Mane-Katz and Bezalel Schatz
Written By: Morris Blackburn
The exhibition of Mane-Katz and Bezalel Schatz, through February, should be one of great interest to Philadelphia connoisseurs. If anything good can be said about the present-day world conditions it might be that the upheaval has brought to America so many fine artists. These men, Mane-Katz and Schatz, along with a host of others, are presenting a real challenge to that group of American painters who are primarily interested in the market value of their products. There is no merchandising here. These paintings are what they are; they need no bally-hoo or "transcribed announcement.” Their validity is self-evident.
Mane-Katz presents a number of paintings very diversified in subject matter but not at all diversified in his continual pursuit of that elusive something, common to all fine painting, called Form. Although only recently released from the French Army and the horror of the French military debacle, he paints with an exuberance of spirit and an almost child-like joy. His paintings go far beyond the rules of picture making into the realm of the unverbal just as good music rises above the instruments that make it. A friend of Picasso’s, Mane-Katz is well known in Paris and he stems directly from that international school which considers the art of painting a really Fine Art.
Schatz, a younger man, belongs to the same tradition. In spite of the different appearance of his canvases, he is consumed with the same desire as Mane-Katz; that is, to perfect the intuitive organizational form of his pictures. He, too, is an exuberant enthusiast. He is a painter who has passed through a considerable amount of growth and of whom one can expect continued growth. Though he had many influences in Paris and elsewhere his pictures have a great deal of personal power and a rare luscious quality.
Mane-Katz was born in Krementchoug (Russia) in 1894. He began to study painting at the age of 14 in the Academy of Kiev. Five years later he went to Paris and enrolled at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. Later he studied at the Academy Contessa in Leningrad. When he was 25 he taught at the Academy of Arts at Kharkov, capital of the Ukraine. He returned to Paris in 1922 and a few years later became a French citizen. He has had one-man shows in almost every capital of Europe; in America he has shown in New York and Chicago and now for the first time in Philadelphia. His pictures are in many important private collections and galleries, including the Luxembourg Museum in Paris, the Modern Gallery in Prague and the Mons Museum in Belgium. In 1937 he was awarded a gold medal at the Paris International Exposition.
Bezalel Schatz, who was born in Jerusalem in 1912, is the son of the late Professor Boris Schatz, who is widely remembered as the Father of Art in his native land. Schatz never attended an art school but was educated by his Father and later by tutors. Working in the academic tradition he exhibited his first paintings at the age of 14. Later he went to Paris to study and was befriended by the eminent impressionist, Pierre Bonnard. From the academic, through impressionism, he has developed into his present expressionism. He has exhibited in London, Paris and New York and recently in a representative exhibition of expressionists in the Modern Art Society of Cincinnati, where he now resides.
-The Art Alliance Bulletin
Mane-Katz and Bezalel Schatz
Written By: Morris Blackburn
The exhibition of Mane-Katz and Bezalel Schatz, through February, should be one of great interest to Philadelphia connoisseurs. If anything good can be said about the present-day world conditions it might be that the upheaval has brought to America so many fine artists. These men, Mane-Katz and Schatz, along with a host of others, are presenting a real challenge to that group of American painters who are primarily interested in the market value of their products. There is no merchandising here. These paintings are what they are; they need no bally-hoo or "transcribed announcement.” Their validity is self-evident.
Mane-Katz presents a number of paintings very diversified in subject matter but not at all diversified in his continual pursuit of that elusive something, common to all fine painting, called Form. Although only recently released from the French Army and the horror of the French military debacle, he paints with an exuberance of spirit and an almost child-like joy. His paintings go far beyond the rules of picture making into the realm of the unverbal just as good music rises above the instruments that make it. A friend of Picasso’s, Mane-Katz is well known in Paris and he stems directly from that international school which considers the art of painting a really Fine Art.
Schatz, a younger man, belongs to the same tradition. In spite of the different appearance of his canvases, he is consumed with the same desire as Mane-Katz; that is, to perfect the intuitive organizational form of his pictures. He, too, is an exuberant enthusiast. He is a painter who has passed through a considerable amount of growth and of whom one can expect continued growth. Though he had many influences in Paris and elsewhere his pictures have a great deal of personal power and a rare luscious quality.
Mane-Katz was born in Krementchoug (Russia) in 1894. He began to study painting at the age of 14 in the Academy of Kiev. Five years later he went to Paris and enrolled at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. Later he studied at the Academy Contessa in Leningrad. When he was 25 he taught at the Academy of Arts at Kharkov, capital of the Ukraine. He returned to Paris in 1922 and a few years later became a French citizen. He has had one-man shows in almost every capital of Europe; in America he has shown in New York and Chicago and now for the first time in Philadelphia. His pictures are in many important private collections and galleries, including the Luxembourg Museum in Paris, the Modern Gallery in Prague and the Mons Museum in Belgium. In 1937 he was awarded a gold medal at the Paris International Exposition.
Bezalel Schatz, who was born in Jerusalem in 1912, is the son of the late Professor Boris Schatz, who is widely remembered as the Father of Art in his native land. Schatz never attended an art school but was educated by his Father and later by tutors. Working in the academic tradition he exhibited his first paintings at the age of 14. Later he went to Paris to study and was befriended by the eminent impressionist, Pierre Bonnard. From the academic, through impressionism, he has developed into his present expressionism. He has exhibited in London, Paris and New York and recently in a representative exhibition of expressionists in the Modern Art Society of Cincinnati, where he now resides.
-The Art Alliance Bulletin