Louise (McClure) Schatz (1916 – 1997)
Louise Schatz was a Canadian born artist, married to Bezalel Schatz.
Born in Vancouver, Canada, Louise Schatz moved with her family at age three to Minnesota. Her father, a stage director, was part of the local Bohemian culture and traveled the theater circuit around the U.S. She earned a Master's Degree in Fine Arts at the University of California, where she became a skilled watercolorist. "My Japanese instructor showed me how to preserve several colors together on paper," she noted. "Watercolors can bleed into the paper, and the paper plays with the colors – some of which can even disappear. I have a great love of texture and what materials do to color. I was very excited to discover what happens to colors and how to achieve what I wanted."
Her interest in astronomy also led Louise to study science at the university. Louise joined the "California Seven" artists in 1945, and for the next three years created prints and textile patterns. During WWII, she earned her living as a sketch artist for shipbuilders in San Francisco Bay, and it was there she met her future husband, Bezalel. "Then, it was very avant-garde to hire women in ship-building," she once recounted. "We used to take dimensions from engineers and make sketches. It was very trailblazing and exciting, and the ships were constructed very quickly and launched very quickly. Besides the fact that we contributed to the war effort, it was really beautiful art."
The Bohemian society developing in San Francisco at the time included the novelist Henry Miller, who was then married to Louise's sister, Eve. "There was a group of artists in Big Sur, all of them poor," according to Bezalel Schatz's sister, Zohara. "They were a group of Beatniks before the hippy era of the 1960s. There were novelists, poets, and painters there who lived communally under primitive conditions and were close to nature."
Bezalel and Louise got married in 1948 and moved to Israel. There, together with Zohara, they founded the arts and crafts workshop, "Yad," to create and sell alternative art objects that differed in style from those of the Bezalel School of Art. The couple divided its time between the family home in Jerusalem and a residence in Ein Hod designed for them by the architect David Resnik.
Despite her connection to the Schatz family and her active involvement in the Israeli art world at the time, Louise guarded her privacy and rarely granted interviews. As Henry Miller wrote, "Her paintings reflect and reveal the extent of her sensitivity, shyness, and gentleness…"
Scenes of Israel were a source of inspiration for Louise, and, in addition to her abstract geometric works, she also painted landscapes, flowers, and other elements of the environment in which she worked. Louise worked mainly with watercolors but also created collages, book illustrations, and applied art. Among her outstanding works are murals for Zim's "Shalom" and "Theodore Herzl" ships (together with Bezalel), El Al's London office, and Jerusalem's tenth-anniversary exhibition, as well as ceramic walls for Jerusalem's Midrehset Amalia and Beit Ha'am Library.
She was awarded the Silver Medal in 1954 at the tenth Triennale in Milan for her copper designs, and in 1952 she received the "Above Competition" prize for her textile designs at the Bezalel National Museum. She was also awarded the Shen Beit Haomanim Prize in 1970, and the Jerusalem Prize for painting in 1973.
Louise took part in many art exhibitions in Israel and abroad. Her works are held by the Israel, Tel Aviv, and Haifa Museums, and in private collections in Israel, the U.S., England, Switzerland, France, and Italy.
Following her husband's death in 1978, Louise continued to live with her sister-in-law, Zohara, at the family home in Jerusalem on Schatz Street. Louise died in Jerusalem in 1997.
Louise (McClure) Schatz (1916 – 1997)
Louise Schatz was a Canadian born artist, married to Bezalel Schatz.
Born in Vancouver, Canada, Louise Schatz moved with her family at age three to Minnesota. Her father, a stage director, was part of the local Bohemian culture and traveled the theater circuit around the U.S. She earned a Master's Degree in Fine Arts at the University of California, where she became a skilled watercolorist. "My Japanese instructor showed me how to preserve several colors together on paper," she noted. "Watercolors can bleed into the paper, and the paper plays with the colors – some of which can even disappear. I have a great love of texture and what materials do to color. I was very excited to discover what happens to colors and how to achieve what I wanted."
Her interest in astronomy also led Louise to study science at the university. Louise joined the "California Seven" artists in 1945, and for the next three years created prints and textile patterns. During WWII, she earned her living as a sketch artist for shipbuilders in San Francisco Bay, and it was there she met her future husband, Bezalel. "Then, it was very avant-garde to hire women in ship-building," she once recounted. "We used to take dimensions from engineers and make sketches. It was very trailblazing and exciting, and the ships were constructed very quickly and launched very quickly. Besides the fact that we contributed to the war effort, it was really beautiful art."
The Bohemian society developing in San Francisco at the time included the novelist Henry Miller, who was then married to Louise's sister, Eve. "There was a group of artists in Big Sur, all of them poor," according to Bezalel Schatz's sister, Zohara. "They were a group of Beatniks before the hippy era of the 1960s. There were novelists, poets, and painters there who lived communally under primitive conditions and were close to nature."
Bezalel and Louise got married in 1948 and moved to Israel. There, together with Zohara, they founded the arts and crafts workshop, "Yad," to create and sell alternative art objects that differed in style from those of the Bezalel School of Art. The couple divided its time between the family home in Jerusalem and a residence in Ein Hod designed for them by the architect David Resnik.
Despite her connection to the Schatz family and her active involvement in the Israeli art world at the time, Louise guarded her privacy and rarely granted interviews. As Henry Miller wrote, "Her paintings reflect and reveal the extent of her sensitivity, shyness, and gentleness…"
Scenes of Israel were a source of inspiration for Louise, and, in addition to her abstract geometric works, she also painted landscapes, flowers, and other elements of the environment in which she worked. Louise worked mainly with watercolors but also created collages, book illustrations, and applied art. Among her outstanding works are murals for Zim's "Shalom" and "Theodore Herzl" ships (together with Bezalel), El Al's London office, and Jerusalem's tenth-anniversary exhibition, as well as ceramic walls for Jerusalem's Midrehset Amalia and Beit Ha'am Library.
She was awarded the Silver Medal in 1954 at the tenth Triennale in Milan for her copper designs, and in 1952 she received the "Above Competition" prize for her textile designs at the Bezalel National Museum. She was also awarded the Shen Beit Haomanim Prize in 1970, and the Jerusalem Prize for painting in 1973.
Louise took part in many art exhibitions in Israel and abroad. Her works are held by the Israel, Tel Aviv, and Haifa Museums, and in private collections in Israel, the U.S., England, Switzerland, France, and Italy.
Following her husband's death in 1978, Louise continued to live with her sister-in-law, Zohara, at the family home in Jerusalem on Schatz Street. Louise died in Jerusalem in 1997.