Dondi Schwartz

Israeli Contemporary Art by Dondi Schwartz - Fantastic Vase

2020

Oil on canvas

Oil on canvas

Ben-Zion (1897-1987) Flower Piece with Black Vase Oil on board, Hand signed 'Ben-Zion ' lower right, with the artist 's label and label from Duveen-Graham gallery, NY. 16 x 7 3/4 in., unframed as intended, 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. Over the course of the group's existence, seventeen artists exhibited as members of The Ten at nine different shows. The group's nine shows were held at galleries and locations around New York City, including one international exhibition in Paris. David Burliuk, Lee Gatch, John Graham, Earl Kerkam, Karl Knaths, Edgar Levy, Jean Liberté...

Of Germanic descent, the painter Jean Krillé was born in 1923 in Switzerland. His father, writer and poet, oriented him towards art and culture. From the age of 16, he enrolled at th...