Ivan Schwebel, 1970s Jerusalem Street Scene Silkscreen Lithograph Ivan Schwebel Bezalel Artist, 1977

Artist: Schwebel, Ivan (Israeli 1932 – 2011)
Ivan Schwebel, Painter. Was born 1932, U.S.A. and immigrated to Israel 1963 after living in Spain, France and Greece.
Studies: 1953-55 with Kimura Kyoen whilst serving with the U.S.Army in Japan; 1955-61 Institute of Fine Arts, with Philip Guston; New York University.
Larry Abramson, who is very much in the mainstream of Israeli art, curated an exhibition of Schwebel’s work at the Jerusalem Print Workshop in the early 1980s; in the accompanying text, he described him as “an artist from the New York School ship-wrecked on a hill near Jerusalem.”

IN SCHWEBEL’S BEST WORK, THE paint speaks for itself: the pools and explosions of rich color, achieved with pigment that he would grind and mix himself, the luminous figures emerging out of dark shadows, the quirky, dramatic compositions.
Schwebel was erudite, with a passion for the bible and Jewish and Israeli history. He delved into all of it for his subject matter, bringing together characters and narratives regardless of time, and setting them in modern- day Tel Aviv or Jerusalem, the Judean hills, or New York City. He liked to play with ideas, and thoroughly mixed his visual metaphors. He showed David and Bat-Sheva next to a Nazi deportation train, and Job despairing over his relationship with the Palestinians. He based his characters on photographs of himself, friends and family, or movie stars.

On his website, he describes a series of paintings about anti-Semitism in which the Holocaust is merged with the Spanish Inquisition: “Abarbanel who tried to negotiate with Ferdinand and Isabella is reincarnated in Rumkowski – the German appointed Head of the Lodz Ghetto. The bridge connecting two parts of the Ghetto is spanned over a present-day Tel Aviv cityscape.
This was from a portfolio that included Ivan Schwebel, Michael Gross, Liliane Klapisch and Moshe Kupferman, five of Israel’s leading contemporary artists who were each approached in May 1977 with a request to contribute a hand-printed screenprint for a portfolio to be titled “Jerusalem”. The sole term of reference was the name “Jerusalem”, with no qualifications at all. The five artists then spent time working completely independently and individually on the project at the Jerusalem Print Workshop. Each screenprint was hand-signed by their respective artist and numbered from the edition of 200, hand-printed on BFK Rives paper Published by Whartman and Sacks Art Publications
His “Tel Aviv” series, in contrast, is fun: “Chen Cinema” shows a couple of actors who seem to have stepped out of an old romantic movie to cuddle in the shabby street outside the cinema. In his final “Safe Place” series of paintings, he goes beyond self-conscious narrative to create his own Garden of Eden.

Select Group Exhibitions:
Landscape and Nature: Contemporary Israeli Prints from the Collection of The Israel Museum, Jerusalem. High Court of Australia, Canberra, Australia
Artists: Abu Shakra, Walid Tumarkin, Igael Ticho, Anna Streichman, Yehezkel Schwebel, Ivan Schatz, Shaul Pins, Jacob Katz, Tuvia Kadishman, Menashe Basis, Mati Arikha, Avigdor Rita, Alima.
The Line, Circulating Exhibits, Omanot Laam
Artists: Hendler, David Uri, Aviva Rita, Alima Lellouche, Ofer Schatz, Shaul Peretz Arad, Esther Nikel, Lea Kupferman, Moshe Peralta, Daniel Gejer Spitzer, Theresa Spitzer, Serge Lavie, Raffi Asher, Yossi Schwebel, Ivan Lifschitz, Uri Fima (Roytenberg, Ephraim) Arikha, Avigdor Sternschuss, Moses Litvinovsky, Pinchas Rauchwerger, Jan
He had major shows over the years – at the Israel Museum and Tefen, and last year at the Ramat Gan Museum; his work had been exhibited at the Tel Aviv Museum and is represented in their collection.