Ze'ev Raban
Ze’ev Raban ({{Langx|he|זאב רבן}}; 22 September 1890 – 19 January 1970), born Wolf Rawicki (Ravitzki), was a leading painter, decorative artist, and industrial designer of the Bezalel school style, and was one of the founders of the Israeli art world.Israeli painting: from post-Impressionism to post-Zionism, By Ronald Fuhrer, Overlook Press, 1998, p. 24
Biography
=Early life and education=
Wolf Rawicki (later Ze'ev Raban) was born in Łódź, Congress Poland, and began his studies there. He continued his studies in sculpture and architectural ornamentation at a number of European art academies. These included, in 1905, the School of Applied Art in Munich at the height of the Jugendstil movement; in 1907, the neo-classical studio of Marius-Jean-Antonin Mercié at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris; the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, then a center of Art Nouveau, under symbolist and idealist artists Victor Rousseau and Constant Montald; and in 1912 he left Europe, joining the Bezalel School of Art in Jerusalem (see below).
=Ottoman and British Mandate Palestine=
==Studies==
Under the influence of Boris Schatz, the founder of the Bezalel School of Art, Raban moved to the Ottoman Palestine in 1912 during the wave of Zionist immigration known as the Second Aliyah. Here he continued his studies at the Bezalel school.
==Teaching activity==
Two years after following Schatz's call, Raban joined the faculty of the Bezalel school. Here he headed the Repoussé Department, taught anatomy and composition, painting and sculpture.[https://web.archive.org/web/20050212090515/http://www.artatthecenter.com:80/html/Artists.cfm?ID=35 AATC Artists – Ze'ev Raban] Raban also became director of the Graphics Press and the Industrial Art Studio. In 1914 his designs constituted the majority of the works created in the Bezalel workshop. Raban taught at Bezalel until the school had to close down in 1929{{cite web |website= The Israel Museum, Jerusalem: Information Center for Israeli Art |title= Zeev Raban (Ravitzki) |url= https://museum.imj.org.il/artcenter/newsite/en/?artist=Raban,%20Ze%27ev&list=R |access-date=5 June 2019}} due to financial difficulties.
==Tower of David exhibition==
In 1921, he participated in the historic art exhibition at the Tower of David in Jerusalem, the first exhibit of Hebrew artists in Palestine, which became the first of an annual series of such exhibits.
Artistic style and range
=Style=
Raban is regarded as a leading member of the Bezalel school art style, in which artists portrayed both Biblical and Zionist themes in a style influenced by the European Jugendstil (similar to Art Nouveau) and by traditional Persian and Syrian styles.
Like other European art nouveau artists of the period, such as Alphonse Mucha, Raban combined commercial commissions with uncommissioned paintings.
"Raban easily navigated a wealth of artistic sources and mediums, borrowing and combining ideas from East and West, fine arts and crafts from past and present. His works blended European neoclassicism, Symbolist art and Art Nouveau with oriental forms and techniques to form a distinctive visual lexicon. Versatile and productive, he lent this unique style to most artistic mediums, including the fine arts, illustration, sculpture, repousee, jewellery design, and ceramics."[http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?lot_id=159508073 Sotheby's auction file]
=Book illustration and graphic design=
Good examples of Raban's specific eclectic mix of European and Oriental styles are his illustrated editions of the Book of Ruth, Song of Songs, Book of Job, Book of Esther, and the Passover Hagadah. Known are also his playing cards, where in the suit of leaves, the King is Ahasuerus and the Queen is Esther.{{Cite book |title=Raban Remembered: Jerusalem's Forgotten Master |publisher=Yeshiva University Museum |year=1982 |location=New York City}} He also designed a wide range of day-to-day objects, including commercial packaging for products such as Hanukkah candles and Jaffa oranges, tourism posters, and insignia for Zionist institutions.
="Bezalel ceramics" (tile murals)=
Raban collaborated with other artists to produce versions of his work as ceramic tile murals, of the so-called "Bezalel ceramics" type, a number of which can still be sees on buildings in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, including the Bialik House. The 1925 Lederberg house, at the intersection of Rothschild Boulevard and Allenby Street features a series of large ceramic murals designed by Raban. The four murals show a Jewish pioneer sowing and harvesting, a shepherd, and Jerusalem with a verse from {{bibleverse|Jeremiah|31:4}}, "Again I will rebuild thee and thous shalt be rebuilt."Chaim Nachman Bialik Home, in Batia Carmiel, Tiles Adorned City; Bezalel Ceramics on Tel Aviv Houses, 1923-1929, Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv, copyright 1996, book in Hebrew and some English with illustrations
=Architectural decoration=
Raban designed the decorative elements of such important Jerusalem buildings as the King David Hotel and the Jerusalem YMCA.{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20040407175601/http://www.jerusalemymca.org/ENG/Building/Building.html Jerusalem International YMCA – Architecture: the building]}}
=Judaica=
Raban also designed a wide range of Jewish religious objects, including Hanukkah menorahs, temple windows, and Torah arks.[http://www.spertus.edu/museum/collections_description.php Spertus {{!}}Spertus Museum {{!}} Chicago] Temple Emanuel (Beaumont, Texas) has a notable set of six windows, each 16-feet high]. The windows were commissioned from Raban in 1922 by Rabbi Samuel Rosinger. Each window depicts an event in the life of one of the principal Hebrew prophets, Jeremiah, Elijah, Elisha, Ezekiel, Moses, and Isaiah.{{cite book |isbn= 9781585444946 |last1= Weiner |first1= Hollace Ava |last2= Kessler |first2= Jimmy |title= Jewish Stars in Texas: Rabbis and Their Work |year= 2006 |page=241 |publisher=Texas A&M University Press |location=College Station, Texas |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=fGxlvgAACAAJ}}
In 2015 one of his works received international attention. The President of Israel, Reuven Rivlin visited at the White House with U.S. President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama for the December 2015 Hannukah celebration.{{cite news |author= |date=December 9, 2015 |title=Rivlin Lights White House Menorah with 'Prayer for Liberty' |url= https://www.timesofisrael.com/watch-obama-and-rivlin-light-hanukkah-candles-at-white-house/ |newspaper=The Times of Israel |access-date=May 3, 2019}} Israel's First Lady Nechama Rivlin joined her husband in lighting a menorah made in Israel by Raban, and loaned by the North Carolina Museum of Art's Judaic Art Gallery. The White House noted: "The design elements of this menorah underscore a theme of coexistence, and its presence in the collection of the Judaic Art Gallery in North Carolina highlights the ties between American Jews and Israeli Jews and the vibrancy of Jewish life in the American South."{{cite web |url= https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2015/12/09/menorah-hanukkah-reception |title= We Asked, You Answered: "What's the Story Behind Your Menorah?" |last= Nosanchuk |first= Matt |date= December 9, 2015 |website= The White House |publisher=National Archives and Records Administration |access-date=May 3, 2019 }}
See also
References
{{reflist}}
Further reading
=Books=
- Raban Remembered: Jerusalem's Forgotten Master, Essays and Catalogue of an Exhibition at the Yeshiva University Museum, December 1982
- Ze'ev Raban, A Hebrew Symbolist, Batsheva Goldman Ida, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, 2001, 233 pp.
- Zeev Raban, 1890-1970, By Zeev Raban, Malka Jagendorf, Published by Mayanot Gallery, Jerusalem, 1993
=Articles=
- Goldfine, Gil. “Zeev Raban and the Bezalel style,” (Jerusalem Post, 2001-14-12)
- Cohen, Nurit Shilo. The "Hebrew Style" of Bezalel, 1906-1929. The Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts, Vol. 20. (1994), pp. 140–163
- Manor, Dalia. “Biblical Zionism in Bezalel Art,” Israel Studies 6.1 (2001) 55-75
External links
- {{IMJ-Collections |first=Zeev |last=Raban |access-date=March 2012 }}
- [http://www.uhmc.sunysb.edu/surgery/solomon.html 1923 edition of the Song of Songs]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20070929181804/http://www.emanuelbeaumont.org/aboutus/windows Temple Emanuel's Sanctuary Windows]
- [http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-145572125.html Art in America article on Israeli art exhibition]
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Category:Art Nouveau illustrators
Category:Art Nouveau designers
Category:Israeli poster artists
Category:Polish poster artists
Category:Jewish Polish artists
Category:Jewish Israeli artists
Category:Academic staff of Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design