings the depth, complexity, and intensity
of his vision are revealed. Each of his paintings
serves as material for self-analysis and a deeper
understanding of universal questions.
David Reeb, b. 1952. Reeb became one of Israel's great contemporary
artists in the late 1980's and has been an important and controversial
artistic leader ever since. He has shown in Europe and the United States.
Some major works feature a beloved Tel Aviv and Israeli interiors. Other
controversial works are done with photographer Miki Kratzman who is frequently
in the West Bank. Reeb's photo-based paintings depict the occupation and
life around the Intifada. His works question Israeli society and political
policies making Reeb one of Israel's toughest artists as well as one of
its greatest painters.
Yael
Robin: A sculptor, printmaker,
photographer, Yael Robin is an important
new voice in Israeli art. She is not afraid
to work on the edges of Israeli society
where moral questions are as important
as physical presence. She explores the
terrain where orthodox meets secular, Israeli
meets Palestinian and where conflict and
misunderstanding are part of the landscape.
Her works brilliantly deconstruct these
daily occurrences. She has already shown
extensively in Europe, where she received
much of her art training, in Israel and
now the United States.
Mordechai Rosenstein. A graduate of the Philadelphia College of Art, Rosenstein has become world famous for his graphic works which play off the shapes of Hebrew letters. His bold colors and graceful curves have made his work instantly recognizable. He now designs synagogue interiors, creates stained glass, and designs tapestries which are woven in China.
Rina Rotholz. Rotholz has become one of the most original print-makers on today's art scene. She makes "tuilegraphs" (tile-writing) which are linoleum block prints. Her works depict Jewish and Near- Eastern subjects. She uses foils, metallic inks, and watercolor to give her works their strength and authenticity.
Michal
Rozenvain, b. 1963 in Kiev, Ukraine. He studied art at The Kiev
School and in Lvov. He immigrated to Israel in 1990 and quickly established
himself as a fast rising popular artist. His works integrated the sunshine
of the Mediterranean scene with his Russian background in music and nostalgic
scenes. His beautiful lyrical works and rich warm colors evoke musical
compositions in their movement and complexity.
Reuven Rubin, 1893 - 1974. Israel's greatest painter of the first half
of the Twentieth Century. In Tel Aviv they have recently opened the Reuven
Rubin Museum in his old house. Rubin was born in Rumania and became part
of the School of Paris artists. He also studied in Palestine. He went
on to become one of the most famous painters of the century.
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Boris Schatz, 1866 - 1932. The founder of art in Israel in the modern sense. In 1906 he established the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts. The school trained artists and teachers as well as artisans and distributed Israeli art works all over the world through sales and exhibitions. The school and its adjacent museum form today's Israel Museum. Schatz worked tirelessly as a fund raiser, teacher, artist, designer and promoter of Israeli art and Palestine as a viable economic entity. He died in Denver, Colorado on a fund raising trip.
Heinz Seelig, b. 1909. Seelig studied art at the Bauhaus. He is Israel's most popular printmaker. His art works are naive in style but are sophisticated works depicting Biblical scenes with wit and charm.
Shalom
of Safed, b. ? - 1980. One of the most beloved primitive artists
of this century. Shalom of Safed lived in the Galilee and painted images
of the Bible. His style was naive (untrained) but his conceptions of color
and form and his ability to tell a story made him a great master whose
works hang in museums throughout the world.
David
Schneuer (born in 1905 in Galicia,
Poland) he is the great artist of the "cabaret" scene.
He is a German Expressionist master in the
mould of Kirchner and Grosz. Schneuer collaborated
with Brecht on theatrical designs and on posters
in Munich. He was arrested and sent to Dachau,
but he was released and went to Palestine.
He never stopped doing his expressionist works
of the demi-monde. In 1985 he had a retrospective
at the Israel Museum.
Gil Marco Shani (b. 1968 in Israel). One of the most exciting of a new generation of
post- Zionist myth Israeli artists. Shani's art works appear simple almost cartoonish. This is
extremely deceptive. The are sophisticated works dealing with unprotected moments when you are
stripped of defenses. "Violence, blood, erotica, sex and death connect me to art," says Shani.
His paintings oscillate between safety and threat. The simplicity, the paring down is an attempt
to control emotions and to create an aesthetic of the political.
David Sharir, b. 1938. One of the most beloved of Israeli artists. Sharir is a great painter and printmaker. In addition, he designs sets and costumes for opera and theater companies in Israel, Europe, and the United States. His brilliant decorative works are an art of pure joy. His Persian inspired fantastic plants, animals, and people are a celebration of life.
Shaul Shatz, b. 1944 on a kibbutz. Shatz worked under the influence of Willem DeKooning, the American master abstract expressionist and still retains the slashing brushstroke and violent application of color and form. His work has become much more figurative lately. He is using the Temple Mount and landscape for a backing sometimes inserting his family. The works have a dramatic metaphysical feeling. The mysterious trees, stormy sky and other elements infuse the landscape with the sublime.
Zvi
Shorr, 1889 - 1979. The patron artist of Petah-Tikvah. He was
influenced by Cezanne and worked all his life in the Post-Impressionist
style. Shorr's scenes of Palestine early in the 20th century and his landscapes
and still lifes are magnificent images.
Jacob Steinhardt, (1887 - 1968 born in Zerkow, Poland). One of the Twentieth Century's most powerful artists. Steinhardt was a German Expressionist whose graphic works - especially woodcuts and etchings - are masterpieces of the medium. In 1912 he was a founder of the Pathetiker Group. He also exhibited at and was a member of the Berlin Secession. In 1933 he emigrates to Palestine and eventually heads the Graphics Department of the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts. In the 1950s he is honored internationally for his contributions to art and the graphic medium.
Avigdor Stematsky, b. 1908 in Odessa, Russia. He emigrates to Palestine in 1922. He studied in Israel at Bezalel and in Paris. He is one of the founders of the New Horizons Group which brings Israeli art up to the standards of modern European art. He works with splashes of interacting vibrant color to create expressive abstract compositions. His themes include cities of Israel and his wife as well as outdoor compositions. Stematsky is one of the handful of great Israeli masters. Died 1989.
Yossi Stern, b. 1923. The most popular "street-artist" in Israel. Stern depicts the daily life of Israel's cities in his brightly colored works. He studies people in costume, dancing and celebrating as well as relaxing.
Yeheskel Streichman, b. 1906 in Kovno, Lithuania. Now the great elder statesman and master of Israeli art. He has always remained a great art teacher of the young and he pioneered Israeli art's rise to world class status. One of the founders of the New Horizons movement, his art is semi-abstract and centers on themes of still life, his wife and room interiors, views out the window of his studio and landscapes. His soft colors and rich shading make him a master of lyrical feeling.
Hermann Struck, b. 1876 in Germany. He was one of Europe's most important engravers and printmakers. He was also an enormously influential teacher of graphic arts. He was on the Berlin Bezalel Society. Struck first traveled to Palestine in 1903, and went immediately afterwards to Vienna to do a portrait of Herzl. In 1923 he immigrated to Eretz Yisrael residing in Haifa. Struck died in 1944. His influence on generations of Israeli artists by his great body of work and his teaching is incalculable.
Arthur Szyk: 1894 - 1951 b. in Poland. Szyk was one of the greatest illustrators of the Twentieth Century. As a young man he created famous illustrations for Andersen's Fairy Tales. During World War II his satirical illustrations of the Axis Powers were on the covers of America's leading magazines (Colliers, Time Esquire). His works have been on display in the White House and at The FDR Library in Hyde Park. Towards the end of his life he concentrated illustrations on the new State of Israel and its place among the nations.
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Itzchak Tarkay, b. 1935 in Yugoslavia. One of the hottest artists on the international art scene. Tarkay's images of sensuous women in rich warm colors attracted world wide attention immediately. He is compared to a contemporary Toulouse-Lautrec. His works evoke a sense of ennui, of pampered excess, of the demi-monde. Visually his works are a feast of color and composition.
Samuel Tepler, b. 1918 in Poland. He
studied art first in Vilna. At the end of World
War II he reached Italy and studied in Milan.
He has received the Legion de Oro and the Italia
Prize for Art. Having studied and worked with
such geniuses as Giorgio Morandi and Marino
Marini, he is a fabulous painter of still life.
His simplified forms and brilliant use of color
make him a master of the highest order. One
can contemplate his still life works for hours
and never tire of them. They are the very definition
of classical art.
Anna
Ticho, 1894 - 1981. Israel's most famous
woman artist. Her magnificent Arab-style home
was recently turned in to a part of the Israel
Museum and is open to visitors in Jerusalem.
Educated in Austrian and German methods of draughtsmanship,
she sketched the hills of Jerusalem for 65 years.
She became one of the great masters of drawing.
Her works are like those of a Chinese landscape
master. Her late etchings are also magnificent
works.
Theo
Tobiasse, b. 1927. Born in Jaffa, Tobiasse has spent most of his
working life in Nice, France. For 25 to 30 years he has been one of the
world's most beloved artists. His works are about color, light and joy.
Many of his themes reflect the wanderings of the Jewish people and the
great figure of the Jewish mother. He is the subject of a new book by
Chaim Potok.
Yuri Tremler (b. 1961 in Ukraine). Tremler is one of the new generation of Israeli artists from the former Soviet Union. He comes with a strong background in crafts and design from schooling in Russia and Germany. Tremler fuses geometric shapes and female forms in designs that are dynamic and harmonious. His works with flowers and women, vases and goblets, move from shadow to light and back. The whole composition comes to rest in multi-colored cubes.
Igael Tumarkin, b. 1933 Dresden. Israeli painter and sculptor of enormous range and power. Tumarkin came to Palestine in 1935. Studies with sculptor Rudi Lehmann in Ein Hod. In the 1950’s he does stage sets in Germany for Berthold Brecht. Also paints in Paris until 1961. Returns to Israel and creates his trademark monumental sculptures. His sculptures and paintings reflect on Israel’s wars and the sacrifice given by soldiers and civilians. Many of the works are tortured metals and canvases and are expressionistic masterpieces. His works protest war, dehumanization, violence and alienation as expressed in geometric and abstract forms. He is a winner of the Sandberg Prize and almost every honor that can be given to an Israeli artist.
Victor (Victor Shrem), b. 1944 in Jerusalem. His
family came from Spain fleeing the Inquisition and settled in Italy and
then Hebron. He studied art in Germany following his service in the Israeli
navy. Originally obtaining his degree in ceramics, he worked in this field
for several years before swiitching to painting. His favorite subjects
are taken from Israeli folklore, Jerusalem and its suuroundings, Israeli
landscape and Judaica. He is an exceptional watercolorist, mixed media
painter and now printmaker.
Shraga Weil, b. 1918. Weil is one of Israel's great printmakers and watercolorists. Indeed, he is one of the greatest artists of Jewish themes we have. His multi-layered images deal with Biblical history, ancestors, the passage of time, families and memories.
Tanya Wissotzky & Alexander Glatchansky, b. 1959 (both) in Russia. They studied at the Odessa Academy of Fine Arts. Two of the enormously talented and popular artists who have come to Israel from Russia. They work in a collage like style which incorporates nostalgic images such as calligraphy from English flower painting manuals, and calligraphic quotations and visual images from the Paris of the 20's. In their still lifes there are classically rendered centerpieces which bring back a romanticism for a time past with its rich color and sensuous appearance. There are also quotes from music scores which while abstract evoke gaiety and pleasure. Their works are always visual treats.
Samuel Wodnitzkv (born in Kazimierz, Poland) he immigrated to Palestine in 1934. Wodnitzky's charming shtetls and synagogues are part of an enduring naiveté which he brings to his art. But there is no lack of skill in the technical mastery of his craft. Wodnitzky revives his youth in his works which depict his vivid recollections of the village of Kuzmir (Kazimierz) and the Eastern European Jewish way of life which no longer exists. Wodnitzky depicts the townspeople with fond objectivity and brilliant technique and does not fall prey to sentimentality.
Marek Yanai, b. 1946 in Poland. Marek Yanai's style and talents reflect a European sense of craft and training. His mastery of oil and watercolor come from his Viennese training and experience. His works concentrate on details of scenes of Jerusalem, of still lifes, of an interior or a portrait. The feeling of time standing still to reflect on the moment is paramount in Yanai's works.
Adi Yekutieli, b. 1958 in Tel Aviv. From among the newest generation of Israeli artists. Trained at Bezalel in Israel and the Claremont Colleges here in California, he is a powerful neo-expressionist artist. His works blend biblical and Israeli themes with a strong moral sense and filter them through today's media images of violence and oppression. His works treat the conflict of traditional values with modern reality. The works use the irony of child-like innocence to make it palatable.
Judith Yellin. Yellin 's works are brilliant collages of paper and fabric. Her themes are Jewish dances and celebrations and holidays. The varied textures, colors, and shapes create rhythms and a music that enhances the joy and energy in her art.
Ruth Zarfati, b. 1928. Zarfati's art is the innocent art of children. However, she is a sophisticated artist whose wood sculptures are in many museums. Zarfati is also a designer who has worked on street signs and the Israel pavilion at Expo '67 in Montreal.
Joseph Zaritsky, b. 1891 - d. 1985. Zaritsky was born in the Ukraine and studied art in Kiev. He came to Palestine as a young man. Now 95 years old, he is recognized as Israel's greatest master. He is internationally recognized as a great abstract expressionist painter. His works hang in museums in Europe and the US. The paintings he does are based on landscapes and cityscapes. Early in 1985 he had a massive retrospective at the Tel Aviv Museum with more than 300 works shown.Shaul Shatz, b. 1944 on a kibbutz. Shatz worked under the influence of Willem DeKooning, the American master abstract expressionist and still retains the slashing brushstroke and violent application of color and form. His work has become much more figurative lately. He is using the Temple Mount and landscape for a backing sometimes inserting his family. The works have a dramatic metaphysical feeling. The mysterious trees, stormy sky and other elements infuse the landscape with the sublime.
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