Eric Chaim Kline, Bookseller

Eric Chaim Kline, Bookseller

14 Jewish-themed bas-relief scenes in silver, matted and framed.

Framed. Complete set of fourteen silver Jewish-themed images by the artist Boris Schatz. Framed as follows: Top row: 1. Requiem, 2. Jeremiah, 3. Wailing Wall. Second row: 4. The Penitent, 5. Midnight Prayer, 6. When will the Miraculous End Come, Third row: 7. Tutor, 8. Herzl, 9. Blowing of the Shofar, Bottom row: 10. Grandmother, 11. Rabbi's Blessing, 12. Havdalah, 13. The Scribe, 14. One of the People of the Book.

Boris Schatz [1866-1932] had a traditional Jewish upbringing until he left his family for Vilnius, Lithuania at the age of eighteen where he lived and studied for five years. In 1888, he moved to Warsaw to study sculpture and painting, and then moved to Paris to study at the Academie Cormon for five years with other artists including Mark Antokolski from Vilnius. While residing in Paris, Schatz was invited by Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria to become his official court sculptor with the purpose of establishing the Royal Academy of Art in Sofia, an invitation he accepted. At the Fifth Zionist Congress in 1901, Schatz proposed the founding of a Jewish school for the arts in Palestine. The school opened in 1906, and was named Bezalel in honor of Bezalel Ben Uri the biblical Jewish artist [Exodus 31: 2-5] who was selected to design the Tabernacle and its sacred ritual objects.

As an artist, Schatz's preferred media was the bas-relief, of which he was a master. He worked in silver, copper, brass and bronze. His silver-cast works are known for their light-catching qualities and he is best known for images like #2 “Jeremiah the Prophet” and #5 “Midnight Prayer.” He believed in the melding of Jewish folk art motifs with biblical and historic images to create a new and individualistic Jewish Palestinian art movement.

During World War I the Bezalel school was closed by the Turks. Schatz was arrested and deported to Syria. After the war and under the British mandate he was able to reopen the school. The Bezalel school suffered from financial difficulties from its reopening until it closed in 1929. As a result, Schatz had to resort to making numerous fundraising trips to the U.S. where he sold his own work and promoted his prominent artists, including Zeev Raban and Gor Aryeh, in addition to the textile and metal work produced by the school. The first public exhibitions of Palestinian Jewish artists in Europe and the United States were organized by Schatz. In 1932, while fundraising in Colorado, USA, he died of a heart attack.

Motifs partially tarnished. Matted behind glass in aluminum frame (loose at lower corners, reinforced with white tape at top edges. Very good condition. Item #49078

Price: $3,750.00

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