Bezalel school

The term Bezalel school describes a group of artists who worked in Israel in the late Ottoman and British Mandate periods. It is named after the institution where they were employed, the Bezalel Academy, predecessor of today’s Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, and has been described as "a fusion of ‘oriental' art and Jugendstil." [ [http://www.artatthecenter.com/HTML/Artists.cfm?ID=35 AATC Artists - Ze'ev Raban ] ]

The Academy was led by Boris Schatz, who left his position as head of the Royal Academy of Arts in Sofia, Bulgaria, to make aliyah 1906 and set up an academy for Jewish arts. All of the members of the school were Zionist immigrants from Europe and the Middle East, with all the psychological and social upheaval that this implies. [ Bezalel School turns 100 years old, by Shulamit Reinharz , Jewish Advocate, Tuesday March 4 2008, http://www.thejewishadvocate.com/this_weeks_issue/columnists/reinharz/?content_id=2076 ] The school developed a distinctive style, in which artists portrayed both Biblical and Zionist subjects in a style influenced by the European jugendstil ( or art nouveau) movement, by symbolism, and by traditional Persian and Syrian artistry. [ SOTHEBY'S BEZALEL AND ISRAELIANA CATALOG, TEL-AVIV, 1998 ] Like the British Arts and Crafts Movement, Wiener Werkstätte in Vienna, William Morris firm in England, and Tiffany Studios in New York, the Bezalel School produced decorative art objects in a wide range of media: silver, leather, wood, brass and fabric. While the artists and designers were European-trained, the craftsmen who executed the works were often members of the Yemenite community, which has a long tradition of craftsanship in precious metals, and began to make aliyah about 1880. Yemenite immigrants with their colorful traditional costumes were also frequent subjects of Bezalel School artists.

Leading members of the school were Boris Schatz, E.M. Lilien,Ya'akov Stark, Meir Gur Arie, Ze'ev Raban, Jacob Eisenberg, Jacob Steinhardt, and Hermann Struck.

The artists produced not only paintings and etchings, but objects that might be sold as Judiaca or souvenirs. In 1915, the New York Times praised the “Exquisite examples of filigree work, copper inlay, carving in ivory and in wood,” in a touring exhibit. [ REVIVE JEWISH ARTISTRY.; Bezalel School of Jerusalem Shows Distinctive Works of Art, New York Times, Nov. 14, 1915 query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30D15FF3A5812738DDDAD0994D9415B858DF1D3] In the metalwork Moorish patterns predominated, and the damascene work, in particular, showed both artistic feeling and skill in execution [ ART NOTES.; Work of Bezalel School of Handicrafts and Turner Collection, Jan. 9, 1914, NYTimes, http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9F04E3DF1E39E633A2575AC0A9679C946596D6CF ]

ources

* Gil Goldfine, “Zeev Raban and the Bezalel style,” Jerusalem Post , 12-14-2001

*Dalia Manor, “Biblical Zionism in Bezalel Art,” Israel Studies 6.1 (2001) 55-75, http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/israel_studies/v006/6.1manor.html

*The "Hebrew Style" of Bezalel, 1906-1929 Nurit Shilo Cohen The Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts, Vol. 20. (1994), pp. 140-163

*Manor, Dalia, Art in Zion: The Genesis of National Art in Jewish Palestine, published by Routledge Curzon, 2005)

* "Crafting a Jewish Style: The Art of the Bezalel Academy, 1906-1996" 2000-08-26 until 2000-10-22 Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts

* http://www.absolutearts.com/artsnews/2000/08/25/27362.html

References