“Modern Artists” Exhibition in the “Tent” Shed – 1926
In the first exhibition, in 1926, 20 sketches were presented, 6 copper works, 10 water color paintings and 39 oil paintings created by 11 artists: Guttman, Reuven, Lubin, Eliyahu Neeman, Shemi, Frenkel, Feldi, Livinovski, Yona Shecter, Tzyona Tajr and Zeritzki.
The Emergence of Modern Art in Israel
Until the 2o’s, Jerusalem was the artistic center of Israel. The “Tower of David” was the center of activities in 1921, 1924 and 1925. The tower hosted at the time group exhibitions of the top artists in the country. These exhibitions marked the awakening of the new art in the country. When Tel Aviv began to take Jerusalem’s place as the cultural-artistic center in the country, artists rushed from the Jerusalem Mountains to the new city that started to expand on the coast.
New art centers opened in the country. The “Painting Studio by Tel Aviv Workers’ Council”, the result of efforts made by the painter Yitzhak Frenkel, opened its gates in the spirit of French Avant-garde style which he embraced during his studies in France. The studio operated in Tel Aviv until 1929.
The “Tent” theatre (originally named “Dramatic Studia near the Culture Committee”) was founded by the director Moshe Halevi, who wanted to build proletarian theatre and made it happen through the “Tent” theatre which he founded in 1925 and managed it. Moshe Halevi wished to be an integral and significant part of Hebrew art creation in Israel, and the same shed that was built in the Yarkon street, on one of the hills in front of the blue sea, hosted a group exhibition – “Modern Artists Exhibitions” that aspired to bring the art to all working people.
The day in which the exhibition was opened (January 14th, 1926), was a celebration day for the artists group, a day in which their “creed” was spread as part of the printed exhibition catalog. Shlonski defined it well, and in his rebellious way saw the “Tent” as the synagogue of Israeli art. “A new synagogue… instead of god we will stand…” he stated. The role of organizing the exhibitions in “Tent” was given to the actor Yehuda Gabay.
The same little shed gathered three significant group exhibitions of Israeli art in the 20’s, between 1926 and 1928, one each year. 18 painters and sculptures participated in a total of three exhibitions.
In the first exhibition, in 1926, 20 sketches were presented, 6 copper works, 10 water color paintings and 39 oil paintings created by 11 artists: Guttman, Reuven, Lubin, Eliyahu Neeman, Shemi, Frenkel, Feldi, Livinovski, Yona Shecter, Tzyona Tajr and Zeritzki.
In 1927, the second exhibition was performed in which 53 pieces in water colors and oil were presented alongside sketches and sculptures of Nahum Guttman and Hanna Orelof. Almost all artists from the first exhibition participated in the second one: Guttman, Reuven, Lubin, Shemi, Frenkel, Feldi, Livinovski, Tzyona Tajr and Zeritzki (except for Eliyahu Neeman and Yona Shecter) and others joined: Persman, Bugrashov, Mosie David Navot, Eloeil, Sapoznikov (Elhanani) and Hanna Orelof.
In the third exhibition, in 1928, included Guttman, Zeritzki, Litvinovski, Lubin, Feldi, Frenkel, Shemi, Tziona Tajar, Mosie, Bugrashov and the sculpture Melnikov. The exhibition presented 52 pieces in oil, water colors and gouache, as well as sketches, wood work, and two sculptures.
A tribute to the art of the 20’s in Israel
The attempt to study the influences that directed the exhibitions artists to their pieces, is displayed in the article by Dr. Gila Balas, which was published in the catalog of an exhibition named “The 20’s in Israeli Art” in 1982 (Tel Aviv Museum), 60 years after the first “Tent” exhibition. The exhibition was actually a tribute for those artists from the first generation of the new art in Israel that searched for their own unique way in the Israeli art.
Balas claimed that the painter in that time were impacted by the Avant-garde Russian painting, Cubism, Futurism and Constructivism that was defined as Modernism at the time. However, she claims that despite of these influences, the artists in the country created a unique modern spirit that presented the Israeli reality as they saw it through art. Therefore, the art that was presented, even if designed in the spirit of Cubism, didn’t show an analytical Cubism that was to be found the Picasso’s pieces, for example, but narrative pieces that didn’t abandon the subject of creation or the realistic description as they perceived it.
Several pieces made a considerable impression both on observers and critics:
- “Connection without Objects” by Yitzhak Frenkel. Two pieces that vanished over the years, perhaps on his own will.
- Composition of objects in a Futuristic style by Lubin, who as Guttman, Robin and Feldi, made his mark in Oriental-styled pieces.
- “Gensin Portrait”, a piece by Litvinovski, in which he used Kobo-Futuristic elements over a realist design, and his creation “Bride and Broom” that served a sense of Russian Avant-garde while using geometric surfaces that are presented as a whole set combined with strong contradictions that are expressed through colors.
- The exhibition also shoed Menahem Shemi’s aspiration for simple and clean composition, similar to the one by Cezanne. He attempted to create a formal clarity and simplicity that is inter-related in a logic bond, as he defined it.
- Tziona Tajar was influences by Andre Lot, the teacher who taught her in Paris and from the painter Dern. In her pieces we can see the attempt to use geometric basis and a processing for 3D in the realist description.
As mentioned, schools which were common in exile countries still has a hold on the painters in Israel and were expressed through the forms in their paintings. The same was visible in the mentioned “Tent” exhibitions in which the influence of the Jewish Paris school artists was felt. Yitzhak Frenkel was responsible for the French expressionist touches he presented to his students in the studio he founded.
In the 20’s painters from the second generation of the Israeli art traveled to France and returned equipped with tools that characterized the Paris school. This school has an honorable place in the Israeli art until the late 40’s. Those artists stepped away from the narrative perspective that existed in the country, and chose to emphasize artistic values, such as color, that consciously faded at the early 20’s.
As said, the “20’s in Israeli Art” exhibition presented in 1982, 60 years after the first “Tent” exhibition, was a tribute to those artists, the first generation of new art in Israel, that searched for their own unique way in the Israeli country.