Benni Efrat (born 1936) is an Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

i painter, sculptor, printmaker and filmmaker who was born in Beirut

Beirut

Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...

. He 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 1947. From 1959 to 1961, he studied at the Avni Institute of Art and Design

Avni Institute of Art and Design

The Avni Institute of Art and Design is an Israeli art school located in Tel Aviv. The institute is known for teaching and employing many well known Israeli artists and designers....

 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...

 under Yehezkel Streichman

Yehezkel Streichman

Yehezkel Streichman was an Israeli painter. He is considered a pioneer of Israeli modernist painting. Among the awards that he won were the Dizengoff Prize and the Israel Prize.-Early life:Streichman was born in Kovno, Lithuania...

 (1906-1993).

From 1966 to 1976, he lived in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, where he studied at St. Martin's School of Art in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

. After working in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, Benni Efrat

Benni Efrat

Benni Efrat is an Israeli painter, sculptor, printmaker and filmmaker who was born in Beirut. He immigrated to Israel in 1947. From 1959 to 1961, he studied at the Avni Institute of Art and Design in Tel Aviv under Yehezkel Streichman .From 1966 to 1976, he lived in London, where he studied at...

 became the first of the Israeli Conceptual artists

Conceptual art

Conceptual art is art in which the concept or idea involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. Many of the works, sometimes called installations, of the artist Sol LeWitt may be constructed by anyone simply by following a set of written instructions...

 and influenced others in this direction (e.g., Joshua Neustein

Joshua Neustein

Joshua Neustein is a contemporary visual artist living and working in New York and Tel Aviv. He is known primarily for his environmental installations and Post Minimalist torn paper works, as well as his series of large-scale map paintings. He is considered to be one of the founding fathers of...

, Michael Gitlin

Michael Gitlin

Michael Gitlin is a contemporary sculptor.-Life and work:Michael Gitlin's family emigrated from South Africa to Israel in 1948. Gitlin received his BA in English Literature and Art History from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem . He simultaneously studied at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design...

, Buky Schwartz

Buky Schwartz

-Biography:Schwartz was born in Jerusalem in 1932. From 1956 to 1958, he studied sculpture with Yitzhak Danziger at the Avni Institute of Art and Design in Tel Aviv. In 1959, he moved to London, where he studied at the St. Martin's School of Art from 1959 to 1962. After returning to Israel in...

). His works were systems of components which spoke for themselves and sought to represent no more than the sum of their parts. In the mid-1970s his displays were accompanied by films, on the back of which the artist had painted. After settling in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 in 1976, became involved with conceptual art, producing drawings, prints and photographs that explore energy, space and the perception in sculpture. Efrat currently lives in Belgium

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

.

Awards and Prizes

• America-Israel Cultural Foundation, 1966
• Sixth Paris Biennale for Young Artists , 1969

External links

• Benni Efrat from the Israeli artist list of the Information Center for Israeli Art
  Information Center for Israeli Art
  The Information Center for Israeli Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the Israeli Art in Israel. More than 12,000 artists files are housed in the Center in the Israel Museum, Jerusalem....
  
   at the Israel Museum
  Israel Museum
  The Israel Museum, Jerusalem was founded in 1965 as Israel's national museum. It is situated on a hill in the Givat Ram neighborhood of Jerusalem, near the Bible Lands Museum, the Knesset, the Israeli Supreme Court, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem....
  
  http://www.imj.org.il/artcenter/default.asp?artist=271085&list=A