Chaim Gross

"Peace" Mid-Century Pop Art

Circa 1950

Repousse sculptural plaque from the original Bezalel Art School in Jerusalem. This is marked "Made in Palestine" as it is from the British Mandate period. It is in an Orientalist design of the Tower of David. marked in Hebrew and English. Jerusalem's Bezalel School The Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, was founded in 1906 by Boris Schatz. In 1903, Schatz met Theodore Herzl and became an ardent Zionist. At the Zionist Congress of 1905, he proposed the idea of an art school in the Yishuv (early Jewish settlements), and in 1906 he moved to Israel and founded the Bezalel School of Art in Jerusalem. Bezalel, which was a school for crafts as well as for graphic art, became successful very rapidly. Schatz’s vision was to develop useful arts and crafts among Palestinian Jews, thereby decreasing the dependence on charity. At the same time, he sought to inspire his students to create a Jewish national style of the arts, in order to promote the Zionist endeavor. The inhabitants of 19th-century Palestine, both Jewish and non-Jewish, had produced mostly folk art, ritual objects and olive-wood and shell-work souvenirs, as well as oil painting, sculpture, tapestry and mosaics. So the founding of Bezalel provided a professional and ideological framework for the arts and crafts in Jerusalem. The school employed workers and students, of whom there were 450 in 1913, in manufacturing, chiefly for export, decorative articles ranging from cane furniture, inlaid frames and ivory and wood carvings, to damascene and silver filigree and repousse work. A major part of Schatz’s school was the workshops, which, starting with rug-making and silversmithing, eventually offered 30 different crafts. Workshops included the "Menorah" workshop where they designed relief and souvenirs made of terra-Cotta, and the Sharar, Stanetsky and Alfred Salzmann workshops where Menorah lamps...

This is a 925 sterling silver hand made necklace with large hanging pendant, with some sort of decorative stones. due to its form and shape it is not signed. beautiful craftsman work. The pendant is embedded with 6 Amber stones in different sizes. 44cm long opened, pendant is 95X75mm, total weight 64 grams. Attributed to Rachel Gera, Jewellery designer, born 1936 in Tel Aviv, Israel to Polish parents was caught by accident traveling in Poland with her parents during the Nazi "Kristallnacht", and was saved by her mother pushing her onto a train of the "Tehran Children" and narrowly escaped the Holocaust. This is from the period of Maskit and the sculptural studio silver movement in Israel that included some wonderful designers and artisan craftsmen such as Hanna Behar Panet, Ludwig Wolpert, Menahem Berman, Moshe Zabari...

Measures about 4 X 3.75 inches. Box frame is 17 X 13 inches. Signed by artist verso. From the literature that I have seen I believe the edition size was limited to 10, I do not know ...

Measures about 4 X 3.75 inches. Box frame is 17 X 13 inches. Signed by artist verso. From the literature that I have seen I believe the edition size was limited to 10, I do not know ...

Large Madoura Pottery Ceramic Platter Stamped "MADOURA PLEIN FEU" This is not marked Picasso. It is an early piece. i am uncertain who the artist is. It app...

Apres Pablo Picasso (bears a pseudo signature recto) Hand signed David Stein, dated 1979 verso. Figural painted porcelain or ceramic serving dish, oval form. Dimensions: 18" X 14 David Stein (born Henri Haddad, 1935, Alexandria, Egypt – died 1999, Bordeaux, France) was an artist (notorious art forger) who, until 1966, had been frequently sentenced for theft by the French courts before becoming an art forger and art dealer with 15 aliases. Stein often copied paintings in the style of the masters. For example, he studied Marc Chagall, Matisse, Braque, Paul Klee, Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso, Jean Cocteau and Rouault, in order to copy their color scheme and inspirations. In 1967 Marc Chagall notified authorities of forgeries of his work hanging in a New York gallery, and Stein was arrested. Art dealers refused to cooperate with the prosecution because it would have incriminated them and made their expertise in the art field questionable. Some art collectors refused to give up their paintings as evidence. Stein was convicted of six counts of art forgery and grand larceny. During his prison term, Joseph Stone, the judge who arrested him, brought him to his office to paint. He remained a good friend of the Stein family long after Stein completed his jail sentence. In 1989 he discovered that Stein never stopped making forgeries. After Stein had served his prison term in the United States, he was deported to France where he served another term. Prison authorities allowed him to make further paintings, although now using his own name. In 1969 a London gallery sold some of these paintings. After Stein was released, he returned to painting, this time selling his paintings under his own name to put a mask on his real activities. The book Three Picasso's Before Breakfast (Mémoirs of an Art Forger's Wife) by Anne Marie Stein as told to Georges Carpozi Jr (Hawthorn Book Inc) was written by David's life partner Anne-Marie about their experiences in the art world. In the mid 1980s director Gil Cates gave his agent Arthur Axelman at William Morris a copy of the book which had been written without Stein's involvement. Axelman set out to find Stein and after several years he located him in Manhattan. Stein became an Axelman client and friend. While deals at HBO and ABC did not lead to production of a film, Axelman introduced Stein to Keith Carradine and Alan Rudolph, director of the movie "The Moderns" with ultimately starred John Lone, Géraldine Chaplin, Keith Carradine and Linda Fiorentino. The film was set in the Paris of the '20s although filmed in Montreal. Stein appeared in the film as an art critic and provided all of the art. A minor concern was a scene where a painting in the style of Matisse and Modigliani was to be burned on camera and a Modigliani destroyed by knife. No one cared to destroy any of Stein's copies, "Just good for the camera" say Stein. but a William Morris assistant for agent Axelman suggested making large format copies of the works to be destroyed. Stein refused and during the scene actor John Lone destroyed the Paintings. Stein was living in France after his troubles with the US immigration who had told him to leave US territory in 1988. He met the French photo...

Brilliant color and twisted flames made of layers of precious metals and black acrylic. Burning House is a powerful image, equally impressive as a wearable or a framed art piece. ...

A rain-dropped Cadmium heart riveted together with an etched nickel spade. This image and jewelry object is one of Francis X. Pavy’s favorites. Only available in etched bronze. Cal...

D 142 x H 70cm - 42 kg. - 2021/2022 - Circular table vase. Stainless steel sheet laser cutting and then welded in one hole piece basically transparent beacuse of the beutiful reflect...

Console table with cast bronze structure, wooden top burnt with shou sugi ban technique and bronze details

Archaic stool in solid wood burnt with shou sugi ban technique with bronze details

Upon discovering a weathered steel drum that had been warped to resemble the sleeve of a garment, artist Gordon Chandler was inspired to embark on a series of kimono sculptures...