Leonid Balaklav

Large Jerusalem Landscape Judaica Oil on Canvas Russian Israeli Artist Balaklav

2003

Large gilt framed abstract modernist landscape of Jerusalem. Framed it measures 33.25 X 41.25 inches. Canvas measures 28 x 36 inches. Bold Blue sky. Avraham Binder was born in 1906 in Vilnius (or Vilna), now part of Lithuania. He began painting at an early age and completed the prescribed studies in painting at the academy of arts in his native city. Upon graduation, at the commencement exhibition of works submitted by the graduates, he was awarded a prize in recognition of his talents. Artistic talent had deep roots in the Binder family. Avraham's father and grandfather were both artistically inclined, as was his sister Zila Binder and daughter Yael. In fact, he came from a long line of master artistic bookbinders, hence the family surname. The Binder family emigrated to Palestine in 1920. There, his father established a bookbinding workshop in Tel-Aviv while Avraham pursued painting. Binder has not identified with any particular modern school nor narrow artistic doctrine. He struggles to verbally explain his personal conception. Instead, he derives inspiration from emotions, resulting in a great variety of artistic treatments. Particularly memorable are his urban landscapes with their predominance of blues and aquamarines, composed of a profusion of squares and rectangles, crowding one another and covering nearly the entire canvas. The angular shapes are interspersed with radiant dots of red, gold and yellow, like the lights of the big city. Those squares and rectangles reflect, perhaps, impressions of a childhood spent among books which were scattered about the home and workshop of his father, the bookbinder. These shapes, no doubt, had their influence upon the artist whose first youthful impressions were – books. Traces of these shapes are discernible in Binder’s work to this day, in the angularity of splashes of color which, no longer crowded together, are now well separated to create an airy spaciousness. Not only the splashes of color – the inventing space, too – creates figurative effects in the artist’s treatment. Avraham Binder is not a “cerebral” painter. Neither identified with any particular modern school, nor preaching any narrow artistic doctrine, he is an emotional artist: his inspiration, derived from the heart, leads him on to the most varied range of treatments in his artistic work. In vain might one try to persuade him to define his personal conception of painting. He is not one to indulge in verbal explanation. But his sheer artistic skill, his virtuosity with the paint brush, did impel him to experiment widely with the artistic techniques of the modern age. And his exceptional talent stood him in good stead in all this experimentation. Binders large-scale urban landscapes are not mere constructs to represent our present-day architecture with its pervasive angularity. Made up as they are of color, Binder’s unique color composition qualifies these canvases to be ranked among the foremost artistic works in Israeli painting. They are uniquely Binder, very different from what we see in the work of his contemporaries. Here and there, Binder also introduces the human element into these paintings. He lives and breathes the atmosphere of his surroundings, deeply experiencing the sea and the shore of Tel-Aviv that confront him day after day, and which he has transferred to his canvases, as metaphors in paint, throughout the life. More recently, he has created a new series of shore-and-seascapes, in tones ranging from brown to blue. ochre, violet and pale yellow – marvelous views of the sea and of figures enlivening its shore. In yet another series, featuring nearly the same range of hues, he lets us view, through his eyes, the Carmel Market in Tel-Aviv, or the city’s coffee houses with their crowds of people, heads bunched together as if in search of human closeness, with the windows looking in upon them. He has also done large paintings of Jerusalem – not the Jerusalem of gloom and holiness, but a Jerusalem in contrast to the flat topography of Tel-Aviv; it is this different topography which here provides the challenge for him as a painter. And the colors – the colors are bright, full of light, an inner illumination which seems to emanate from the artist himself, rather than from the sun beating down from above. So many great artists have built their life’s work upon watercolors. Binder’s watercolors are in no way inferior in their artistic worth to many of those, what with their spontaneity, their translucent quality, their color combinations, and the artist’s ability to say so much with an economy of brush strokes. We have here a painter who, until the end of his life, was still in his full creative powers, and who continued to add to his impressive storehouse of artistic works. Hundreds of his paintings grace the homes of collectors in Israel and throughout the world, or hang in his private collection; they include Israel landscapes and, most importantly, cityscapes; an exquisite series of wild flowers; many portrait paintings; experimental wood sculptures; murals painted on wood panels; reliefs…, etc. All these are testimony to an artist who refuses to rest on his laurels, who forever reaches out to try his hand at new challenges, strikes out in novel directions, discovers innovative techniques, and experiments in all the dimensions of the plastic arts. On the Israel Museum website they have listed an exhibition of his Artists in Israel for the Defense, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Helena Rubinstein Pavilion, Tel Aviv 1967 Artists: Avraham Binder, Motke Blum, (Mordechai) Samuel Bak, Yosl Bergner, Nahum Gilboa, Jean David, Marcel Janco, Lea Nikel, Jacob Pins, Esther Peretz Arad, Dani Karavan, Reuven Rubin, Zvi Raphaely, Yossi Stern...

Signed Nathanson. Could be the famous artist Avraham Naton (Natanson) I am not certain. it is a very lovely Modernist Israeli landscape. Avraham Naton (Natanson), Israeli, born in Bessarabia, 1906-1959. Avraham Naton was born in Rani, Bessarabia to a large secular family. In 1935, after Art studies in Romania, he immigrated to the Land of Israel and settled, first, in Givat Haim and later in Ramat Gan. From the 1940s he worked as an Art teacher in Ramat Gan and Givataim. In 1948 he worked as an illustrator at BaMahane Newspaper. He was one of the Founders of New Horizon Group. Between 1952-1959 he was a member of the Milo Club and served as the club secretary. Education 1930-33 Art Academy, Bucharest, Romania Teaching 1940's Ramat Gan and Givataim Awards And Prizes Jerusalem Prize for Painting and Sculpture 1942 Dizengoff Prize 1953 Milo Club Prize New Horizons, The Ofakim Hadashim art movement began with a group of artists who mounted an exhibition in Tel Aviv's Habima national theater in December 1942, under the name "The Group of Eight". The group evolved into a coherent artistic movement only after the founding of the state of Israel in 1948. Members of the school included Arie Aroch, Zvi Meirovitch, Avraham Naton (Natanson), Avigdor Stematsky and Yehezkel Streichman. The work of sculptor Dov Feigin also appeared in the catalog of the 1942 exhibition, though it was not displayed. In February 1947 five of the original members of the group joined Joseph Zaritsky...

Genre: Realism Subject: Portrait Medium: Oil Surface: Canvas Country: Israel Dimensions: 31.5x23.5 Marina Grigoryan (Armenian/Russian/Israeli) was born in 1963 in Dushanbe, Russia. ...

Genre: Realism Subject: Portrait Medium: Oil Surface: Canvas Country: Israel Dimensions: 23.75" x28.75" Marina Grigoryan (Armenian/Russian/Israeli) was born in 1963 in Dushanbe, Rus...

Artist: Unknown XXth Century Title: View of Jerusalem Medium: Oil on canvas, signed and titled in Hebrew Image Size: 19.5 x 26.5 in. (49.53 x 67.31 cm) Frame Size: 25 x 32 inches

Oil on wood sold with frame Total size with frame 55x63 cm Signed and dated William GOLIASCH is a Swiss artist born in 1922 and died in 1986. His works have been sold at public auct...

Dorothy Rivo Untitled (Mediterranean Village), c. 1960s–70s Oil on canvas Framed dimensions: 24 in. H × 36 in. W Presented in a contemporary white floater frame In Untitled (Mediter...

Landscape from the roofs, green, MAYA KOPITZEVA (Gagra, Georgia, 1924 - 2005) Maya kopitzeva’s works have been acquired by the Russian Ministry of Culture, by the Foundation for ...