Eugene Abeshaus, Jewish Shtetl Shabbat Candles Russian Judaica Etching w Hand Watercolor Painting, c.1970's

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EUGENE ABESHAUS Leningrad, Russia, (1939-2008) Hand-Colored, with watercolor painting, Etching hand signed in pencil in English and Hebrew Numbered 47/110 … Read more EUGENE ABESHAUS Leningrad, Russia, (1939-2008) Hand-Colored, with watercolor painting, Etching hand signed in pencil in English and Hebrew Numbered 47/110 Framed 21.5 x 16. image 13.5 x 9 Eugene Abeshaus (also spelled Evgeny Abezgauz, Евгений Абезгауз in Russian; 1939–2008) was a Jewish artist who worked in Russia (then USSR) and Israel. Born in Leningrad to a typical intelligentsia family, Abeshaus was educated as an electrical engineer but soon abandoned this career and enrolled in the Mukhina School for Applied Art. By the time of his graduation from the famous “Mukha” (Fly in Russian), he had already developed a critical stance towards the official Soviet art dominated by the Communist ideology and began exhibiting at semi-underground exhibitions. This was culminated by his taking part in a famous 1975 exhibition at the Nevsky Palace of Culture. Abeshaus was fired from his job and censured by the official press – which however admitted his "artistic taste, a good sense of color and form". Soon afterwards, Abeshaus set up, together with several Jewish artists, the Alef Group and became its leader. The group’s first exhibition in November 1975 was held at Abeshauses’ small apartment. According to the Alef Manifesto written by Alek Rapoport, “We are trying to conquer the influence of small-town Jewish art and find sources for our work in deeper, wiser, and more spiritual European culture, and from it build a bridge to today and tomorrow". He was part of a generation of Russian, mostly Jewish artist's that included Oskar Rabin, Evgeny Rukhin, Vladimir Nemukhin, and Alexander Melamid and more. These underground artists opposed the strictures of sanctioned art, experimenting with abstract art, “Sots Art,” the Soviet version of Pop Art, and other unofficial, unsanctioned techniques. These included Yuri Kuper, Komar and Melamid, Eduard Steinberg, Erik Bulatov, Viktor Pivovarov, Vladimir Yankilevsky, Ilya Kabakov, Anatoly Kaplan and Grisha Bruskin. some of the used overt Judaica imagery and Hebrew alphabet in their works. In May 1976, some of Abeshaus’s works, clandestinely sneaked out of the country, were exhibited at the Berkeley Art Museum to much critical acclaim. Later in the same year, following some political bargain between Leonid Brezhnev and President Jimmy Carter, Abeshaus and his family were finally permitted to leave the USSR for Israel. Since then Abeshaus lived and worked in Ein Hod, a picturesque artists’ village near Haifa founded by Marcel Janco. His works were exhibited at numerous exhibitions, including dozens one-artist shows, in Israel, USA, Europe and, after the collapse of the USSR, in Russia. His ultimate acceptance and recognition there was culminated in a sensational memorial one-artist exhibition staged in 2009 at the famous Russian Museum in St.Petersburg - an exceptional honor for a modern artist. See less