Zahara Schatz
Written By: Ruth Seligman
“Talented, versatile, energetic” — these are some of the adjectives which describe Zahara Schatz. For her unusual contribution in developing new materials, such as plastics, for use in pure and decorative art and for her role in promoting crafts in Israel, she was the first woman artist to be honoured with the Israel Prize in Art in 1954.
Today there is a definite trend among artists and sculptors the world over to expand their fields of interest, to create and design murals, walls, interiors and accessories. Although some great artists still confine themselves to pure art, more and more are working in a broader sphere, recognising that the borderline between pure and decorative art is a thread so fine as to be almost non-existent. Zahara Schatz, however, was one of the first to work this way, showing the overlapping and interrelationship between pure art and crafts.
In 1954, the same year in which she received the Israel Prize, Zahara Schatz headed the Department of Arts and Crafts in Israel's Ministry of Industry. This was an era in which the Government supervised many small craft workshops, including those employing Arabs. Whether the craftsmen were working in ceramics, pottery or glass, they all benefited from the professional advice Zahara Schatz gave. She so helped raise the level of their artistic endeavours that, for the first and only time, Israeli craftsmen that year were able to exhibit at the prestigious Triennale Crafts World Fair, held every three years in Milan, Italy. At this fair, Zahara Schatz, herself, won two gold medals.
Zahara Schatz is also an abstract sculptress, one of the very first to work in synthetic materials, especially plexiglass. As early as 1938, working in the United States where she had gone for a visit and been trapped by the outbreak of World War II, she saw the versatility and potential of plastic for use in both pure and decorative art. She developed many new techniques, sometimes literally taking the plastic apart, casting it and then reheating it.
In her work in fusing art and crafts and in her pioneering work in the use of plastic, Zahara Schatz is continuing a tradition and legacy handed down to her by her father, Boris Schatz, founder of the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts and the Bezalel Museum (forerunner of the Israel Museum). It was he, the “father of art in Israel", who gave the initial impetus to painting and sculpture and to all artistic activity in Palestine, who dared to dream of reviving Jewish art at a-time when others were more occupied with draining swamps and tilling the soil.
Boris Schatz himself was initially a sculptor. His achievements in this field might have been greater if not for his dream, or obsession, to establish a national and folkloristic Jewish art. It was this dream which led him in 1906 to establish the Bezalel School and the Bezalel Museum and thus to reawaken interest in handicrafts as a useful form of livelihood in a dormant economy.
Schatz’s dream was practical in origin, “to establish suitable enterprises and thus provide the Jewish population of Palestine with new ways of sustenance and possibilities of existence.” With this formula he secured the full support of the Zionist Movement which gave him the large building, formerly the home of a French religious order, to house his school and museum. There in the early years of the twentieth century, he and the other teachers sought to invent and evolve a new style, decorative and monumental, in the realm of applied art. There were sowed the seeds of Artists' House. The former exhibits have been moved to the Israel Museum.
In awarding Zahara Schatz the Israel Prize, the Israel Government also paid tribute to her father, Boris, to her brother, Bezalel, who, besides his work in pure art, has for the past 20 years worked on monuments and public buildings and to her sister-in-law, Louise, regarded by art critics here and abroad as Israel's outstanding painter in water colours. “We're a family of artists,” says Bezalel, noting that everyone in his family has made a significant artistic contribution. “My mother was an art critic and scholar, even my half-sister from my father’s first marriage was a painter. I, myself, married an artist (Louise Schatz) as did Zahara whose late husband, Franz Sandow, was a well known sculptor.”
Bezalel and Louise Schatz live in the original home built by their parents, attached then, as now, to the Bezalel School. Zahara Schatz has an adjoining apartment. “I've kept the original structure of the building,” says Bezalel. Minor improvements and alterations have been made, but essentially, it is the same delightful house in which he and Zahara spent their childhood.
Opening the gate, one leaves the high-rise office buildings and department stores of downtown Jerusalem and enters another world, unbelievably remote from the bustle of today. Inside, one almost senses the presence of Boris Schatz who came to cast off the shackles of European culture and revive the long dormant Jewish art of the East. Schatz was as great a believer as Herzl, endowed with the same faith that a continuity broken twenty centuries could be knit again, that a nation cut off from its land could rebuild itself, physically, spiritually and artistically.
Following in the path of her father, Zahara Schatz is no “ivory-tower” artist, living isolated from the practical preoccupations and needs of her fellow-man. She, too, has devoted her life to bringing art into the society, for she sees the art experience as permeating all facets of daily life.
In all her work, whether it be jewelry, designed in metal and plastic, candelabrums, lamps, wall decorations, paintings or sculpture, Zahara Schatz demonstrates a strong feeling for design coupled with an imaginative flair for using unusual materials. Her talents have been recognised in Israel and abroad. In 1950 she received an Award in lamp design from the New York Museum of Modern Art for a beautifully executed electric lamp and in 1960 she won the competition to design the Memorial Light at Yad VaShem. This menorah, with its six lamps, is a moving memorial to the six million who perished in the Holocaust. She has also participated in many group and one-man shows in Europe, the United States and in Israel.
Today, working in metal as well as plastic, she is creating mobiles which are really moving statues. For Israel’s 30th anniversary she created a “Magen David” in Parallex, an impressive mobile made of solid brass plated with gold. In this abstract wire sculpture a series of geometric integrated triangular lines form the Star of David, the symbol of the Jewish people. At the base the formation of the Hebrew letter “lamed”, corresponding to the number 30 in the Hebrew numerical system, commemorates the 30th anniversary of the State’s existence.
Zahara Schatz is also known and admired for her contribution as a teacher. She has enabled countless students to bring beauty into their lives and into the lives of those around them. On the formal level she has taught courses in the history and theories of art, in the use of materials and in composition, at such high-level schools as the California School of Fine Art. Her influence extends beyond the classroom for, with boundless energy, she is a frequent guest lecturer on the radio as well as on the lecture platform, bringing to public notice the role and place of art in our society.
Zahara Schatz works in many different areas — sculpture, pure art, murals, interior decoration, accessories and crafts. They all bear the mark of a concerned artist, one who strives to improve the quality of life in each community in which she lives. She is a true daughter of the "father of Israeli art’.
[*] Bezalel Schatz died shortly after this article was written.
Zahara Schatz
Written By: Ruth Seligman
“Talented, versatile, energetic” — these are some of the adjectives which describe Zahara Schatz. For her unusual contribution in developing new materials, such as plastics, for use in pure and decorative art and for her role in promoting crafts in Israel, she was the first woman artist to be honoured with the Israel Prize in Art in 1954.
Today there is a definite trend among artists and sculptors the world over to expand their fields of interest, to create and design murals, walls, interiors and accessories. Although some great artists still confine themselves to pure art, more and more are working in a broader sphere, recognising that the borderline between pure and decorative art is a thread so fine as to be almost non-existent. Zahara Schatz, however, was one of the first to work this way, showing the overlapping and interrelationship between pure art and crafts.
In 1954, the same year in which she received the Israel Prize, Zahara Schatz headed the Department of Arts and Crafts in Israel's Ministry of Industry. This was an era in which the Government supervised many small craft workshops, including those employing Arabs. Whether the craftsmen were working in ceramics, pottery or glass, they all benefited from the professional advice Zahara Schatz gave. She so helped raise the level of their artistic endeavours that, for the first and only time, Israeli craftsmen that year were able to exhibit at the prestigious Triennale Crafts World Fair, held every three years in Milan, Italy. At this fair, Zahara Schatz, herself, won two gold medals.
Zahara Schatz is also an abstract sculptress, one of the very first to work in synthetic materials, especially plexiglass. As early as 1938, working in the United States where she had gone for a visit and been trapped by the outbreak of World War II, she saw the versatility and potential of plastic for use in both pure and decorative art. She developed many new techniques, sometimes literally taking the plastic apart, casting it and then reheating it.
In her work in fusing art and crafts and in her pioneering work in the use of plastic, Zahara Schatz is continuing a tradition and legacy handed down to her by her father, Boris Schatz, founder of the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts and the Bezalel Museum (forerunner of the Israel Museum). It was he, the “father of art in Israel", who gave the initial impetus to painting and sculpture and to all artistic activity in Palestine, who dared to dream of reviving Jewish art at a-time when others were more occupied with draining swamps and tilling the soil.
Boris Schatz himself was initially a sculptor. His achievements in this field might have been greater if not for his dream, or obsession, to establish a national and folkloristic Jewish art. It was this dream which led him in 1906 to establish the Bezalel School and the Bezalel Museum and thus to reawaken interest in handicrafts as a useful form of livelihood in a dormant economy.
Schatz’s dream was practical in origin, “to establish suitable enterprises and thus provide the Jewish population of Palestine with new ways of sustenance and possibilities of existence.” With this formula he secured the full support of the Zionist Movement which gave him the large building, formerly the home of a French religious order, to house his school and museum. There in the early years of the twentieth century, he and the other teachers sought to invent and evolve a new style, decorative and monumental, in the realm of applied art. There were sowed the seeds of Artists' House. The former exhibits have been moved to the Israel Museum.
In awarding Zahara Schatz the Israel Prize, the Israel Government also paid tribute to her father, Boris, to her brother, Bezalel, who, besides his work in pure art, has for the past 20 years worked on monuments and public buildings and to her sister-in-law, Louise, regarded by art critics here and abroad as Israel's outstanding painter in water colours. “We're a family of artists,” says Bezalel, noting that everyone in his family has made a significant artistic contribution. “My mother was an art critic and scholar, even my half-sister from my father’s first marriage was a painter. I, myself, married an artist (Louise Schatz) as did Zahara whose late husband, Franz Sandow, was a well known sculptor.”
Bezalel and Louise Schatz live in the original home built by their parents, attached then, as now, to the Bezalel School. Zahara Schatz has an adjoining apartment. “I've kept the original structure of the building,” says Bezalel. Minor improvements and alterations have been made, but essentially, it is the same delightful house in which he and Zahara spent their childhood.
Opening the gate, one leaves the high-rise office buildings and department stores of downtown Jerusalem and enters another world, unbelievably remote from the bustle of today. Inside, one almost senses the presence of Boris Schatz who came to cast off the shackles of European culture and revive the long dormant Jewish art of the East. Schatz was as great a believer as Herzl, endowed with the same faith that a continuity broken twenty centuries could be knit again, that a nation cut off from its land could rebuild itself, physically, spiritually and artistically.
Following in the path of her father, Zahara Schatz is no “ivory-tower” artist, living isolated from the practical preoccupations and needs of her fellow-man. She, too, has devoted her life to bringing art into the society, for she sees the art experience as permeating all facets of daily life.
In all her work, whether it be jewelry, designed in metal and plastic, candelabrums, lamps, wall decorations, paintings or sculpture, Zahara Schatz demonstrates a strong feeling for design coupled with an imaginative flair for using unusual materials. Her talents have been recognised in Israel and abroad. In 1950 she received an Award in lamp design from the New York Museum of Modern Art for a beautifully executed electric lamp and in 1960 she won the competition to design the Memorial Light at Yad VaShem. This menorah, with its six lamps, is a moving memorial to the six million who perished in the Holocaust. She has also participated in many group and one-man shows in Europe, the United States and in Israel.
Today, working in metal as well as plastic, she is creating mobiles which are really moving statues. For Israel’s 30th anniversary she created a “Magen David” in Parallex, an impressive mobile made of solid brass plated with gold. In this abstract wire sculpture a series of geometric integrated triangular lines form the Star of David, the symbol of the Jewish people. At the base the formation of the Hebrew letter “lamed”, corresponding to the number 30 in the Hebrew numerical system, commemorates the 30th anniversary of the State’s existence.
Zahara Schatz is also known and admired for her contribution as a teacher. She has enabled countless students to bring beauty into their lives and into the lives of those around them. On the formal level she has taught courses in the history and theories of art, in the use of materials and in composition, at such high-level schools as the California School of Fine Art. Her influence extends beyond the classroom for, with boundless energy, she is a frequent guest lecturer on the radio as well as on the lecture platform, bringing to public notice the role and place of art in our society.
Zahara Schatz works in many different areas — sculpture, pure art, murals, interior decoration, accessories and crafts. They all bear the mark of a concerned artist, one who strives to improve the quality of life in each community in which she lives. She is a true daughter of the "father of Israeli art’.
[*] Bezalel Schatz died shortly after this article was written.