Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 3

Ben-Zion Weinman
Modernist Rabbi Judaica Bold Color "School of 10"

About the Item

Dimensions w/Frame: 16" x 8" x 1 1/2" 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, Yanhkel 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.
  • Creator:
    Ben-Zion Weinman (1897 - 1987, American)
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 16 in (40.64 cm)Width: 8 in (20.32 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Surfside, FL
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU38211507182

More From This Seller

View All
Judaica Meditative Rabbi at Prayer in Nature, Large Landscape Oil Painting
By Donald Roy Purdy
Located in Surfside, FL
Genre: Modern Subject: Jewish Elder , Judaic Prayer Surface: Board Country: United States signed lower left Donald Roy Purdy is an American painter whose work evolved through a rang...
Category

20th Century Fauvist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Coney Island Carousel Carver 'Woodworker' , Large Oil Painting
By Donald Roy Purdy
Located in Surfside, FL
Genre: Modern Subject: Wood carver, Circus Fair Medium: Oil Surface: Board Country: United States signed lower left Donald Roy Purdy is an American painter whose work evolved throug...
Category

20th Century Fauvist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Modernist SUNDAY MORNING HARVEST Woman with Flowers Oil Painting
By Donald Roy Purdy
Located in Surfside, FL
Genre: Modern Subject: Figures Medium: Oil Surface: Board Country: United States signed lower left Donald Roy Purdy is an American painter whose work evolved through a range of styl...
Category

20th Century Fauvist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Modernist WILD THING Woman in Forest Oil Painting
By Donald Roy Purdy
Located in Surfside, FL
Genre: Modern Subject: Figures Medium: Oil Surface: Board Country: United States signed lower left Donald Roy Purdy is an American painter whose work evolved through a range of styl...
Category

20th Century Fauvist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Modernist Woman With Flowers in Forest
By Donald Roy Purdy
Located in Surfside, FL
Genre: Modern Subject: Figures Medium: Oil Surface: Board Country: United States Dimensions w/Frame: 31 x 37 Donald Roy Purdy is an American painter whose work evolved through a ran...
Category

20th Century Fauvist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Polish French Fauvist Judaica Oil Painting Rabbi at Prayer
By Frederick B. Serger
Located in Surfside, FL
Genre: Impressionist Subject: People Medium: Oil Surface: Panel Frederick Serger (given name Frederick Bedrick Sinaberger) was born in 1889 to a family of Jewish manufacturers in the village of Ivancice near Brno Moravia, a province of Czechoslovakia. Showing artistic talent at a young age, he attended art schools in Brno, Vienna, and Munich. During World War I, Serger joined the Austrian Army...
Category

1940s Fauvist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

You May Also Like

Red Couch, Black Cat - Contemporary Fauvist Interior Scene in Primary Colors
By Jonathan Taylor
Located in Soquel, CA
Fun and colorful contemporary Fauvist interior scene of a black cat lounging on a red couch in a brightly hued room in primary colors, by Jonathan Taylor (American, b.1966). Signed "J. Taylor" in bottom right. Displayed in a giltwood frame. Image size: 19.5" H X 23.5" W. Artist Jonathan Taylor was born in 1966 and was raised in Bar Harbor Maine...
Category

2010s Fauvist Interior Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Cardboard

In the Shade of the Trees
Located in THOMERY, FR
Step into a luminous symphony where trees sway in the gentle breeze. In In the Shade of the Trees, Linda Clerget captures a magical moment where shadows and light merge in perfect ha...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Fauvist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Oil, Acrylic, Board

Morning Bath - Abstract Expressionism in Oil on Board
By Kristin Cohen
Located in Soquel, CA
Morning Bath - Abstract Expressionism in Oil on Board Colorful abstract figurative of couple in the morning by Kristin Cohen (American, b. 1963). Two brightly colored figures are sh...
Category

1980s Fauvist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

In the market square. cardboard, oil, 41x81 cm
Located in Riga, LV
In the market square. cardboard, oil, 41x81 cm Biruta Baumane (1922-2017) Born in Kalnamuizha in Tervetes school, in the teachers family. Since 1941, she studied at the Latvian State Academy of Arts, where she graduated painting department in 1948. In 1951 married with sculptor Karlis Baumanis. Daughter Laine Kainaze also is an artist. Since 1959, member of the Union of Artists, Biruta repeatedly was a manager of the union. In 1986 she became the honored worker of arts of the Latvian SSR. She has been involved in television and radio programs, movies, and has published articles in periodicals. In 1976 she received a diploma of the Union of Latvian SSR for the best creative work. One of the most important Latvian artists...
Category

1970s Fauvist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Oil, Cardboard

The laundry is drying 1950s, oil on cardboard, 51x74 cm
Located in Riga, LV
The laundry is drying 1950s, oil on cardboard, 51x74 cm Published in the book "Biruta Baumane", Anda Treija, Juris Petraškevičs, publisher Galerija Da...
Category

1950s Fauvist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Oil, Cardboard

Boats by the river Oil on cardboard, 47.5x80 cm
Located in Riga, LV
Boats by the river Oil on cardboard, 47.5x80 cm The main focus of the artwork is a fauvistic stylized landscape featuring boats by the river. The artist's intention is to convey the landscape in bold and vivid earth tones, characteristic of the fauvist style. Biruta Baumane...
Category

1950s Fauvist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Oil, Cardboard

Recently Viewed

View All