Bezalel school

also: Bezalel style · Hebrew style of Bezalel

school 1906-1929 Palestine Middle East

Founded in Jerusalem in 1906 by the sculptor Boris Schatz, the Bezalel art school set out to create a distinctive Jewish national art for the new Zionist community in Palestine. Its workshops fused biblical and Zionist subjects with Art Nouveau, European symbolism and the Persian, Syrian and Yemenite craft traditions of the region, producing paintings, etchings, filigree silverwork, damascene metalwork, ceramics and Judaica. Yemenite silversmiths executed many of the metalwork designs of European-trained artists such as E. M. Lilien and Ze'ev Raban. Often called the 'Hebrew style,' Bezalel's ornamental, richly patterned idiom shaped Israeli art until the school closed in 1929, after which its successor academy carried its name forward.

"Again I will Build Thee and Thou shall be Built, O Virgin of Israel", 1920s, glazed tiles produced at the "Bezalel" ceramics workshop, Ze'e
"Again I will Build Thee and Thou shall be Built, O Virgin of Israel", 1920s, glazed tiles produced at the "Bezalel" ceramics workshop, Ze'ePublic domain (credit: Bezalel ceramics workshop) · source

Defining characteristics

  • Biblical and Zionist subjects rendered in an ornamental, symbolist key
  • Art Nouveau line and patterning fused with Middle Eastern decorative traditions
  • Intricate Yemenite-style filigree silverwork and Moorish-patterned damascene metalwork
  • Stylized figures and landscapes drawn from local life and costume
  • Fine craft across media: ceramics, leather, wood, brass, textile and glazed tile

Key figures

  • Boris Schatz (1867-1932) — Founder of the Bezalel school and father of Israeli art
  • Ephraim Moses Lilien (1874-1925) — Symbolist printmaker and teacher who set the school's graphic style
  • Ze'ev Raban (1890-1970) — Leading decorative artist and teacher who defined the Bezalel style
  • Hermann Struck (1876-1944) — Etcher and teacher who brought European graphic rigor to Bezalel

Example works

  • An Allegorical Wedding: Sketch for a Carpet (Exile, Marriage, Redemption) — Ephraim Moses Lilien (1906)
  • Standing Hanukkah Lamp — Ze'ev Raban (c. 1920s)

Sources

← Back to the catalog