PAINTING JERUSALEM: Modern Artists Portray Jerusalem
(A teaching by Rabbi Sacks in honor of Yom Yerushalayim, May 18, 2023)
[NOTE: This was part of a two-part session. Lifelong Learning Chair Fran Lande taught the first part, which focused on how Jerusalem remains sacred to three major world religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.]
Yasher ko’ach, Fran. Now that we have learned of the spiritual power of Jerusalem in Fran’s teaching, let’s explore how the artistic imagination has portrayed Jerusalem in art. Before we begin, however, I’d like us to ask three questions of each piece of art we’ll examine this evening. Those questions include:
What do you think the artist wanted to communicate about Jerusalem? What in the artwork leads you to say that (think of color, shapes, inclusion choices, et al)?
- Does anything here relate to anything in your experience of Jerusalem? Explain your response.
- What feeling/mood do you get from this artwork? What in the artwork leads you to say that?
About the artist
Moshe Castel was born in Jerusalem in 1909 to a rabbinic family that descended from Spanish Jews who immigrated to Eretz Yisrael after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 [“Castel indicates the Kingdom of Castile]. Castel enrolled at the Bezalel Academy at age 13. Four years later he moved to Paris, where he worked and studied for 13 years. His first work was exhibited in Paris in 1927. Ze’ev Jabotinsky, leader of Revisionist Zionism, wrote an introduction for the catalog. Castel returned to Palestine in 1940 and lived in Ts’fat, the city of mystics and artists, in northern Israel.
The Artist’s Work
In 1948, he visited the ruins of an ancient synagogue in Korazin in the Galilee. Inspired there by the basalt blocks engraved with images and ornaments, he began to use ground basalt, which he molded into shapes, as his basic material. The technique mixed ground basalt with sand and glue, infused with the rich colors that became his trademark. The works were embellished with seeming archaic forms derived from ancient script, symbolism, and mythological signs from Hebrew and Sumerian culture. As a member of the New Horizons (Ofakim Hadashim) group, he combined elements of abstract European art with Eastern motifs and “Canaanite art.”
His work is displayed in several prominent Israeli institutions, including the Knesset (Israel’s parliament), the Rockefeller Center in New York, and the President’s home in Jerusalem. The Moshe Castel Museum of Art opened in Ma’aleh Adumin in 2010.
About This Work
Year: 2016
Style: Symbolism[1]
Medium: Gold Embossed Serigraph
Size (Unframed): 21″ x 14″
Please now consider: How do you react to this painting? What is the artist saying about Jerusalem? What intrigues you about this work?
- In place of the traditional white stone, Castel has reinterpreted the holy prayer site as a wall made of fiery red bricks, crowded by real-gold embossed supplicants and their ascending prayers.
- Perhaps the red symbolizes the courage and tenacity of the generations who went, inhabited, and made Jerusalem what she is. It may represent the blood of her builders.
- The gold represents the people and may be an original take on “Jerusalem of Gold.” We generally think of the city itself as golden because she is timeless, but it seems that Castel suggests that it is the people of Jerusalem who render Jerusalem golden.
What else do you notice? How do you understand/interpret it?
About the Artist and His Work
Born Edward Phillips in Bombay in 1941, Ben Avram immigrated to Israel in 1956 and studied at Bezalel Academy of Art. Ben Avram explores Jerusalem in most of his oil paintings and watercolors. The characters he depicts are figures of people in their own world, harmony between humankind and their environment. He is known for his Jerusalem landscapes–her arched alleyways, steep narrow streets, spires, citadels and gates. Some see his work as harking back to early Modernism.[2]
About the Work
25.5″ x 35.5″ Serigraph.
Please now consider: How do you react to this painting? What is the artist saying about Jerusalem? What intrigues you about this work?
- The gates of Jerusalem are here metaphoric, and are seen not just as a source of protection for the city, but a frame through which to view her.
- The angelic figures and doves hovering about suggest the city is protected less by actual walls and more by G!d. The figures lend a sense of spirituality, peacefulness, and holiness to our viewing and sense of the city. Perhaps, too, a heightened sense of spirituality is needed to fully enter into and appreciate Jerusalem.
- The use of a wide array of bright colors suggests the multicultural aspect of Jerusalem, the vibrancy of life there, and the kind of peaceful coexistence there, or at least hope for there.
What else do you notice? How do you understand/interpret it?
About the Artist
Born in Argentina in 1939, Calman Shemi studied sculpture and ceramics before moving to Israel and joining Kibbutz Carmia, where he resided for 20 years. There he developed his individual sculpting technique working in wood and clay. He later started working with reliefs, developing the “soft painting” technique. With this technique he first creates a painting, and then layers irregularly shaped pieces of fabrics of varying thicknesses onto it. The fabrics are of different textures and colors, resulting in vibrant compositions of explosive movement. He then proceeded to design reliefs utilizing laser-cut steel. He has pioneered two unique painting methods, “lacquer paintings”[3] and “window paintings,”[4] and uses a variety of materials, textures, and colors. He has held shows across the USA, Japan, Israel and Europe, and has permanent collections housed in Israel and in several American locations.
About the Work
29″ x 25.4″ serigraph.
This work features a conceptual sketch of the Old City of Jerusalem, including the Abbey of the Dormition, the Western Wall and the Dome of the Rock, with shades of red, orange and yellow coloring over it.
Please now consider: How do you react to this painting? What is the artist saying about Jerusalem? What intrigues you about this work?
- Jerusalem here seems carefully placed on top of a hill. In fact, Jerusalem rests some 2,575 feet above sea level on several hills. However, artists do not regularly call attention to this? Why might Shemi have made this artistic choice? Is he conveying a geographic, spiritual, or emotional truth?
- The piece is colored with different shades of red, yellow and orange, giving a sunlit feeling to the image. How do you understand and interpret the color scheme here?
- The lines give the painting a feeling of an architectural sketch. How do you understand and interpret this?
- Notice the seven-branched menorah in the wall at the foreground. How do you understand and interpret this?
What else do you notice? How do you understand/interpret it?
About the Artist
Zina Roitman was born in 1944 in Moldavia (USSR). From 1961 to 1965, she studied classical drawing, painting, and graphics at the Art Academy of Kishinev. Vasarely, Matisse, Picasso, Chagall and many Japanese artists influenced Roitman’s approach to art. In 1974, Roitman immigrated to and lived in Israel for 12 years, mastering aquarelle[5] techniques and searching for new ways to express herself. Roitman’s aquarelles are painted in “dry” and “wet,” in bright and pastel tones, often turning to associative images mixed with lyricism and mysticism. Roitman also tried graphic techniques. The most successful were those in serigraphs.
About the Work
Size: 27.6″ x 39.4″
Medium: mixed media on canvas, hand-embellished
The sunbeams streak through clouds and over the sky, casting bright light over the multicolored sky and illuminating the Western Wall plaza, the most holy prayer site in the world for Jews. Despite the early hour, the plaza is full of men, women and children walking to pray.
Please now consider: How do you react to this painting? What is the artist saying about Jerusalem? What intrigues you about this work?
- At the foreground sits a tree painted in exceptional detail; silhouetted trees lie behind the Wall. What might this indicate?
- Is the light on the plaza all coming from the sun? Or is the will to pray and/or the setting of the Western Wall bringing spiritual light into the world?
- Most artists we have seen have not pictured human beings. Yet Roitman depicts, through the varied use of pictures, the full range of peoples who come to the Wall for prayer, meditation, and/or centering. How do you understand Roitman’s depiction of these people, and how do they add to your understanding of the artist’s statement/vision about Jerusalem?
What else do you notice? How do you understand/interpret it?
About this Artist
Israeli-born artist Victor Shrem trained as a ceramicist in Germany, but after several years working in pottery began painting. Using a combination of watercolor and oil paints, Shrem creates vivid Judaica and Jerusalem-themed pieces which are stained glass window-like in style. His work has been exhibited in many galleries around the world and is found in several important private collections.
About this Work
This richly-colored piece beautifully epitomizes Shrem’s stained-glass style. Set against a fiery red background lies a yellow star filled with an intricate replica of Jerusalem’s trees and buildings. This is surrounded by a selection of abstractly-colored rectangles filled with blush, pink, red, and blue designs separated by deep purple decorative borders.
Medium: Serigraph on Paper.
Size: 19.5″ x 27.5″
Please now consider: How do you react to this painting? What is the artist saying about Jerusalem? What intrigues you about this work?
- Notice that we see Jerusalem through a Star of David, a symbol of Jewish identity, history, and perseverance. What might this mean?
- What might the array of colors and the closeness of the buildings within the Star of David indicate about Jerusalem, as the artist envisions it?
- Notice that the Star of David is framed by images, all of which seem to be somewhat different, yet exhibiting a pattern? What might this be? How do you understand and interpret this?
We have taken the time this evening to explore five different portraits from five different artists who portray Jerusalem quite differently. They each hail from different places and clearly exhibit different influences. I hope you were able to connect to at least some of these pieces, and that our exploration today has enriched your vision of Jerusalem and your experience of Yom Yerushalayim this year.
Yom Yerushalayim samei-ach!
[1] In painting, symbolism was a fantastic and dreamlike style that emerged as a reaction to the naturalism of the realist painting and impressionist trends. Color and lines express ideas. This style placed a special emphasis on the world of dreams and mysticism, Another current linked to symbolism was aestheticism, a reaction to the prevailing utilitarianism of the time and to the ugliness and materialism of the industrial era. Against this, art and beauty were granted their own autonomy.
[2] Modernism refers to a global movement in society and culture that from the early decades of the twentieth century sought a new alignment with the experience and values of modern industrial life. Building on late nineteenth-century precedents, artists around the world used new imagery, materials and techniques to create artworks that they felt better reflected the realities and hopes of modern societies.
[3] These pieces use vibrant colors on a wood or metal panel gilded with gold (and/or silver) leaf. After the paint has thoroughly dried, many layers of lacquer are applied to the surface giving it a glowing effect. Between each layer of lacquer the piece is hand polished to give the surface its very shiny look.
[4] Here a painting is made inside a wooden box, to which a hand-made wooden frame is attached. This technique creates an illusion of looking through a window to a landscape or room. The frame is then gilded with gold (and/or silver) leaf and is layered with many coats of lacquer. This creates a contrast between the “outside Level” and the painting within.
[5] Aquarelle is a style of painting using thin, typically transparent, watercolors.