Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
New Horizons (Ofakim Hadashim), established by a group of artists in 1948, dominated
the art scene during Israel's fi rst two decades. At fi rst, it was infl uenced by expressionism and
cubism, as well as by the Jewish Paris school—by Chaïm Soutine, Michel Kikoïne, and Marc
Chagall, among others. Like many Israeli cultural movements, the group was torn between
universalism and the specifi c reality of local society.
Eventually New Horizons moved toward abstract art, and this became the main style of
artistic expression in Israel, perhaps even its canonical high art. New Horizons was perceived
as a movement that emphasized universality rather than Israel's specifi city. A 1958 exhibition
held in honor of the state's fi rst decade included works by New Horizons artists, among them
the painting
Power
(Otzma) by the leader of the group, Joseph Zaritsky (1891-1985). When
Prime Minister Ben-Gurion attended the opening, he was disturbed by the painting and asked
to have it moved to a less central location since he thought it not representative enough of
Israeli culture.
At the other end of the artistic spectrum were socialist realist artists, who saw their work as
connected directly to society. They created representations of transit camps, demonstrations,
workers, industrial developments, and life on the kibbutz and in the city. Some emphasized a
link to nationalist values through symbolic images. Unlike New Horizons, these artists turned
to Italian and Mexican art as well as to American painting, such as that of Ben Shahn, and
Picasso's painting
Guernica
, as sources of inspiration. This heterogeneous group consisted of
artists from the kibbutz, like Yohanan Simon, Shraga Weil, and Shmuel Katz; artists who had
left the kibbutz, like Avraham Ofek and Ruth Schloss; and artists working in the city, like Naf-
tali Bezem, Shimon Tzabar, Gershon Knispel, and Moshe Gat. Social realists criticized New
Horizons for being egocentric and reactionary and for merely playing with form.
Another group working in opposition to New Horizons was the Group of Ten (1951-1961),
which attacked abstract painting. Most of the members of the Group of Ten were former
students of Yehezkel Streichman and Avigdor Stematsky, major fi gures in New Horizons. The
Group of Ten employed fi gurative painting to look at local ways of living and local landscapes.
Unlike the social realists, they avoided any overt social or political agenda.
The ninth exhibition by New Horizons (1959) was held at the Helena Rubinstein Pavilion
at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, and it showed not only the strength of the group but also the
beginning of its demise. Others exhibited works different in spirit from the abstraction of New
Horizons. These included sculpture, such as Igael Tumarkin's
Panic over Trousers:
The artist
immersed his work trousers in polyester and hung them on the work's black-colored surface
to look like a walking ghost. He stamped his hand on the sides, and those marks, together
with the red marks on the surface, constitute a cross-composition in which the artist presents
himself as a sacrifi ce.
An artistic organization of ten artists founded the group 10+, whose members included
Raffi Lavie, Uri Lifshitz, Buky Schwartz, Ziona Shimshi, and Benny Efrat. Each retained his
or her own artistic vision. Together they would set a theme for an exhibit (the color red, the
fi gure of Venus) and invite others to participate —hence the “plus” in their name. They were
infl uenced by the American Pop Art of Larry Rivers and Robert Rauschenberg in their use
