Avi Schwartz
Encyclopedia
Childhood and adolescence
Avi Schwartz was born in BucharestBucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
, Romania, in 1938. His family was in the diamond
Diamond
In mineralogy, diamond is an allotrope of carbon, where the carbon atoms are arranged in a variation of the face-centered cubic crystal structure called a diamond lattice. Diamond is less stable than graphite, but the conversion rate from diamond to graphite is negligible at ambient conditions...
business.
Early in life he absorbed artistic values at home, where the walls were decorated with pictures from his father's rich art collection. The realityle of portraits and scenery was then considered classic, and Avi strived to imitate it. His opportunity came during World War II, while Bucharest was being bombed, and he and his family were forced to remain at home for long periods of time. During those days he copied the pictures he saw before him.
In 1947 his family succeeded in leaving Romania and immigrated to Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
in 1948, via Paris. Here they were met by his grandfather, Moses Josephson, the first president of the Israel Diamond Exchange
Israel Diamond Exchange
Israel Diamond Exchange Ltd., located in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv, is the world's largest diamond exchange. The exchange is a private company that incorporates about 2800 diamantaires members, which are engaged in diamond trading, cutting, marketing, brokerage, import and export.The exchange...
, who had immigrated to Palestine before the war.
In his youth he studied in the "Shalva High School in Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
, and with his parents' encouragement he enrolled in the Avni Institute (a college for Art and Design). He was the youngest student there, and was proud to have successfully passed its entrance exams. The Avni Institute was then run by Moshe Mokedi, and among its teachers were Yechezkel Shtreichman, Avigdor Steimatzky, and Marcel Yanko.
The Avni Institute and beyond
During this period the prevailing artistic perceptions at the Avni Institute leaned towards abstract art and were in search of a new, modernistic and cosmopolitan language of expression. This was in contradiction to the "old BezalelBezalel
In Exodus 31:1-6, Bezalel |transcribed]] as Betzalel and most accurately as Beẓal'el), is the chief artisan of the Tabernacle. Elsewhere in the Bible the name occurs only in the genealogical lists of the Book of Chronicles, but according to cuneiform inscriptions a variant form of the same,...
art", "tourist paintings" and realism that imitated what the eye saw. In the Avni institute Avi became exposed to abstract expressionism
Abstract expressionism
Abstract expressionism was an American post–World War II art movement. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve worldwide influence and put New York City at the center of the western art world, a role formerly filled by Paris...
, to an approach which considered art to be an intuitive medium for the expression of feelings, reflecting fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
and the subconscious
Subconscious
The term subconscious is used in many different contexts and has no single or precise definition. This greatly limits its significance as a definition-bearing concept, and in consequence the word tends to be avoided in academic and scientific settings....
, etc. According to this view, realistic painting had reached its summit, and had thus come to an end.
The process of study at the Institute consisted of basic, primary guidance during the lesson, emphasizing work at home - work by trial and error, then standing up to critique in class. Schwartz did not relate well to these methods, nor to the artistic language of Steimatzky or Shtreichman and Yanko, who belonged to the group called "New Horizons
New Horizons
New Horizons is a NASA robotic spacecraft mission currently en route to the dwarf planet Pluto. It is expected to be the first spacecraft to fly by and study Pluto and its moons, Charon, Nix, Hydra and S/2011 P 1. Its estimated arrival date at the Pluto-Charon system is July 14th, 2015...
". He was looking for "the real thing" according to him, figurative painting. This lack of communication between him and his teachers led to an "arid period", during which he ceased to paint.
When the Sinai Campaign broke out, Avi left the Avni Institute and his high school and enlisted in the army, the IDF
Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces , commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew acronym Tzahal , are the military forces of the State of Israel. They consist of the ground forces, air force and navy. It is the sole military wing of the Israeli security forces, and has no civilian jurisdiction within Israel...
. Later he married Nurit, finished his matriculation exams, and for a short period studied history in the Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University is a public university located in Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel. With nearly 30,000 students, TAU is Israel's largest university.-History:...
. To make a living he worked in diamond polishing and later managed the diamond, precious stone and metal works department in the Ramat Gan Ort School.
He began painting again only at the age of 30, when he met the artist Zvi Schor, who told him that "the world is not abstract
Abstract art
Abstract art uses a visual language of form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. Western art had been, from the Renaissance up to the middle of the 19th century, underpinned by the logic of perspective and an...
, and no painting should be abstract - paint the world as you see it". Zvi Schor had been exposed to modern art and French Expressionism
Expressionism
Expressionism was a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas...
, and had even lived for some time in Paris. Despite this, his paintings remained descriptive and realistic, made by impressionistic
Impressionism
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement that originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s...
movements of the paintbrush, inspired by the paintings of Edgar Degas
Edgar Degas
Edgar Degas[p] , born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, was a French artist famous for his work in painting, sculpture, printmaking and drawing. He is regarded as one of the founders of Impressionism although he rejected the term, and preferred to be called a realist...
, Paul Cézanne
Paul Cézanne
Paul Cézanne was a French artist and Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th century conception of artistic endeavour to a new and radically different world of art in the 20th century. Cézanne can be said to form the bridge between late 19th...
and others. Avi Schwartz was very much influenced by him, and was considered "the direct disciple of Zvi Schor".
Back to the art world
Schwartz also studied art with Professor Schwartzman, but was most influenced by two artists who became his "masters"- Shimshon Hollzman and Aryeh Lubin. Holtzman was identified with the artists of the Paris School, and became known as an outstanding aquarelle painter. Aryeh Lubin was influenced by Cézanne, and painted illuminated Safad synagogues, vendors in the Tiberias marketplace, and Arabic characters in cafes.The friendship that developed between Schwartz, Hollzman and Lubin, led to regular meetings, during which the three of them sometimes traveled to the markets of Ramle and Lod
Lod
Lod is a city located on the Sharon Plain southeast of Tel Aviv in the Center District of Israel. At the end of 2010, it had a population of 70,000, roughly 75 percent Jewish and 25 percent Arab.The name is derived from the Biblical city of Lod...
, but mostly worked and painted together in cafes and at the Jaffa
Jaffa
Jaffa is an ancient port city believed to be one of the oldest in the world. Jaffa was incorporated with Tel Aviv creating the city of Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel. Jaffa is famous for its association with the biblical story of the prophet Jonah.-Etymology:...
seafront. They were joined at times by Nachum Gutman.
In 1979 Hollzman invited Schwartz to Paris to join the workshops that were being held in the famous art school, the "Académie de la Grande Chaumière
Académie de la Grande Chaumière
The Académie de la Grande Chaumière is an art school in the VIe arrondissement of Paris, France. The school was founded in 1902 by the Swiss Martha Stettler , who refused to teach the strict academic rules of painting of the École des Beaux-Arts. It opened the way to the "Art Indépendant"...
", and he complied.
Style characteristics
Zvi Schor, whose personality was formed by European culture, was very pedantic with his pupil Avi Schwartz about the use of colors in his paintings –mainly burnt Sienna, Prussian bluePrussian blue
Prussian blue is a dark blue pigment with the idealized formula Fe718. Another name for the color Prussian blue is Berlin blue or, in painting, Parisian blue. Turnbull's blue is the same substance but is made from different reagents....
, and ochre yellow. On the other hand, Hollzman and Lubin exposed him to other color options, emphasizing Israeli sunlight and sharp contrasts. Schwartz incorporated their teaching into his art, and like them was inspired by the sights and experiences he absorbed outside the studio. His works are deeply connected to the viewed object (landscapes, figures, etc.), permeating urban reality, Jaffa neighborhoods, its coffee shops, sea and [ort, etc.
Schwartz' paintings deal with the figurative representation of space, showing figures drawn on site, catching immediate impressions, focusing especially on characters from the marginal strata of society: unfortunate people at rest or at work. Even though his works deal with social themes, it must be emphasized that they do not express any political or socially subversive stand. His subjects are not drawn as a protest against the social wrongs perpetrated against them by the ruling powers, or even to show their "miserable existence". Schwartz observes his subjects, and translates what he sees from his very personal viewpoint to the canvas. He "maps out" his figures as viewed from some distance, without being an integral part of the scene.
Solo exhibitions
- 1972 – "Champs Elysee", JohannesburgJohannesburgJohannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
, South Africa - 1974 – Israelis Gallery, Tel Aviv
- 1976 – Art Sanctuary, Holon
- 1978 – "Ten Years of Creativity" - Yad Lebanim Museum, Petach Tikvah
- 1979 - Ramat Hasharon Gallery
- 1981, 1986, 1988 – Weizman Gallery, Beer Sheva
- 1984 – Uri and Rami Nehushtan Museum, Ashdot Yaakov
- 1985 – "Miniatures", Kontiki Gallery, CaracasCaracasCaracas , officially Santiago de León de Caracas, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela; natives or residents are known as Caraquenians in English . It is located in the northern part of the country, following the contours of the narrow Caracas Valley on the Venezuelan coastal mountain range...
, VenezuelaVenezuelaVenezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south... - 1986, 1988, 1995 – Meir Art Gallery, Raanana
- 1987 – Gallery 13.5, Jaffa, Tel Aviv
- 1993 – Gevanim Gallery, Panorama Hotel, HaifaHaifaHaifa is the largest city in northern Israel, and the third-largest city in the country, with a population of over 268,000. Another 300,000 people live in towns directly adjacent to the city including the cities of the Krayot, as well as, Tirat Carmel, Daliyat al-Karmel and Nesher...
- 1994 – Princess Hotel Gallery, Eilat
- 2006 – Zaritsky Artists House, Tel Aviv
- 2009 – Kings Gallery, Jerusalem
Group exhibitions
- 1972, 1995 – Yad Lebanim Museum, Petach Tikvah
- 1974 – Israeli Artists in the President's Residence, Jerusalem
- 1974, 1975, 1984 – Tel Aviv Artists, Zaritsky Artists House, Tel Aviv
- 1976 – Israeli Artists, MontrealMontrealMontreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Canada - 1977 – The First "Autumn Art Salon", ZOA House, Tel Aviv
- 1979 – "Spring Salon", Israeli Artists in ZürichZürichZurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
, Switzerland - 1986, 1988 – Selected Israeli Artists, DüsseldorfDüsseldorfDüsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...
; Berlin, Germany - 1990, 2004 – Art Expo, New YorkNew YorkNew York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
; Los Angeles, U.S.A. - 1991 – "International Art Show", Tokyo, Japan
- - Beit Eli Municipal Gallery, AshkelonAshkelonAshkelon is a coastal city in the South District of Israel on the Mediterranean coast, south of Tel Aviv, and north of the border with the Gaza Strip. The ancient seaport of Ashkelon dates back to the Neolithic Age...
- 1997, 1999 – Bible House Museum, Tel Aviv
- 1997 – "Miniatures", Beit Abba Hushi, Haifa
- - Union of Artists and Sculptors House, Ramat Gan
- 1998 – "Landscapes", The Library Gallery, Giv'atayimGiv'atayimGiv'atayim is a city in Israel east of Tel Aviv. It is part of the metropolitan area known as Gush Dan. Givatayim was established in 1922 by pioneers of the Second Aliyah. It has a population of 53,000....
- 2000 – The Land of Israel Museum, Tel Aviv
- 1998 – "Landscapes", The Library Gallery, Giv'atayim
- - The Chagall Artists House, Haifa
- 2000, 2004, - Artists House, Petach Tikvah
- 2003 – Culture Palace, Petach Tikvah
- 2004 – Kings Gallery, Jerusalem