Serigraph

TOBIASSE

In Paris, set apart from the other children by his strange clothes and Yiddish-Lithuanian accent, he grew up solitary, self-dependent and with a strong, prevailing sense of his Jewishness. Essentially self-trained in art, he emerged from the enforced isolation of the German occupation in Paris with an extensive portfolio which enabled him to find work in commercial fields. Continuing as a commercial artist for fifteen years, he developed his painting style in his spare time, often painting through the night.

Finally in 1960, Tobiasse took the Grand Prix at an exhibition of young artists at the Palais de la Mediterranee in Nice.

After 1962, he was at last able to devote himself exclusively to painting, for collectors and galleries have since not ceased to be interested in his work.

Author and colleague Andre Schwartzbart writes of “the strange adventures of Tobiasse, who sees canvasses surge straight from an Elie Wiesel story …” This reference is apt, with Tobiasse portraying his Hassidic-influenced stories on canvas. Schwartz-Bart continues: “I can as well conjure up in my mind my friend Elie deeply brooding over one of these marvels from which he would eventually derive a tale”.

MIRIAM DAUBER

Miriam Dauber was born in Bucharest, Romania in 1946. She studied at Wizo Art School, Beaux Art School in Marseilles, France, and at the St. Martins School of Art in London, England.

Miriam Dauber has her own special technique, using tempera, oil and acrylic. She excels in graphics and drawings in a very individualistic and characteristic style that she has developed over the years.

Dauber has held many exhibitions including the International Art Fair in Basel, Switzerland, and the International Art Fair in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Born in Essen, Germany, in 1924, Naftali Bezem emigrated to Palestine in 1939 under the auspices of Youth Aliyah. He studied for three years at the Bezalel School of Art in Jerusalem, and later taught there. From 1949 to 1951 he painted in Paris.

Bezem’s first major showing was of drawings in the Venice Biennale of 1954, where six years later he exhibited five paintings. In 1960 his work was included in the “Noir et Blanc” exhibition in Lugano; in 1963 the Sao Paulo Bienal and the Galerie Charpentier in Paris. His paintings were also exhibited in the Art Israel exhibit organized by the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 1964 an exhibit of his works was held in New York and at Brandeis University.

In Israel, Bezem won the Dizengoff Prize of 1957; and in 1967 won a grant from the government which permitted him six months’ painting in Paris at the Israel studio of the Cite Internationale des Arts. His works were exhibited at the National Museum in Jerusalem in 1959, Tel Aviv Museum in 1960, Haifa Museum in 1964.

Bezem has executed a number of important commissions as well, including murals for the Israel Pavilions at the Brussels World’s Fair and at Expo’67, a sculptural wall for the El-Al Airlines Building in Tel Aviv, and murals for the Zim Steamship “Theodore Hertzl” and for the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot.

VICTOR SHREM

Victor Shrem, the descendant of a Spanish family who fled Spain during the Inquisition, and established themselves first in Italy, and then in Hebron, Israel, was born in Jerusalem in 1944.

He grew up and went to school in Jerusalem, and after graduating high school, worked in a Kibbutz in the Jordan Valley.

After serving in the Navy in the Israel Defense Force, he went to Germany for artistic training, and graduated from the Academy of Ceramics. He worked in this field for several years, and participated in several group exhibitions in Berlin, Paris and Israel.

In 1984 he opened his own studio and gallery “Cardo Gallery 1984” in the Old City of Jerusalem, where he exhibits fine art works by well-known Israeli artists. At the same time, he continued with his own artistic career, but turned to a different medium: painting. He learned the techniques of watercolor, oil and mixed media, in which he excels.

His favorite subjects are inspired from Israeli folklore, Jerusalem and its surroundings, Israeli landscapes and Judaica.

Victor Shrem’s paintings appear in numerous private collections all over the world.