Ofakim Hadashim
also: New Horizons
Ofakim Hadashim ('New Horizons') was the central Israeli art movement of the state's first decades, founded in Tel Aviv. It grew out of the Group of Eight, who exhibited at the Habima theater in December 1942, and took its name in 1948, when Joseph Zaritsky led a breakaway from the League of Painters and Sculptors and the Tel Aviv Museum opened the first New Horizons show that November. The group sought a modernism - largely French in lineage - that could express local reality: painting rooted in the landscape of the Land of Israel, pushed toward abstraction by bold brushwork and bright color reflecting strong Mediterranean light. Zaritsky's Yehiam series (1949-1952) traced this arc from observed landscape to abstraction. Through the 1950s the group drifted further from figuration, while sculptors such as Dov Feigin and Yechiel Shemi introduced welded steel.
Defining characteristics
- Lyrical abstraction grounded in local landscape rather than pure non-objectivity
- Bold, visible brushstrokes that push figurative scenes toward abstraction
- Bright, saturated color evoking strong Mediterranean light
- Small-scale formats, often in watercolor or oil
- Smooth, biomorphic welded-steel sculpture replacing carved figuration
Key figures
- Joseph Zaritsky (1891-1985) — Founder and ideologue whose Yehiam series defined the movement's landscape abstraction
- Yehezkel Streichman (1906-1993) — Pioneer of Israeli modernist painting and core group member
- Avigdor Stematsky (1908-1989) — One of the pioneers of Israeli abstract art
- Moshe Castel (1909-1991) — Member who moved from abstraction toward Canaanite expressionism
- Dov Feigin (1907-2000) — Sculptor who introduced welded steel to the group
Example works
- Yehiam (series) — Joseph Zaritsky (1949-1952)
- Wheat Sheaves — Dov Feigin (1956)
Sources
- Ofakim Hadashim - Wikipedia encyclopedia