Lot 109 email save

Ben Zion Sculpture signed Jewish Judaica WPA

Sign In to see what this sold for

Head of Rabbi or Prophet . the base has some chipping to it at the corners. 7.5 X 3.5 X 2 with base. 4.5 X 2.5 without base. signed with initials BZ and dated 1963 AMR. Ben Zion 1897-1987
Born in Ukraine, Russia, Ben Zion Weiman was reared by his father for the rabbinate. 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, Yanhkel Kufeld, Marcus Rothkowitz (later known as Mark Rothko), Louis Schanker, and Joseph Solman. The Art of "The Ten" was generally described as expressionist, as this style offered the best link between modernism and social art. Their exhibition at the Mercury Gallery in New York held at the same time as the Whitney Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting, included a manifesto concentrating on aesthetic questions and criticisms of the conservative definition of modern art imposed by the Whitney. Ben-Zion's work was quickly noticed. The New York Sun said he painted "furiously" and called him "the farthest along of the lot." And the triptych, "The Glory of War," was described by Art News as "resounding."

By 1939, The Ten disbanded because most of the members found individual galleries to represent their work. Ben-Zion had his first one-man show at the Artist's Gallery in Greenwich Village and J.B. Neumann, the highly esteemed European art dealer who introduced Paul Klee, (among others) to America, purchased several of Ben-Zion's drawings. Curt Valentin, another well-known dealer, exhibited groups of his drawings and undertook the printing of four portfolios of etchings, each composed of Ben-Zion's biblical themes. From his first one-man exhibition at the Artist's Gallery in 1936 until his retrospective at the Jewish Museum in New York in 1959, Ben-Zion was well represented by major galleries and museums including the Metropolitan, the Whitney, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Phillips Collection, Washington. The Jewish Museum in New York opened in 1948 with a Ben Zion exhibition.

Ben-Zion consistently threaded certain subject matter—nature, still life, the human figure, the Hebrew Bible, and the Jewish people—into his work throughout his life. "In all his work a profound human feeling remains. Sea and sky, even sheaves of wheat acquire a monolithic beauty and simplicity which delineates the transient as a reflection of the eternal. This sensitive inter-mingling of the physical and metaphysical is one of the most enduring features of Ben-Zion's works." (Excerpt from Stephen Kayser, "Biblical Paintings," The Jewish Museum Catalogue, 1952).

Ben Zion brought his direct, powerful expressionism to Biblical subjects not only in his paintings, but also in four intaglio portfolios of eighteen prints each. The first three portfolios, Biblical Themes (1951), Prophets (1952), and The Book of Ruth, Job, and Song of Songs (1954), were published by Curt Valentin, who was also Max Beckman's dealer. The fourth, Judges and Kings, delayed for ten years because of Valentin's untimely death in 1954, was printed by La Couriere in Paris, who also printed etchings by Picasso, and published by Graphophile.
A lighter vein emerged in Ben Zion's sculptures, a more recent development of his artistry. In 1959, long after his reputation had solidified, he sought out old hand-wrought iron tools and implements and incorporated them into nimble sculptures, which evoked his sheer delight in the natural world. He thus became one of the few American artists who showed equal deftness in bronze brass and iron sculpture and painting, in each evincing a profound feeling for the object itself. Today, the Chelsea-based Ben-Zion House is graced by a sculpture garden filled with his primeval creations, each reflective of his inner feeling for nature.

Selected Gallery and Public Collections
Advancing American Art, State Dept. Traveling Show
Barbizon Plaza Gallery
Bezalel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel
Bonestell Gallery
Chicago Art Institute
Corcoran Gallery
Jewish Museum of New York
Metropolitan Museum
Museum of Modern Art
Neward Museum
Passadoit Gallery
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art
Salons of America.
Whitney Museum of American Art

View Lions Gallery next auction.

Similar lots up for auction