Flowers and Tel-Aviv roofs, Oil on canvas (signed 1957), 60X50 cm.
About the artist:
Friedel was a German- born Israeli cartoonist and illustrator.
She started to work as a graphic designer of maps at the Survey of Palestine, which was later to become the Measuring Department. One of her innovations was illustrating the drawing of the maps of Palestine. Such a collection of maps was published in 1953 under the title Israel in 14 Pictorial Maps. In 1946 Friedel started to publish cartoons in the journal Bamahane. It was then that she designed her signature composed of her first name: Friedel and a star, symbolizing the meaning of her family name in German “Stern”. This signature was meant to differentiate her from Yossi Stern who was the graphic editor of the journal. Due to the success of this publication, Friedel started to publish her cartoons regularly in the newspapers Davar, Dvar Ha’Shavua and La’isha.
Friedel also worked as a graphic designer. In the 1950s and 60’s she designed posters for the Philatelist Service and the Israeli Post Office. In 1960 she created the series Air Mail Landscape 2 – a series of 10 stamps of Israel Post (the third series of air mail stamps) about Israel’s cities and sites, thus being the second female stamp designer after Miriam Caroli). Amongst her other works are congratulatory Cards for Independence Day (published by Keren Ha’Yessod in 1958), a poster for the National Insurance Institute (in the 1950s), a collection album Countries and Nations in Pictures (in the early 1960s) and a poster for the Harp Contest (in the 1960s). Her design style was based on a minimalistic geometric line, suitable for those years.
For years Friedel was the only female cartoonist in Israel and differently from her colleagues she rarely dealt with political or military subjects. Her uniqueness was in daily life subjects, exposing the grotesque or absurd aspects of the Israeli society. From the artistic point of view, Friedel’s work is characterized by a geometric line and relatively little use of color.
From 1962 and 1992 Friedel lectured in the sketching department of the Bezalel Academy. For many years she volunteered in the Organization of IDF Invalids and in Beit Ha’Lohem. For this activity she was awarded the President’s Volunteering Award of 1999. In 2004 she was awarded the Dosh Cartoon Award.
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