paintings ~ biblical & jewish

Jewish and Biblical themes were almost non-existent in Ben-Zion’s early poetic works but emerged with strength following his re-commitment to the visual arts in the middle Thirties. Among the images indelibly imprinted in his mind and imagination were the faces of the Jews among whom he was reared. As news of the events of Europe became known, their portraits started to assume a more prominent role in his work. His Biblical canvasses give us a further window into his perception of the inextricable bond of the Jewish soul to Jewish myth, tradition, to family, community and the Divine. His paintings dispensed with ornate distractions in favor of an elementary grittiness that attempts to capture the fate, passion, love and serenity of the Jewish soul. Through the figures of the Prophets, Ben-Zion could speak in the most intimate way so that these renderings became timeless-universal spiritual portraits and not solely social-historical representations.