Professor Boris Schatz, Noted Artist, Dies
He Was a Painter, Sculptor and the Founder of the Bezalel School at Jerusalem.
Stricken in West on Tour
Denver, March 23. — Professor Boris Schatz of Jerusalem, noted painter and sculptor of Jewish religious subjects, died here last night in Beth Israel Hospital of a thrombosis. He had been ill for two weeks. His age was 69. Professor Schatz had been making a world tour exhibiting the works of the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts of Jerusalem with his son, Bezalel Schatz, also an artist. He was returning east from the coast, intending to sail for Hungary to visit relatives, when he became ill. His son, believing Professor Schatz was not dangerously ill, proceeded to Kansas City, where he gave an exhibition. He returned to Denver by airplane today.
Boris Schatz developed the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts of Jerusalem from an institution of eleven students to an academy of world-wide recognition, drawing scholars and young artists from many countries, races and creeds. He was an outstanding pioneer in creating a national Jewish coconsciousness in art.
Court Sculptor in Bulgaria
A native of Russia, he had studied sculpture in Paris, his last teacher there being Falguiere. From Paris he went to Bulgaria, where he soon became the court sculptor. Later he established the Ecole des Beaux-Arts at Sofia. A medalist of the Paris and Brussels salons, he came to America for the first time in 1905 to arrange the Bulgarian art section at the St. Louis Exposition, which received a high award.
During these years the idea of a school to foster a national Jewish art took root in his mind. In 1906 he went to Jerusalem to give expression to his plans. In less than ten years his school's eleven pupils grew to an enrolment of more than 500. While most of the students were natives of Palestine, the whole world was represented, a few students even going there from America.
A feature of the school is that the students receive not only instruction but also support. Each receives a small sum daily, sufficient to provide food and shelter. The instruction is conducted entirely in Hebrew, and all the art work is developed from purely Hebraic motives, the, school turning out all the objects it makes along the lines of the arts and crafts that prevailed in biblical times. The name of the institution, Bezalel, is that of an ancient Hebrew craftsman.
The school’s first exhibition in this country was held early in 1914 at Madison Square Garden and was visited by thousands of people. Among the exhibits were rugs, carpets, tapestries, mosaics, enamels, carvings in ivory, stone and wood, paintings, statuary and etchings. The last exhibition here, held in the Grand Central Palace in 1926, was sponsored by a committee headed by the late Nathan Straus, an intimate friend of Professor Schatz.
Professor Boris Schatz, Noted Artist, Dies
He Was a Painter, Sculptor and the Founder of the Bezalel School at Jerusalem.
Stricken in West on Tour
Denver, March 23. — Professor Boris Schatz of Jerusalem, noted painter and sculptor of Jewish religious subjects, died here last night in Beth Israel Hospital of a thrombosis. He had been ill for two weeks. His age was 69. Professor Schatz had been making a world tour exhibiting the works of the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts of Jerusalem with his son, Bezalel Schatz, also an artist. He was returning east from the coast, intending to sail for Hungary to visit relatives, when he became ill. His son, believing Professor Schatz was not dangerously ill, proceeded to Kansas City, where he gave an exhibition. He returned to Denver by airplane today.
Boris Schatz developed the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts of Jerusalem from an institution of eleven students to an academy of world-wide recognition, drawing scholars and young artists from many countries, races and creeds. He was an outstanding pioneer in creating a national Jewish coconsciousness in art.
Court Sculptor in Bulgaria
A native of Russia, he had studied sculpture in Paris, his last teacher there being Falguiere. From Paris he went to Bulgaria, where he soon became the court sculptor. Later he established the Ecole des Beaux-Arts at Sofia. A medalist of the Paris and Brussels salons, he came to America for the first time in 1905 to arrange the Bulgarian art section at the St. Louis Exposition, which received a high award.
During these years the idea of a school to foster a national Jewish art took root in his mind. In 1906 he went to Jerusalem to give expression to his plans. In less than ten years his school's eleven pupils grew to an enrolment of more than 500. While most of the students were natives of Palestine, the whole world was represented, a few students even going there from America.
A feature of the school is that the students receive not only instruction but also support. Each receives a small sum daily, sufficient to provide food and shelter. The instruction is conducted entirely in Hebrew, and all the art work is developed from purely Hebraic motives, the, school turning out all the objects it makes along the lines of the arts and crafts that prevailed in biblical times. The name of the institution, Bezalel, is that of an ancient Hebrew craftsman.
The school’s first exhibition in this country was held early in 1914 at Madison Square Garden and was visited by thousands of people. Among the exhibits were rugs, carpets, tapestries, mosaics, enamels, carvings in ivory, stone and wood, paintings, statuary and etchings. The last exhibition here, held in the Grand Central Palace in 1926, was sponsored by a committee headed by the late Nathan Straus, an intimate friend of Professor Schatz.