Stechpalme / vor Israel - Anfang des 20. Jahrhunderts

Judaica - A museum Quality amulet for protection against evil eye

Hand crafted in hollyland by an artist - circa 1920

Enameled on silver ( 800) tested with acid

Hebrew text - אם אשכחך ירושלים תשכח ימיני

Shmuel Ben David

Portrait of a Woman by Shmuel Ben David
Shmuel Ben David (1884–1927) born in Sofia, Bulgaria was an illustrator, painter, typographer and designer affiliated with the Bezalel school, an art movement that developed in Jerusalem in the early twentieth century.

Biography

Shabat Menachem Davidov (later Shmuel Ben David) studied under Boris Schatz at the National Academy of Fine Arts in Sofia. In 1906, he immigrated to Palestine and enrolled at the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts established by Schatz in Jerusalem. Ben David was the first Bezalel student to become a teacher there. He taught in the Tapestry Department and devoted much of his artistic endeavor to research and design of Hebrew typography; his preoccupation with the Hebrew alphabet brought forth an extensive lexicon of ornamentation.

In 1912, the artist traveled to Paris and continued his art studies at the Academie Julian and left a collection of sketch books.[1] In 1920 Ben David was one of the founders of the Agudat Omanim Ivrit (Association of Hebrew Artists). He organized the Association’s first exhibition and was its first chairman. Around 1923 Ben David produced a unique copy of an illuminated Scroll of Esther, made of parchment.[2]

Ben David died in Jerusalem in 1927 and was buried in the Mount of Olives Cemetery.[3][4][5][6][7]

Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design
Not to be confused with Bezalel school.
Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design (Hebrew: בצלאל, אקדמיה לאמנות ועיצוב) is an academic college of design and art located in Jerusalem, Israel. Established in 1906 by Jewish painter and sculptor Boris Schatz, Bezalel is Israel's oldest institution of higher education. It is named for the Biblical figure Bezalel, son of Uri (Hebrew: בְּצַלְאֵל בֶּן־אוּרִי), who was appointed by Moses to oversee the design and construction of the Tabernacle (Exodus 35:30). The art created by Bezalel's students and professors in the early 1900s is considered the springboard for Israeli visual arts in the 20th century.

Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design
בצלאל, אקדמיה לאמנות ועיצוב

BezalelLogo.svg
Former names

Bezalel School
Type Public
Art school
Established 1906
Founder Boris Schatz
President Adi Stern
Students 2,116
Undergraduates 1,911
Postgraduates 205
Location
Jerusalem
,
Israel
Campus Urban
Website bezalel.ac.il
Bezalel Academy of Art and Design logo
Bezalel is currently located at the Mount Scopus campus of Hebrew University of Jerusalem, with the exception of the Architecture department, which is housed in the historic Bezalel building in downtown Jerusalem. In 2009 it was announced that Bezalel will be relocated to a new campus in the Russian Compound, as part of a municipal plan to revive Jerusalem's downtown. The new Bezalel campus is planned by the Tokyo-based award-winning architectural firm SANAA.

History


Boris Schatz, founder of Bezalel

Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, professor of Hebrew at Bezalel

Boris Schatz outside the Bezalel campus, Jerusalem, 1913

Bezalel drawing class under direction of Abel Pann, 1912
The Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts was founded in 1906 by Boris Schatz, who envisaged the creation of a national style of art blending classical Jewish/Middle Eastern and European traditions. The school opened in rented premises on Ethiopia Street. It moved to a complex of buildings constructed in the 1880s surrounded by a crenelated stone wall, owned by a wealthy Arab. In 1907, the property was purchased for Boris Schatz by the Jewish National Fund. Schatz lived on the campus with his wife and children.[1] Bezalel's first class consisted of 30 young art students from Europe who successfully passed the entrance exam. Eliezer Ben Yehuda was hired to teach Hebrew to the students, who hailed from various countries and had no common language.[2] His wife, Hemda Ben-Yehuda, worked as Boris Schatz's secretary.[3]

In addition to traditional sculpture and painting, the school offered workshops that produced decorative art objects in silver, leather, wood, brass, and fabric. Many of the craftsmen were Yemenite Jewish silversmiths who had a long tradition of working in precious metals, as silver- and goldsmithing, which had been traditional Jewish occupations in Yemen. Yemenite immigrants were also frequent subjects of Bezalel artists.

Many of the students went on to become well-known artists, among them Meir Gur Aryeh, Ze'ev Raban, Shmuel Ben David, Ya'ackov Ben-Dov, Zeev Ben-Zvi, Jacob Eisenberg, Jacob Pins, Jacob Steinhardt and Hermann Struck.[4]

In 1912, Bezalel had one female student, Marousia (Miriam) Nissenholtz, who used the pseudonym Chad Gadya.[5]

Bezalel closed in 1929 in the wake of financial difficulties. After Hitler's rise to power, Bezalel's board of directors asked Josef Budko, who had fled Germany in 1933, to reopen it and serve as its director.[6] The New Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts opened in 1935, attracting many teachers and students from Germany, many of them from the Bauhaus school shut down by the Nazis.[7] Budko recruited Jakob Steinhardt and Mordecai Ardon to teach at the school, and both succeeded him as directors.[6]

In 1958, the first year that the prize was awarded to an organization, Bezalel won the Israel Prize for painting and sculpture.[8]

In 1969, Bezalel became a state-supported institution. In 1975 it was recognized by the Council for Higher Education in Israel as an institute of higher education.[9] It completed its relocation to Mount Scopus in 1990.

Bezalel pavilion


Bezalel Pavilion near Jaffa Gate
Bezalel pavilion was a tin-plated wooden structure with a crenelated roof and tower built outside Jaffa Gate in 1912. It was a shop and showroom for Bezalel souvenirs. The pavilion was demolished by the British authorities six years later.

Bezalel style

Bezalel developed a distinctive style of art, known as the Bezalel school, which portrayed Biblical and Zionist subjects in a style influenced by the European jugendstil (art nouveau) and traditional Persian and Syrian art. The artists blended "varied strands of surroundings, tradition and innovation," in paintings and craft objects that invokes "biblical themes, Islamic design and European traditions," in their effort to "carve out a distinctive style of Jewish art" for the new nation they intended to build in the ancient Jewish homeland.[10]

Today


Bezalel on Mount Scopus in Jerusalem
In 2006, the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design celebrated its 100th anniversary. Today, it is located on Mount Scopus in Jerusalem and has 1,500 students. Faculties include Fine Arts, Architecture, Ceramic Design, Industrial Design, Jewelry, Photography, Visual Communication, Animation, Film, and Art History & Theory. The architecture campus is in downtown Jerusalem, in the historic Bezalel building. Bezalel offers Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.), Bachelor of Architecture (B.Arch.), Bachelor of Design (B.Des.) degrees, a Master of Fine Arts in conjunction with Hebrew University,two different Master of Design (M.des) degrees and Theory and Policy of art (M.A.)

The academy has plans to move back to the city center.[11]

In 2011, the Bezalel student show at the Milan Furniture Fair was described as a "lively runner-up" for the best exhibit.[12]

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