Gabriel and Maxim Shamir
Encyclopedia
Both of the Shamir brothers studied graphics and design at the Kunstgewerbeschule
Kunstgewerbeschule
A Kunstgewerbeschule was the old name for an advanced school of applied arts in German-speaking countries. The first such schools were opened in Kassel in 1867 and Berlin and Munich in 1868 with other German towns following. They are now merged into universities....
of Charlottenburg
Charlottenburg
Charlottenburg is a locality of Berlin within the borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, named after Queen consort Sophia Charlotte...
in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
—Gabriel in 1926-30 and Maxim in 1928-33. 1930-31, Gabriel worked for advertising agency Lintas in Berlin and, 1931-33, for advertising agency Gumaelius in Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
. In 1934, they opened a graphic-design studio in Riga
Riga
Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...
, Latvia
Latvia
Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...
, but the next year immigrated to Eretz Israel (or Land of Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, as the pre-state in Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
was known to the Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
). The brothers arrived during the fifth wave of immigration and very soon set up the Shamir Brothers Studio at Sderot Rothschild 84 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...
. The time was a lively and somewhat prosperous period, when the port of Tel Aviv was built (1936), the Levant Fairs were inaugurated (1932, 1934, 1936), and the first Maccabiah Games
Maccabiah Games
The Maccabiah is an international Jewish athletic event similar to the Olympics held in Israel every four years under the auspices of the Maccabi Federation, affiliated with the Maccabi World Union. The Maccabiah Games is the third largest international sports competition in the world...
were held (1932, 1935). These and other advents created a propitious climate for those like the trained and experienced Shamirs who could create effective propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
and advertising
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
material, such as posters. These early years in Eretz Israel of the development of promotion and persuasion by professionals lead to the 1935 establishment of the Department of Graphics at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design
Bezalel Academy of Art and Design
Bezalel Academy of Art and Design is Israel's national school of art, founded in 1906 by Boris Schatz. It is named for the Biblical figure Bezalel, son of Uri , who was appointed by Moses to oversee the design and construction of the Tabernacle ....
and The Society of Hebrew Graphic Artists in Eretz Israel of which the Shamirs were two of the cofounders.
Because there were few Hebrew typefaces available, the Shamirs and others improvised hand-painted Hebrew letters, often into transliterated words from European languages and English. Eventually, a number of faces became available even though some were Europeanized into Hebrew letterforms that called on sans-serif fonts such as 1925 Universal by Herbert Bayer
Herbert Bayer
Herbert Bayer was an Austrian American graphic designer, painter, photographer, sculptor, art director, environmental & interior designer, and architect, who was widely recognized as the last living member of the Bauhaus and was instrumental in the development of the Atlantic Richfield Company's...
(re-formed by Jan Tischold in 1926) and 1928 Futura by Paul Renner
Paul Renner
Paul Renner was a typeface designer, most notably of Futura. He was born in Wernigerode, Germany and died in Hödingen....
. Whereas Franz Kraus
Franz Kraus
Franz Kraus was an Israeli graphic designer.-Biography:...
, the Austrian graphic designer who arrived in Eretz Israel a year before the Shamirs, adhered to a uniform type style, the brothers sought typography that they felt expressed the subject matter.
The story of the Shamir brothers, whose images of people were infused with an optimistic, even joyous, attitude in numerous examples, is also the story of Israel's formative years. They were empathetic partners with those enthusiastic about the future of the formation of an official State of Israel, and the Shamirs assisted the quest by visually fostering the citizens' sense of a national unity. The brothers undertook to formalize and actualize the visual symbols of Israeli sovereignty and independence. Hence, they designed the state's emblems, medals, stamps, and currency notes, including the 1949 Israeli State Coat of Arms (an image of a menorah and olive branches). In addition, they advertised cigarettes and other consumer goods, as well as designed stamps for countries in Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
, and South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
. Their posters, other advertisements, and logos from 1935 to the close of their studio in 1974—rendered for the lottery, marketing fairs, land settlement, support of the army, food rationing, anti-black-market drives, and other nationalistic efforts—express a hyped Communist attitude, but not extreme or dour as in the propaganda of Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
. Even so, most Shamir work promoting nationalistic causes possessed a strong Israeliness and an heroic dimension which are absent in the country today.
The Shamir brothers are two of Israel's most-prominent graphic designers; the others include Franz Kraus
Franz Kraus
Franz Kraus was an Israeli graphic designer.-Biography:...
(1905–98), Dan Reisinger
Dan Reisinger
Dan Reisinger is an Israeli designer of graphics, exhibitions, and stage sets.-Biography:He was born in Kanjiža, Serbia, into a family of painters and decorators active in Austria-Hungary and the Balkans. Most family members died in the Holocaust, including his father...
(b. 1934) and David Tartakover
David Tartakover
David Tartakover is an Israeli graphic designer, political activist, artist and design educator.He studied at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem, and is a graduate of the London College of Printing...
(b. 1944).
Major Exhibitions
- Commercial Art of Palestine 1936 – Levant Fair, Tel Aviv
- Shamir Brothers 1940 - Studio Shamir, Tel Aviv, Curators: Gabriel and Maxim Shamir
- To Live with the Dream 1989 – Museum Tel Aviv of Art, Curator: Batia Donner
- Product of Palestine (1923-1948) 1997 – Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Curator: Matti Meir
- Vision and Propaganda 1998 – Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Curator: Batia Donner
- Hebrew Graphics-Shamir Brothers Studio 1999 - Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Curator: Batia Donner
- Israeli Posters c.2000 – Zionist Central Archive, Jerusalem, Curator: Lifsha Ben-Shah
- Landmarks-Posters from Zionism 2000 Collection 2008 - Zionism 2000, Beit Yehoshua, Curator: Inbal Amit
- The Right to Scream – May 1 Posters 2003 – Farkash Gallery, Jaffa, Curator: Aharon Farkash
- A Dialogue between Shamir Brother and Contemporary Artists 2004 – WIZO Design College, Haifa, Curators: Anat Gateniu and students
- The New Hebrew -100 Years of Israeli Art, 2005 – Martin Gropius House, Berlin, Curators: Doreet LeVitte, Yigal Zalmona
- The Histadrut – All the Way with the State of Israel 2006 –amalnet.k12.il, Curators: Alexandra Tomarinson, Matti Kanterovich
- Bank Notes and Coins - permanent exhibit 2009 – Bank of Israel, Jerusalem, Curator: Dr. Rachel Barkai
- Israel Art – permanent exhibit 2010 – Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Curators: Amitai Mendelshon, Yigal Zalmona
- Hebrew Woman, Join the Army! 2010 – Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv, Curator: Batia Donner
- 90 Years of Vision - Keren HaYesod Posters 2010 – Ben- Gurion Airport, Lod, Curator: David Tartakover
- The Emblem of the State in Caricature 2011 – Israel Museum of Cartoons and Comics, Holon, Curators: Daniella Gardosh Santo, Yoram E. Shamir
- 60 Anniversary of Binyanei HaUma 2011 – International Convention Center, Jerusalem, Curator: Monica Lavi
- JNF Posters - from the Beginning to the Present 2011 – eyarok.org.il, Curator: Meir Sadan