Aharon Bezalel – Sculptures, Sixty Years of Creation /Dr. Sorin Heller
* The Article was written for the exhibition Aharon Bezalel-Sixty Years of Creation, on February 2011 The Jerusalem Artists House , Curator: Dr. Sorin Heller
The current exhibition of Aharon Bezalel is intended to summarize a period of sixty years of creation. The exhibition focuses on sculpture and presents milestones from various creative periods of the artist. Bezalel achieved broad recognition and exposure thanks to works of his found in numerous private and public collections as well as his sculptures which are widely situated in public expanses both in Israel and abroad. The purpose of the exhibition is to examine Bezalel's creation, illuminating it in the light of current developments taking place in the art world both locally and internationally – in other words, to highlight the freshness and relevancy of his art in the here and now.
Bezalel was born in Afghanistan in 1926. He started on his artistic way as a sort of dedicated visionary and "fanatic devotee", by being involved in gold and silver crafting as well as practical arts and did not undergo the accepted and common track of studying at an art school. For generations his family had been active in artwork of all types and perhaps thanks to this, one can credit his affinity to art. The biblical figure Bezalel constructing 'the Holy Ark'[i] represents for the artist Aharon Bezalel his own mission. His involvement in gold and silver crafting eventually led him to study sculpture from the sculptor Zeev Ben Zvi. His progression from practical arts and gold-and silversmithing to sculpture, found its expression not only in mastering the technique but also in becoming acquainted with and growing ever closer to the artistic apprehensions of classicism and modernity. The miniature figurines having an affinity and connection with the world of gold and silver crafting eventually became monolithic sculptures, primarily carved from wood but also cast in bronze, and still later evolved into sculptures of super- human proportions – sculptures of the totem poles that dominate in nature . Already in the early 1980s, Ofrat focused attention on its iconographic sources when he mapped Bezalel's creations along thematic layers. For example, the sexual, national and mythical layers, which include touching on additional themes such as the family, 'aliyah' (immigration to Israel), a connection to the world of the Bible and Kabala, fertility and more. (Ofrat 1983:7-9)[ii]
In the early 1980s, Ofrat related the works of Bezalel to the same primeval, original and ceremonial tendency. Ofrat placed him among a small group of sculptors who maintained no connection or contact among themselves – Zvi Aldoubi (1904-1992), Hava Mehutan, Moshe Hoffman (1938-1983) among others. The stance taken by Ofrat is part of the intentional development to create a Jerusalemite antithesis – which reached its pinnacle in the exhibition which Ofrat curated, "To the Myth Without God"[iii] – to the Tel Aviv artistic achievement represented by the conceptual apprehension, as summed up in the exhibition "the Paucity of Material as a Quality in Israeli Art"[iv], which Sarah Breitenberg-Semel curated. It is noteworthy that these definitions became blunted in retrospective review. It has become apparent today that the creations of Bezalel cannot be ascribed solely to an array of several Israeli sculptors of the first order – such as Aldoubi and Mehutan – but rather it must be understood in light of the trends and currents which took hold in Israeli art.
Bezalel's creations can be understood not only in light of Ofrat's claim but also in the framework of the conceptual apprehension of totemic sculpture in Israel and throughout the world – such as, for example, the sculpture of Michael Gross. The combination between the object's concreteness and its abstract form and delicate treatment on the surface creates a feeling of mystery which acts as a metaphysical conductor, whereas in the work of Michael Gross, the rigidity and concreteness is obtained by means of the delicate outlines used by the sculptor. In the totem sculptures of Bezalel, the rigidity and sense of violence are attained through injury and insult to the matter being sculpted. The totem is soft, organic, and humane whereas the injury and attempted penetration are painful, violent and bloody.
One could even find a connection between Bezalel's totem sculptures and the Assemblage sculptures of Tomarkin. In this way, for example, in a wood relief from 1993 (Aharon Bezalel, Sculptures, page 191) Bezalel integrates nails and rigid iron stakes on the soft non-modular bed, in the same way that Tomarkin in his soft bronze castings integrates common objects most of which have a violent militaristic connotation. Another example is the totem sculpture from 1993 in which the totemic tree trunk, sawn off and assaulted, is adorned with flowerings of stakes.
Ofrat was correct in making the distinction that in spite of a rich and varied body of work pointing to a continuous and unique development, Bezalel's creation is carried out outside the Israeli artistic narrative, and this in spite of his active involvement in the Jerusalem artistic scene (one can point to his position as head of the Jerusalem Artists Society). Ofrat examined the variegated source of Bezalel's body of works, pointing out, inter alia, the connection to the works of Kenneth Armitage, in Bezalel's tendency to a frontal approach in the bronze sculptures from the 1960s, or in the connection between the penetrating carvings of the totem sculptures made of wood and the Assemblage sculptures of Louise Nevelson (1900-1960). Likewise, Ofrat points out the connection to the sculptures of Pomodoro and his peel-like creations, hinting at the inner hollowness. This connection he coins with the term the principle of the "Pomodoro" cleavage[v]. These sources, together with the connection between Bezalel and Germaine Richier concerning the treatment with a humane image, clearly place Bezalel within the modernistic sculptural dialogue.
Bezalel can even be tied in with the sculptures of Henry Moore and Constantin Brancusi in his attempts to stress the true physical dimensions of the sculptural mass and by creating the tension between the mantle of the mass and the metaphysical essence hidden within, in the context of Constantin Brancusi.
Bezalel clings in his sculptures – both the small dimensional sculptures as well as the monumental ones – to the monolithic structure and likewise in the group sculptures and in the independent compositions he maintains this structure. One can discern a diversion from the monolith primarily in the aluminum sculptures – such as in "Adam and his City" (1972, Aharon Bezalel, Sculptures, page 238), whose structure is reminiscent of skyscrapers and its human images are fashioned in the shape of silhouettes. This sculpture evokes the constructivist approach to abstraction by means of breaking down reality to its geometrical components and then reconstructing it in the form of an architectural structure. It seems that in his approach Bezalel is close to the modernist sculptors who dealt with deconstructing the monolith – such as David Smith and Richard Serra, but especially Ibram Lassaw[vi]. However, also in the monolithic sculptures, and especially in the totem sculptures, one can point to a connection with the sculptures of David Smith with their dialectic concern of the mass and surface of the sculpture. In his geometric sculptures – especially in the series "Cubi" and "Voltri-Bolton" – Smith treats the first absorption of the sculpture as the primary mass made up of secondary masses existing in a condition of delicate equilibrium. The first impression gained by the viewer is one of power and strength, supernatural forces which succeed in overcoming the force of gravity. As Clement Greenberg points out, upon closer examination, the viewer reveals the events taking place on the surfaces – the Cubist edges – which is a picturesque happening in spite of its being executed through mechanical means[vii]. As in the case of Smith, Bezalel in his totem sculptures succeeds, as I have already pointed out, in granting the sculpture a feeling of mass and strength but at the same time, in those places where he injures the sculptural mass, the works have a pictorial character which they receive, for example, by the addition of non-uniform colors absorbed in the wood. As I indicated above, Bezalel too deals with the dialectic of mass and drawing in the way that they are realized in his dealing with the monolith as a sculptural mass, and on the surface of the sculpture. While in the case of Smith the sculpture surface is apprehended as pictorial, and the act of drawing takes place on the surface through mechanical means, in the totem sculptures "the drawing act" is used by Bezalel in the process of hand work and adaptation. The entire sculpturing surface becomes a surface for painting by means of the absorption of color in a non-uniform way, foremost in those places where the wood is assaulted and injured, wherein the hidden essences are revealed (Aharon Bezalel, Sculptures, page 262).
But what catches my eye at first glance is the connection to the German sculptor Ernst Barlach (1870-1938), in its feeling of closure, compactness – regarding both the small sculptures as well as those of great dimensions – which creates also in abstract sculpturing its expression and its utterance. And if we are dealing with Barlach, the salient characteristic in his sculptural creations is that same optical quality (in Greek, feeling or touching) – the information acquired by means of stimulating the desire to touch and the simulation of the acquired information through the sense of touch. This feature, the optical quality, constitutes part of the discussion – reaching its pinnacle in the Renaissance – concerning the comparison between sculpture and painting (Paragone), which attributes this feeling to sculptures. Michelangelo constitutes a foremost example of this feature[viii]. Like in the case of Barlach, the optical feeling afforded his sculptures, invites the viewer not only to observe but also to touch and caress – an intimate and direct embrace with the image described. This example is found in the bronze sculptures of human and animal figures, whose smooth texture invites the human touch, and it would even seem that part of its smooth patina indeed results from a touching procedure. Nevertheless, this quality also exists in the sculptures containing formational and material elements having a violent connotation, such as the cleaving of the mass of by means of nails and stakes. To my mind, the optical feature – the approach to the sculpture as inviting the touch of a human hand – is what unites the miniature sculptures whose nature is like that of jewelry work with his sculptures of great dimensions. This quality is connected not only to the sculptural language but is also closely related to the connection which Bezalel attains between his creations and man. This bond is certainly found in his figurative sculptures but it also exists as a point to be related to in his abstract sculptures. In this sense, Bezalel is close to a set of Israeli sculptors – not only sculptors such as Aldoubi and Mehutan but also to sculptors such as Dov Feigin, Itzhak Danziger, Michael Gross and Yigael Tomarkin. In spite of the different styles among them, the humane image serves as a reference point to their sculptural language. In this way, perhaps, we have come full circle, enabling to place the sculptural creations of Bezalel within the contextual progression of Israeli sculpture.
His current exhibition, in the Artists House in Jerusalem, can also be seen in terms of his coming full circle, for indeed it takes place in the original "Bezalel" House – where Bezalel presented his works in the past and where he once served as chairman of the Jerusalem Artists Society, and which, it can be certainly said, he saw as his home.
Dr. Sorin Heller
[i] "And Bezalel made the ark of acacia wood…"
[ii] Ofrat, G., 1983, "Aharon Bezalel – Between Unity and Multiplicity", Aharon Bezalel – Sculptures, Koren Publishing, Jerusalem Ltd., Jerusalem.
[iii] To the Myth Without God, Artists House, Jerusalem, 1985, Curator: Dr. Gideon Ofrat
[iv] "The paucity of material as a quality in Israeli art", Tel Aviv Museum of Art, 1986, Curator: Sarah Breitenberg-Semel.
[v] Arnoldo Pomodoro, an Italian sculptor, born in 1926, works in Milano, developed a sculptural language of cleaving a mass in a spherical shape, revealing an additional layer of covering which the viewer is invited – or obligated – to cleave and once again attempt to discover what is hidden.
[vi] Concerning the matter of breaking the monolith in the modernist sculpture, see: Read, H., 1977, A Concise History of Modern Sculpture, Thames and Hudson, London, chapter 5, pp. 163-228.
[vii] Greenberg, C., 1973, "David Smith's New Sculpture", in David Smith, Editor Garnett McCoy, Documentary Monographs in Modern Art, Allen Lane, London.
[viii] For a discussion on this topic, see:
Goffen, R., 2002, Renaissance Rivals, New Haven, pp. 1-23, 31-66 (chap. 1,3)
Mendelsohn, L., 1982, Paragoni : Benedetto Varchi’s "Due lezzioni" and cinquecento Art theory, Ann Arbor.
The current exhibition of Aharon Bezalel is intended to summarize a period of sixty years of creation. The exhibition focuses on sculpture and presents milestones from various creative periods of the artist. Bezalel achieved broad recognition and exposure thanks to works of his found in numerous private and public collections as well as his sculptures which are widely situated in public expanses both in Israel and abroad. The purpose of the exhibition is to examine Bezalel's creation, illuminating it in the light of current developments taking place in the art world both locally and internationally – in other words, to highlight the freshness and relevancy of his art in the here and now.
Bezalel was born in Afghanistan in 1926. He started on his artistic way as a sort of dedicated visionary and "fanatic devotee", by being involved in gold and silver crafting as well as practical arts and did not undergo the accepted and common track of studying at an art school. For generations his family had been active in artwork of all types and perhaps thanks to this, one can credit his affinity to art. The biblical figure Bezalel constructing 'the Holy Ark'[i] represents for the artist Aharon Bezalel his own mission. His involvement in gold and silver crafting eventually led him to study sculpture from the sculptor Zeev Ben Zvi. His progression from practical arts and gold-and silversmithing to sculpture, found its expression not only in mastering the technique but also in becoming acquainted with and growing ever closer to the artistic apprehensions of classicism and modernity. The miniature figurines having an affinity and connection with the world of gold and silver crafting eventually became monolithic sculptures, primarily carved from wood but also cast in bronze, and still later evolved into sculptures of super- human proportions – sculptures of the totem poles that dominate in nature . Already in the early 1980s, Ofrat focused attention on its iconographic sources when he mapped Bezalel's creations along thematic layers. For example, the sexual, national and mythical layers, which include touching on additional themes such as the family, 'aliyah' (immigration to Israel), a connection to the world of the Bible and Kabala, fertility and more. (Ofrat 1983:7-9)[ii]
In the early 1980s, Ofrat related the works of Bezalel to the same primeval, original and ceremonial tendency. Ofrat placed him among a small group of sculptors who maintained no connection or contact among themselves – Zvi Aldoubi (1904-1992), Hava Mehutan, Moshe Hoffman (1938-1983) among others. The stance taken by Ofrat is part of the intentional development to create a Jerusalemite antithesis – which reached its pinnacle in the exhibition which Ofrat curated, "To the Myth Without God"[iii] – to the Tel Aviv artistic achievement represented by the conceptual apprehension, as summed up in the exhibition "the Paucity of Material as a Quality in Israeli Art"[iv], which Sarah Breitenberg-Semel curated. It is noteworthy that these definitions became blunted in retrospective review. It has become apparent today that the creations of Bezalel cannot be ascribed solely to an array of several Israeli sculptors of the first order – such as Aldoubi and Mehutan – but rather it must be understood in light of the trends and currents which took hold in Israeli art.
Bezalel's creations can be understood not only in light of Ofrat's claim but also in the framework of the conceptual apprehension of totemic sculpture in Israel and throughout the world – such as, for example, the sculpture of Michael Gross. The combination between the object's concreteness and its abstract form and delicate treatment on the surface creates a feeling of mystery which acts as a metaphysical conductor, whereas in the work of Michael Gross, the rigidity and concreteness is obtained by means of the delicate outlines used by the sculptor. In the totem sculptures of Bezalel, the rigidity and sense of violence are attained through injury and insult to the matter being sculpted. The totem is soft, organic, and humane whereas the injury and attempted penetration are painful, violent and bloody.
One could even find a connection between Bezalel's totem sculptures and the Assemblage sculptures of Tomarkin. In this way, for example, in a wood relief from 1993 (Aharon Bezalel, Sculptures, page 191) Bezalel integrates nails and rigid iron stakes on the soft non-modular bed, in the same way that Tomarkin in his soft bronze castings integrates common objects most of which have a violent militaristic connotation. Another example is the totem sculpture from 1993 in which the totemic tree trunk, sawn off and assaulted, is adorned with flowerings of stakes.
Ofrat was correct in making the distinction that in spite of a rich and varied body of work pointing to a continuous and unique development, Bezalel's creation is carried out outside the Israeli artistic narrative, and this in spite of his active involvement in the Jerusalem artistic scene (one can point to his position as head of the Jerusalem Artists Society). Ofrat examined the variegated source of Bezalel's body of works, pointing out, inter alia, the connection to the works of Kenneth Armitage, in Bezalel's tendency to a frontal approach in the bronze sculptures from the 1960s, or in the connection between the penetrating carvings of the totem sculptures made of wood and the Assemblage sculptures of Louise Nevelson (1900-1960). Likewise, Ofrat points out the connection to the sculptures of Pomodoro and his peel-like creations, hinting at the inner hollowness. This connection he coins with the term the principle of the "Pomodoro" cleavage[v]. These sources, together with the connection between Bezalel and Germaine Richier concerning the treatment with a humane image, clearly place Bezalel within the modernistic sculptural dialogue.
Bezalel can even be tied in with the sculptures of Henry Moore and Constantin Brancusi in his attempts to stress the true physical dimensions of the sculptural mass and by creating the tension between the mantle of the mass and the metaphysical essence hidden within, in the context of Constantin Brancusi.
Bezalel clings in his sculptures – both the small dimensional sculptures as well as the monumental ones – to the monolithic structure and likewise in the group sculptures and in the independent compositions he maintains this structure. One can discern a diversion from the monolith primarily in the aluminum sculptures – such as in "Adam and his City" (1972, Aharon Bezalel, Sculptures, page 238), whose structure is reminiscent of skyscrapers and its human images are fashioned in the shape of silhouettes. This sculpture evokes the constructivist approach to abstraction by means of breaking down reality to its geometrical components and then reconstructing it in the form of an architectural structure. It seems that in his approach Bezalel is close to the modernist sculptors who dealt with deconstructing the monolith – such as David Smith and Richard Serra, but especially Ibram Lassaw[vi]. However, also in the monolithic sculptures, and especially in the totem sculptures, one can point to a connection with the sculptures of David Smith with their dialectic concern of the mass and surface of the sculpture. In his geometric sculptures – especially in the series "Cubi" and "Voltri-Bolton" – Smith treats the first absorption of the sculpture as the primary mass made up of secondary masses existing in a condition of delicate equilibrium. The first impression gained by the viewer is one of power and strength, supernatural forces which succeed in overcoming the force of gravity. As Clement Greenberg points out, upon closer examination, the viewer reveals the events taking place on the surfaces – the Cubist edges – which is a picturesque happening in spite of its being executed through mechanical means[vii]. As in the case of Smith, Bezalel in his totem sculptures succeeds, as I have already pointed out, in granting the sculpture a feeling of mass and strength but at the same time, in those places where he injures the sculptural mass, the works have a pictorial character which they receive, for example, by the addition of non-uniform colors absorbed in the wood. As I indicated above, Bezalel too deals with the dialectic of mass and drawing in the way that they are realized in his dealing with the monolith as a sculptural mass, and on the surface of the sculpture. While in the case of Smith the sculpture surface is apprehended as pictorial, and the act of drawing takes place on the surface through mechanical means, in the totem sculptures "the drawing act" is used by Bezalel in the process of hand work and adaptation. The entire sculpturing surface becomes a surface for painting by means of the absorption of color in a non-uniform way, foremost in those places where the wood is assaulted and injured, wherein the hidden essences are revealed (Aharon Bezalel, Sculptures, page 262).
But what catches my eye at first glance is the connection to the German sculptor Ernst Barlach (1870-1938), in its feeling of closure, compactness – regarding both the small sculptures as well as those of great dimensions – which creates also in abstract sculpturing its expression and its utterance. And if we are dealing with Barlach, the salient characteristic in his sculptural creations is that same optical quality (in Greek, feeling or touching) – the information acquired by means of stimulating the desire to touch and the simulation of the acquired information through the sense of touch. This feature, the optical quality, constitutes part of the discussion – reaching its pinnacle in the Renaissance – concerning the comparison between sculpture and painting (Paragone), which attributes this feeling to sculptures. Michelangelo constitutes a foremost example of this feature[viii]. Like in the case of Barlach, the optical feeling afforded his sculptures, invites the viewer not only to observe but also to touch and caress – an intimate and direct embrace with the image described. This example is found in the bronze sculptures of human and animal figures, whose smooth texture invites the human touch, and it would even seem that part of its smooth patina indeed results from a touching procedure. Nevertheless, this quality also exists in the sculptures containing formational and material elements having a violent connotation, such as the cleaving of the mass of by means of nails and stakes. To my mind, the optical feature – the approach to the sculpture as inviting the touch of a human hand – is what unites the miniature sculptures whose nature is like that of jewelry work with his sculptures of great dimensions. This quality is connected not only to the sculptural language but is also closely related to the connection which Bezalel attains between his creations and man. This bond is certainly found in his figurative sculptures but it also exists as a point to be related to in his abstract sculptures. In this sense, Bezalel is close to a set of Israeli sculptors – not only sculptors such as Aldoubi and Mehutan but also to sculptors such as Dov Feigin, Itzhak Danziger, Michael Gross and Yigael Tomarkin. In spite of the different styles among them, the humane image serves as a reference point to their sculptural language. In this way, perhaps, we have come full circle, enabling to place the sculptural creations of Bezalel within the contextual progression of Israeli sculpture.
His current exhibition, in the Artists House in Jerusalem, can also be seen in terms of his coming full circle, for indeed it takes place in the original "Bezalel" House – where Bezalel presented his works in the past and where he once served as chairman of the Jerusalem Artists Society, and which, it can be certainly said, he saw as his home.
Dr. Sorin Heller
[i] "And Bezalel made the ark of acacia wood…"
[ii] Ofrat, G., 1983, "Aharon Bezalel – Between Unity and Multiplicity", Aharon Bezalel – Sculptures, Koren Publishing, Jerusalem Ltd., Jerusalem.
[iii] To the Myth Without God, Artists House, Jerusalem, 1985, Curator: Dr. Gideon Ofrat
[iv] "The paucity of material as a quality in Israeli art", Tel Aviv Museum of Art, 1986, Curator: Sarah Breitenberg-Semel.
[v] Arnoldo Pomodoro, an Italian sculptor, born in 1926, works in Milano, developed a sculptural language of cleaving a mass in a spherical shape, revealing an additional layer of covering which the viewer is invited – or obligated – to cleave and once again attempt to discover what is hidden.
[vi] Concerning the matter of breaking the monolith in the modernist sculpture, see: Read, H., 1977, A Concise History of Modern Sculpture, Thames and Hudson, London, chapter 5, pp. 163-228.
[vii] Greenberg, C., 1973, "David Smith's New Sculpture", in David Smith, Editor Garnett McCoy, Documentary Monographs in Modern Art, Allen Lane, London.
[viii] For a discussion on this topic, see:
Goffen, R., 2002, Renaissance Rivals, New Haven, pp. 1-23, 31-66 (chap. 1,3)
Mendelsohn, L., 1982, Paragoni : Benedetto Varchi’s "Due lezzioni" and cinquecento Art theory, Ann Arbor.
