By David Palombo
Located in Surfside, FL
Hand Forged Iron and Drilled Stone Candelabra
Holocaust Memorial Judaic Menorah Sculpture
David Palombo was an Israeli sculptor and painter. He was born in Turkey to a traditional family and immigrated to the Land of Israel with his parents in 1923. They lived in the Nahalat Shiva neighborhood of Jerusalem. In 1940 he began his studies at Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, and from 1942 was a student of sculptor Ze’ev Ben-Zvi. For a period of time, Palombo was an assistant at Ben-Zvi’s studio and also taught at Bezalel. During this period he was also a member of the “Histadrut HaNoar HaOved VeHaLomed” (The General Federation of Students and Young Workers in Israel). In the 1940s he took art lessons at night. In 1948 he went to Paris, where he visited the studio of the sculptor Constantin Brancusi whose work influenced him. Around 1958 he married the artist Shulamit Sirota. In 1960 he quit his job to devote himself to art. In 1964 he married for the second time to the artist Yona Palombo. The two of them went to live in an abandoned home on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. In 1966 he was killed when the motorcycle on which he was riding ran into a chain stretched across the street to prevent the desecration of Shabbat. His widow opened a museum in their home that was active until the year 2000.
Work by Palombo is included in the Judaic collection of the Jewish Museum (a well known Hanukkah menora). Palombo executed the impressive metal gates of the Tent of Remembrance at the Yad Vashem, the memorial to the martyrs of the holocaust, as well as the gates to the Knesset Building the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco award) awarded him a scholarship for study in Japan. He worked in marble, granite, bronze, iron and steel. as well as with glass mosaic tiles. Palombo’s early works, in the 1950s, were influenced by modernist sculptors such as Brancusi. These works were composed of abstract images from nature and were carved out of stone or wood. At the end of the 1950s he began making metal sculptors, using the technique of welding. His work took on a more abstract and expressive character.
Education
1940 Painting with Isidor Ascheim, New Bezalel School for Arts and Crafts, Jerusalem
1942 Sculpture with Zeev Ben Zvi, Jerusalem
1956 Mosaic, Ravenna, Italy
1958 Welding Course
Awards And Prizes
1966 UNESCO Award
Exhibitions:
Sculpture in Israel, 1948-1958 Mishkan Museum of Art, Kibbutz Ein Harod
Artists: Zvi Aldouby, Yitzhak Danziger, Arieh Merzer, Dov Feigin, Aaron Priver, David Palumbo, Menashe Kadishman, Kosso Eloul, Yehiel Shemi, Zahara Schatz.
The Spring Exhibition of Jerusalem Artists, Artists' House, Jerusalem
Artists: Palombo, David Bezalel Schatz, Mordechai Levanon, Fima, Ludwig Blum
12 Artists, The Bezalel National Museum, Jerusalem
Avraham Ofek, Aviva Uri, Avigdor Arikha, Yosl Bergner, Lea Nikel, Palombo, Ruth Zarfati...
Category
Mid-20th Century Arte Povera Art by Medium: Iron
