Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 7

Ben-Zion Weinman
Abstract Drawing Watercolor Painting Totem Column Jewish American Modernist WPA

About the Item

Miniature Abstract Totem. Signed with initials. Provenance: Virginia Field, Arts administrator; New York, N.Y. Assistant director for Asia House gallery. (she was friends with John von Wicht and Andy Warhol) Born in 1897, Ben-Zion Weinman celebrated his European Jewish heritage in his visual works as a sculptor, painter, and printmaker. Influenced by Spinoza, Knut Hamsun, and Wladyslaw Reymont, as well as Hebrew literature, Ben-Zion wrote poetry and essays that, like his visual work, attempt to reveal the deep “connection between man and the divine, and between man and earth.” An emigrant from the Ukraine, he came to the US in 1920. He wrote fairy tales and poems in Hebrew under the name Benzion Weinman, but when he began painting he dropped his last name and hyphenated his first, saying an artist needed only one name. Ben-Zion was a founding member of “The Ten: An Independent Group” The Ten” a 1930’s avant-garde group, Painted on anything handy. Ben-Zion often used cabinet doors (panels) in his work. Other members of group included Ilya Bolotowsky, Lee Gatch, Adolf Gottlieb, Louis Harris, Yankel Kufeld, Marcus Rothkowitz (later known as Mark Rothko), Louis Schanker, and Joseph Solman. The Art of “The Ten” was generally described as expressionist, as this style offered the best link between modernism and social art. Their exhibition at the Mercury Gallery in New York held at the same time as the Whitney Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting, included a manifesto concentrating on aesthetic questions and criticisms of the conservative definition of modern art imposed by the Whitney. Ben-Zion’s work was quickly noticed. The New York Sun said he painted “furiously” and called him “the farthest along of the lot.” And the triptych, “The Glory of War,” was described by Art News as “resounding.” By 1939, The Ten disbanded because most of the members found individual galleries to represent their work. Ben-Zion had his first one-man show at the Artist’s Gallery in Greenwich Village and J.B. Neumann, the highly esteemed European art dealer who introduced Paul Klee, (among others) to America, purchased several of Ben-Zion’s drawings. Curt Valentin, another well-known dealer, exhibited groups of his drawings and undertook the printing of four portfolios of etchings, each composed of Ben-Zion’s biblical themes. Ben-Zion’s work is represented in many museums throughout the country including the Metropolitan, the Whitney, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Phillips Collection, Washington. The Jewish Museum in New York opened in 1948 with a Ben-Zion exhibition. “Ben-Zion has his hands on the pulse of the common man and his natural world” As he emerged as an artist Ben-Zion never lost his gift for presenting the ordinary in ways that are vital, fresh and filled with emotions that are somber and exhilarating, joyous and thoughtful, and ultimately, filled with extraordinary poetic simplicity. Ben-Zion consistently threaded certain subject matter—nature, still life, the human figure, the Hebrew Bible, and the Jewish people—into his work throughout his life. "In all his work a profound human feeling remains. Sea and sky, even sheaves of wheat acquire a monolithic beauty and simplicity which delineates the transient as a reflection of the eternal. This sensitive inter- mingling of the physical and metaphysical is one of the most enduring features of Ben-Zion's works." (Excerpt from Stephen Kayser, “Biblical Paintings,” The Jewish Museum Catalogue, 1952). Ben-Zion continued his style of representational painting based on the abstract, and is perhaps best known for his Biblical paintings and etchings. Ben-Zion received an American Jewish Congress award. In 1987, Ben-Zion died in his home in the Chelsea section of Manhattan. He was 90 years old.
More From This SellerView All
  • Ben ZIon Expressionist Judaica Rabbi Watercolor Painting Jewish Modernist WPA
    By Ben-Zion Weinman
    Located in Surfside, FL
    Frame measures 13.5 X 11.5 Paper measures 6.5 X 4 inches Hand signed lower right Watercolor painting of prophet or Rabbi, Judaica artwork Born in 1897, Ben-Zion Weinman celebrated h...
    Category

    Mid-20th Century Expressionist Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Paper, Watercolor

  • Ben ZIon Expressionist Judaica Rabbi Watercolor Painting Jewish Modernist WPA
    By Ben-Zion Weinman
    Located in Surfside, FL
    Frame measures 13.5 X 11.5 Paper measures 6.5 X 5 inches Hand signed lower right Watercolor painting of prophet or Rabbi, Judaica artwork Born in 1897, Ben-Zion Weinman celebrated h...
    Category

    Mid-20th Century Expressionist Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Paper, Watercolor

  • Abstract Expressionist Rabbi Watercolor Painting Jewish American Modernist WPA
    By Ben-Zion Weinman
    Located in Surfside, FL
    Watercolor painting of standing prophet or Rabbi, Judaica artwork Born in 1897, Ben-Zion Weinman celebrated his European Jewish heritage in his visual works as a sculptor, painter, and printmaker. Influenced by Spinoza, Knut Hamsun, and Wladyslaw Reymont, as well as Hebrew literature, Ben-Zion wrote poetry and essays that, like his visual work, attempt to reveal the deep “connection between man and the divine, and between man and earth.” An emigrant from the Ukraine, he came to the US in 1920. He wrote fairy tales and poems in Hebrew under the name Benzion Weinman, but when he began painting he dropped his last name and hyphenated his first, saying an artist needed only one name. Ben-Zion was a founding member of “The Ten: An Independent Group” The Ten” a 1930’s avant-garde group, Painted on anything handy. Ben-Zion often used cabinet doors (panels) in his work. Other members of group included Ilya Bolotowsky, Lee Gatch, Adolf Gottlieb...
    Category

    Mid-20th Century Expressionist Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Paper, Watercolor

  • Polish French Judaica Watercolor Gouache Painting Original Bauhaus Yiddish Art
    By Moses Bagel Bahelfer
    Located in Surfside, FL
    Moses Bahelfer BAGEL (1908-1995) Moses Bagel (born Moshe Bahelfer) was a Polish-born Jewish artist and graphic designer associated with the original Bauhaus and then the School of Paris (Ecole de Paris) Moshe Bagelferyches was born on June 29 , 1908 in Vilnius, (Vilna, Poland) then part of the Russian Empire. He took up painting from at an early age, later going on to work as an apprentice at a local vocational school in Vilno while taking classes at the Vilnius Academy of Arts. Bagelferyches also joined Yungvilno, a group formed by young Jewish artists, poets and writers in the city, who hosted exhibitions. In 1927, he left for Germany where he joined the Bauhaus arts and architecture school in Dessau. From 1928 to 1932, he studied under Joost Schmidt, Paul Klee, Lyonel Feininger, and Wassily Kandinsky. His painting was close to pure abstract art. He maintained close bonds with former students of the Bauhaus school who lived in Paris, Joseph Weinfeld, Jean Leppien...
    Category

    20th Century Modern Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Ink, Watercolor, ABS

  • Polish French Judaica Watercolor Gouache Painting Original Bauhaus Yiddish Art
    By Moses Bagel Bahelfer
    Located in Surfside, FL
    Moses Bahelfer BAGEL (1908-1995) Moses Bagel (born Moshe Bahelfer) was a Polish-born Jewish artist and graphic designer associated with the original Bauhaus and then the School of Paris (Ecole de Paris) Moshe Bagelferyches was born on June 29 , 1908 in Vilnius, (Vilna, Poland) then part of the Russian Empire. He took up painting from at an early age, later going on to work as an apprentice at a local vocational school in Vilno while taking classes at the Vilnius Academy of Arts. Bagelferyches also joined Yungvilno, a group formed by young Jewish artists, poets and writers in the city, who hosted exhibitions. In 1927, he left for Germany where he joined the Bauhaus arts and architecture school in Dessau. From 1928 to 1932, he studied under Joost Schmidt, Paul Klee, Lyonel Feininger, and Wassily Kandinsky. His painting was close to pure abstract art. He maintained close bonds with former students of the Bauhaus school who lived in Paris, Joseph Weinfeld, Jean Leppien...
    Category

    20th Century Modern Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Ink, Watercolor, ABS

  • Polish French Judaica Watercolor Gouache Painting Original Bauhaus Yiddish Art
    By Moses Bagel Bahelfer
    Located in Surfside, FL
    Moses Bahelfer BAGEL (1908-1995) Moses Bagel (born Moshe Bahelfer) was a Polish-born Jewish artist and graphic designer associated with the original Bauhaus and then the School of Paris (Ecole de Paris) Moshe Bagelferyches was born on June 29 , 1908 in Vilnius, (Vilna, Poland) then part of the Russian Empire. He took up painting from at an early age, later going on to work as an apprentice at a local vocational school in Vilno while taking classes at the Vilnius Academy of Arts. Bagelferyches also joined Yungvilno, a group formed by young Jewish artists, poets and writers in the city, who hosted exhibitions. In 1927, he left for Germany where he joined the Bauhaus arts and architecture school in Dessau. From 1928 to 1932, he studied under Joost Schmidt, Paul Klee, Lyonel Feininger, and Wassily Kandinsky. His painting was close to pure abstract art. He maintained close bonds with former students of the Bauhaus school who lived in Paris, Joseph Weinfeld, Jean Leppien...
    Category

    20th Century Modern Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Ink, Watercolor, ABS

You May Also Like
  • Gladiator
    By Rainer Küchenmeister
    Located in Norwich, GB
    An exquisite watercolour and paint painting on paper by German resistance fighter and concentration camp survivor Rainer Küchenmeister (1926-2010)...
    Category

    1970s Expressionist Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Watercolor

  • Une Danse, Original Work on Paper, Ink, Acrylic
    Located in AIX-EN-PROVENCE, FR
    Acrylic, Ink, Pastel and collage on paper - Original Work on Paper. The work is in very good condition and is signed lower Right "Patricia R.". Unfortunately we have no further info...
    Category

    1990s Expressionist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Pastel, Archival Ink, Acrylic

  • American American Art by Michael Alan - Ghost
    By Michael Alan
    Located in Paris, IDF
    Watercolor, ink, marker & colored pencil on paper Michael Alan is an American artist born in 1977 who lives & works in New York, USA. As a multidisciplin...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Ink, Watercolor, Permanent Marker, Color Pencil

  • American American Art by Michael Alan - Positivy
    By Michael Alan
    Located in Paris, IDF
    Watercolor, ink, marker & colored pencil on paper Michael Alan is an American artist born in 1977 who lives & works in New York, USA. As a multidisciplin...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Ink, Watercolor, Permanent Marker, Color Pencil

  • American Contemporary Art by Michael Alan - The Future of Children
    By Michael Alan
    Located in Paris, IDF
    Pen, ink, marker, pencil, watercolor & colored pencils on paper Michael Alan is an American artist born in 1977 who lives & works in New York, USA. As a multidisciplinary artist. Hi...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Ink, Watercolor, Pen, Permanent Marker, Color Pencil

  • American Contemporary Art by Michael Alan - Systematic Language Enhanced Culture
    By Michael Alan
    Located in Paris, IDF
    Watercolor, ink & colored pencil on paper Michael Alan is an American artist born in 1977 who lives & works in New York, USA. As a multidisciplinary artist. His work has been featur...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Abstract Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Pen, Ink, Watercolor, Color Pencil

Recently Viewed

View All