Early 20th Century Mordechai Avniel, Judaica Copper Plaque Israeli Artist Mordechai Avniel, Palestine, Bezalel School

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MORDECHAI AVNIEL Minsk, Belarus, b. 1900, d. 1989 Mordechai Avniel is best known for his deft and singular landscape work. … Read more MORDECHAI AVNIEL Minsk, Belarus, b. 1900, d. 1989 Mordechai Avniel is best known for his deft and singular landscape work. He said of his scenes of Israel: "I loved the Israeli landscape. While roaming the country extensively, I gradually absorbed its atmosphere, its lights and moods, the view of mountains and valleys, the Sea of Galilee and the expanse of the Mediterranean. Again and again, I experimented painting and drawing them, at the same time trying to teach myself contemporary art. And thus I gradually shook off the academic conception, and became freer. I tried with my whole being to find my own style. The clouds floating above the Galilee or the Dead Sea - both below sea level - bring about an almost constant change of light, colour and atmosphere. The scenery takes on certain shapes and discards them again. These clouds taught me to understand space. I do not see my landscapes optically; they are a fusion of colours blended harmoniously - abstract at times, and at other times expressions of my inner feelings. Only after years did I find self-expression in my landscape, in the light, the atmosphere and the sun of Israel. My motif is always the non-static landscape with all its contrasts: the rays of dawn, the stillness of the day's heat, the evening's twilight, radiance and dimness, wind and rain, a night's storm." His works are held in numerous museums and collections both in Israel and abroad, including the Metropolitan Museum, New York and the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, PA. Education 1913-19 Art School of Katrinburg, Russia 1923 Bezalel School of Art, Jerusalem See less