Mordechai Levanon Art

Israeli Landscape Safed or Jerusalem in an Israeli Expressionism style influenced by the Ecole de Paris. Gouache on paper Hand signed Framed 18 X 14 image 13.5 X 10 Mordechai Levanon was born in Transylvania, Romania, immigrated to Israel in 1921. He studied at the Bezalel Art Academy and painting with Yitzhak Frenkel at Histadrut Studio of Painting, one of the leading Jewish artists of École de Paris. His students included Shimshon Holzman, Mordechai Levanon, David Hendler, Joseph Kossonogi, and Siona Tagger. Frenkel was a mentor to Bezalel students Avigdor Stematsky, Yehezkel Streichman, Moshe Castel, and Arie Aroch. Levanon is one of the founding fathers of the Jewish School of Paris artist and Israeli art. Like many artists in his time, he was enchanted by Eretz Israel's special light. This light and its play of color always stayed with him and his art works. He settled in Jerusalem. levanon has been referred to as "the Israeli Van Gogh"; similar to Van Gogh in his time, Levanon also yearned after the sublime in his works, he was a magnificent landscape painter, who used to paint the holy cities of Jerusalem and Safed / Tzfat. Levanon's paintings have a magical and mystical quality of a world created through a poetic- artistic vision. In 1937 Levanon held his first one-man exhibition in Tel Aviv and from that year on, he took part in almost every annual collective exhibition of Israeli artists. He won the Israel-Brazil Prize at the San Paolo Biennale, was a three winner of the annual Dizengoff Trite Prize, the Hermann Struck Prize, and a two time winner of the Jerusalem Prize. He represented Israel three times at the Venice Biennale. His works were exhibited in all Israeli museums and form part of their permanent collections, as well as of New York's MOMA, the President's Palace in Jerusalem, and of the Italian State Museum in Rome EDUCATION 1922 Bezalel Academy of Arts & Design, Jerusalem 1925 Histadrut Art Studio with Yitzchak Frenkel, Tel Aviv AWARDS AND PRIZES 1938 Dizengoff Prize for Painting and Sculpture 1940 Herman Struck Prize 1942 Dizengoff Prize 1948 Dizengoff Prize 1948 Jerusalem Prize, Municipality of Jerusalem 1957 Israel-Brazil Prize, Sao Paolo Biennale, Brazil 1957 Herman Struck Prize, Haifa Municipality 1960 Dizengoff Prize for Painting and Sculpture, Municipality of Tel Aviv-Jaffa 1961 Dizengoff Prize for Painting and Sculpture, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Municipality of Tel Aviv-Jaffa 1968 Jerusalem Prize, Municipality of Jerusalem Select Exhibitions 1936, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art 1936 a group exhibition with Aharon Avni, Arie Aroch, Yosef Zaritsky, Mordechai Levanon, Eliyahu Sigad, Chaya Schwartz, and Yehezkel Streichman. 1944, Art Gallery of the ''Habima'' Building, Tel Aviv (British Mandate Palestine) Artists: Mordechai Levanon, Arieh Lubin, Ludwig Schwerin, Reuven Rubin, Shmuel Woodnitzky, Abraham Goldberg, Hermann Struck. The Spring Exhibition of Jerusalem Artists, Artists' House, Jerusalem Artists: Palombo, David Bezalel Schatz, Mordechai Levanon, Fima, Ludwig Blum 1958,The Bezalel National Museum, Jerusalem Jean David, Yosl Bergner, Menachem Shemi, Zvi Mairovich, Ruth Schloss, Nahum Gutman...