Ben-Zion | |
---|---|
בןציון | |
Born | |
Died | January 23, 1987
New York City, New York, U.S. | (aged 89)
Other names | Ben-Zion Weinman, Benzion Weinman, Ben-Tsiyon Ṿainman, Ben-Tsiyon, Bentsion Veinman |
Occupation(s) | painter, printmaker, educator, sculptor, poet |
Years active | 1914–1970s |
Movement | Expressionism [1] |
Spouse | Lillian Dubin (m. 1949–1987; death) |
Parent |
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Ben-Zion, also known as Ben-Zion Weinman (1897–1987) [2] was a Russian-born American painter, printmaker, sculptor, educator, and poet. He was a member of "The Ten" group of expressionist artists. [2]
Ben-Zion was born on July 8, 1897, in Starokostiantyniv, Russian Empire (present-day is Ukraine). [3] His father, Hirsch Weinman was a Jewish cantor, and initially he wanted to enter the rabbinate. [4] [5] In 1909, the family moved to Galicia. [6] At age 17, he travelled to Vienna to study art. [4] He had been rejected from entering the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna due to antisemitism. [4] Early in his career, he wrote fairy tales and poems in Hebrew under the name "Benzion Weinman". [2]
He immigrated to the United States in 1920 after the death of his father, and started by teaching Hebrew language. [2] [4] When he started painting he dropped his last name and started hyphenating. [2] His first large scale painting was Friday Evening (1933), depicting his family's Sabbath dinner table. [4] Starting in 1935, many of his paintings were expressionist versions of reinterpreted biblical scenes. [1] [4] His first solo exhibition was in 1936 at the Artists' Gallery in New York City. [4] [7] His early artwork was primarily done in oil paint, watercolors, and intaglio printmaking. [1] He was largely a self-taught artist. [1]
From 1936 until 1942, he was a founding member of "The Ten" expressionist artist group, [7] which also included the artists Mark Rothko, Louis Harris (artist) , Adolph Gottlieb, Ralph Rosenborg, Louis Schanker, Joseph Solman, Nahum Tschacbasov, and Ilya Bolotowsky. [2] [4] The mission of the art group was, "to protest against the reputed equivalence of American painting and literal painting." [8]
From the 1930s to the 1960s, Ben-Zion taught art (through the Works Progress Administration) at Cooper Union and other locations. [6]
In the 1950s, he began working in welded iron sculptures. [2] In 1959, the Jewish Museum in New York City held a retrospective exhibition of his work. [7]
Ben-Zion died on January 23, 1987, in New York City. [2] He was survived by his wife Lillian (née Dubin). [2]
Ben-Zion's works are in the Smithsonian American Art Museum, [3] the Metropolitan Museum of Art, [2] the Museum of Modern Art, [2] the Israeli National Maritime Museum, [2] the Art Institute of Chicago, [9] the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, [10] the National Gallery of Art, [11] the Whitney Museum of American Art, [12] The Phillips Collection, [13] the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, [14] and the Print Collection at the New York Public Library. [15]