Avraham Ofek, Visiting the Sick, Modernist Israeli Oil Painting

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Genre: Avant-Garde
Subject: Figures
Medium: Oil
Surface: Canvas
Country: Israel
Dimensions: 13.25" x 16.25"
Dimensions w/Frame: 21.5" x 24.5"

Avraham … Read more Genre: Avant-Garde
Subject: Figures
Medium: Oil
Surface: Canvas
Country: Israel
Dimensions: 13.25" x 16.25"
Dimensions w/Frame: 21.5" x 24.5"

Avraham Ofek (August 14, 1935 – January 13, 1990) was an Israeli sculptor, muralist, painter and printmaker.
Avraham Ofek was born in Burgas, Bulgaria. He immigrated to Israel in 1949, and he lived in Ein Hamifratz, a kibbutz near Haifa. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, as well as in Spain and in London, and later taught art in Jerusalem before being appointed head of the Art Department at the University of Haifa. He was one of the founders of the Leviathan group. He represented Israel at the Venice Biennale in 1972.
Avraham Ofek's early paintings of landscape were at both lyrical and rugged; later in his career the landscape was undefined and receded into the background. Near the end of his life, the landscape of Jerusalem became an important motif, reflecting loss and despair. Many of Ofek's landscapes convey a sense of alienation and solitude, as well as nostalgia for the city of his birth, Sofia.
His murals can be seen across Israel, notably at Kfar Uria and the Central Post Office Building (Jerusalem). His sculpture "The Binding of Isaac" is on view at the entrance to Safra Square.
In 1989 the Jerusalem Print Workshop issued a collection of reproductions of his prints edited by Uri Katz, with commentary in Hebrew and English.

Education
Painting under Arie Rothman
1958-1960 Academy of Fine Arts, Florence
1961 Study Tour to Seville and Madrid, Spain, and London
1969 Study Tour to Europe and U.S.A.
Teaching
1965-1975 Bezalel Academy, Jerusalem
1975 Head of the Art Department, Television, Jerusalem
1978-1981 Art Department, Haifa University
1984-1990 Professor, Art Department, Haifa University
Prizes
1959 - America-Israel Cultural Foundation
1969 - Jerusalem Prize for painting and Sculpture
1990 - Ish-Shalom Prize for Life's Work in Art.
Outdoor and Public Art
1970 Mural, Beit Haam, Kfar Uria
1972 Mural, Central Post Office, Jerusalem
1973 Mural, Agron School, Jerusalem
1974 "Mountains round about Jerusalem", Mural, Stone School, Jerusalem
1976 "Return to Zion" Mural, Tel Aviv University Library, Tel Aviv
1982 Hailek Ben Shachar, stone sculpture, Gan Harakevet, Arlozorof Street, Tel Aviv-Yaffo
1986 Binding of Isaac, Safra Square, Jerusalem
1986 Homage to Asher, 1966 stone sculpture, Tefen Open University, Tefen
1986-1987 Israel, a shattered dream, Mural, Haifa University, Haifa
1987 Stone sculpture, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Israel
2000 "סלע קיומנו" or Binding of Isaac (1986), stone sculpture, Gan Daniel,Safra Square, Jerusalem (originally exhibited in Herzelia)
Selected Exhibitions
Table for Two. Avraham Ofek and Micha Ullman, The Ticho House, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 2000
Landscape of Longing: Avraham Ofek's Early and Late Works, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 2007
Family Traces, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 2009 See less