Moshe Bernstein
1920,Bereza, Poland - 2006, Tel Aviv, Israel
Portrait of a Jewish Girl With Braids, 1960s
Original Hand-Signed Ink Painting
Artist Name:Moshe Bernstein
Title:Portrait of a Jewish girl with braids
Signature Description:Hand-signed in Hebrew lower right
Technique:Ink on paper
Image Size:73 x51 cm / 28.74" x20.08" inch
Frame: The painting is unframed.
Condition:Very good condition.
Artists Biography:
Moshe Bernstein, painter,illustrator and Yiddish poet, born in Poland, 1920.
Moshe Bernstein was born in Bereza, Poland.
He graduated from Vilna Academy of Art in 1939. His family was wiped out in theHolocaust, but he survived the war and remained in Russia until 1947, when heattempted to immigrate illegally to the Land of Israel with Aliyah Bet.
He ended up in a detention camp in Cyprus, where he remained until theestablishment of the State of Israel in 1948. He fought in the War ofIndependence. Bernsteins art focused on his memories from the shtetl.
In 1999, the Massuah Institute for the Study of the Holocaust awarded him aprize for his "documentation of a vanished world."
He also illustrated volumes of Yiddish poetry and other books.
Education
1935-1939 Art Academy of Vilna
1974 sculpture under Zeev Ben Zvi in Cyprus
Awards and Prizes
1980 City Medal, Tel Aviv
Solo Exhibitions
1979 Art Gallery at Beit Leivik, TelAviv
1968 Chemerinsky Art Gallery, Tel Aviv
1961 Chemerinsky Art Gallery, Tel Aviv
1945 / 1951 / 1953 / 1954 / 1957 Katz Gallery, Tel Aviv
Group Exhibitions
2016 Men and Women from the Museum Collection,The Bar David Museum for Art and Judaica, Kibbutz Baram
2013 “Sacred”, The Bar David Museum for Art and Judaica, Kibbutz Baram
2009 Jerusalem Through the Ages, Municipal Art Gallery, Jerusalem
2008 The First Decade: Hegemony and Plurality, Mishkan Leomanut, Museumof Art, Kibbutz Ein Harod
1948, Eretz-Israeli ArtLeading to the Future, Mishkan Leomanut, Museum of Art, Kibbutz Ein Harod
2004 Israeli Art in Jewish Art Path: Historical Sketch, Time for Art -Center for Israeli Art, Tel Aviv
2003 Art and Jewish Art, The Bar David Museum for Art and Judaica,Kibbutz Baram
1988 Modern Drawing - New Approaches, Haifa Museum of Modern Art
Rovina - Israeli Artistspaint Chana Rovina, Rubin Museum, Tel Aviv
A People Build Its Land:Israeli History as Reflected in Art, Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art
1983 The Ruja andArie Dobron Collection, Yad Labanim Museum, Petach-Tikva
1982 Yad Labanim Museum, Petach-Tikva
1978 Summer Exhibition 1978, Yad Labanim Museum, Petach-Tikva
1969 Art Festival, Painting & Sculpture in Israel 1969, TheExhibition Grounds, Tel Aviv
1968 Artists Day: Exhibition of Paintings Jerusalem,
1967 General Exhibition, Art in Israel, Tel Aviv Museum of Art
Artists in Israel for the Defense,Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Helena Rubinstein Pavilion
Jerusalem Seen by IsraeliArtists, Israel Museum, Jerusalem
1966 The Country Landscapes Exhibition, Artist House, Tel Aviv
1965 The Shtetl, Yad Vashem, Jerusalem
1961 / 62 / 63 / 1965 Central Exhibition, Art in Isreal, Tel Aviv ArtMuseum
1964 Exhibition of Drawings and Ceramics, Artist Pavillion, Tel-Aviv
1959 General Exhibition, On the Occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the Cityof Tel-Aviv, Tel Aviv Art Museum
1958 Ten Years [of] Israeli Painting, Tel Aviv Art Museum
First Decade Exhibition forPainting, Ramat Gan
1951 /1954 / 1955 / 1956 / 1957 Annual Exhibition, Art in Israel, TelAviv Art Museum
1954 Young Israeli Painters, Tel Aviv Art Museum
MosheBernstein(1920-2006) wasanIsraeli painter,illustratorandYiddish poet.
Much of his work focused on the worldofthe Jewish townofEastern Europe, the “Shtetl”, which wasdestroyed during theHolocaust.
An Honorary Citizen of the city of Tel Aviv-Jaffa.
Moshe Bernstein was born onAugust 15,1920in the cityofBarza Cartuska, Poland (now southwest ofBelarus).
At the age of 15 he began studying art at theArt Academy inVilnius and studied there until1939.
DuringWorld War II,he remained intheSoviet Union, and in1947 immigrated to Palestine (then inder theBritish Mandate)onimmigration B(illegal).
His family, who remained in Poland, perishedin theHolocaust.
Upon his immigration, he wascaptured and sent toa detention campinCyprus, where he becameacquainted with the painterNaftali Bezem, who came to visit the illegalimmigrants at the camp.The prints album that came out later for Bwzems activities amongtherefugeesalso includes Bernsteins linoleum.
In 1964, he married Ilana-Lena Obshani from Kibbutz Ein Harod.They had two daughters - Chasia(after his mother) and Rebecca (after his sister), members of his family whoperished in the Holocaust.
Bernstein was a prominent figure intheBohemiancircles of Tel Aviv, characterized by his small statureand longhaircut.
His paintings were, among other things, painted on the walls ofCafeKassit, a veritable cornerstone of Israeli cultural life and a meeting place offamous Tel Aviv artists.
Bernstein died in2006inTel Aviv at the age of 86.Buried in the cemetery atKibbutz Ein Harod.Survived by wife and twodaughters.
Career
In Israel, too, Bernstein continuedto paint theJewish towninEastern Europe and founded itdifficult to take his place among the new Israeli artists.
However, fromthe late 1940stothe 1970s,he wasrecognized and participated in variousexhibitions, including attheTel Aviv Art Museumand the Artists House inTel Aviv.
In1967he exhibited a solo exhibitionattheHaifaMuseum pf Modern Artand in1973heexhibited a retrospective exhibition at theArt Museum in Kibbutz EinHarod
Bernsteins works have been exhibited in private and public galleries andmuseums in Israel (inKatz ArtGallery and in the Chemerinsky Gallery,Tel Aviv) and abroad (among others inTheHague,Amsterdam,ParisandPrague).
Additionally, Bernsteinillustratedpoetrybooks inYiddish.
In1998, Bernstein presented an exhibition of paintings of the Jewish towninParma,Italy.
In2000, he presented an exhibition about the Jewish town in EasternEurope at the Municipal Gallery at Beit Yad Layanim inRaanana.
InPurim2002,the Philatelic Serviceissued astampinhonor ofthe Yiddish language, designed by Moshe Bernstein andZvika Roitman.
Awards andrecognition
In1992Bernstein wasawarded the Honorary Citizen of the city of Tel Aviv-Jaffa.In1999he was awarded the creation prize fromtheMassuahMuseum, an institute forHolocaustResearch, for "Documentingthe World Lost in Its Beginning".
The Tel Aviv Municipality has set upa memorial plaqueat theentrance to its home at 184Dizengoff StreetinTel Aviv.
Additional Information:
Moshe Bernstein, Painter andIllustrator, Dies at 86
Born in Poland in 1920, Bernstein was a well-known figure in TelAvivs old bohemian circles and the art world.
Haaretz / Dec11, 2006
The painter Moshe Bernstein, a well-known figure in Tel Avivsold bohemian circles and in the world of art, died late last week. He was 86.
Born in Poland in 1920, Bernsteincompleted his art studies in the Academy of Vilna in 1939. His family was wipedout in the Holocaust, but he survived the war and lived in Russia until 1947,when he immigrated to Palestine as part of the "illegal immigration"(aliyah bet). He was caught and spent time in a detention camp in Cyprus.
Bernsteins artistic path inIsrael recalls that of other painters who reflected their memories of smallJewish Diaspora towns, or shtetls. At a certain stage, these artists wererejected by the local art scene. In the 1950s, 60s and 70s, the subjectaroused public interest and recognition. In 1948, Bernstein participated in agroup exhibit in the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, and in 1949 in a group exhibit atArtists House (then known as the Artists Pavilion). In 1954, he participatedin another exhibition - of young artists - in the Tel Aviv Museum. In 1962, hehad a solo exhibition at the Tel Aviv Museum, another in 1967 at the HaifaMuseum, and a retrospective in 1973 in the Ein Harod Museum of Art.Interspersed among these events were shows at the Katz and ChemerinskyGalleries in Tel Aviv.
A Bernstein exhibit, whichincluded paintings of the shtetl, was shown in 1998 at the internationaltheater festival in Parma, Italy. In 1999, he was awarded a prize by theMassuah Institute for the Study of the Holocaust, for his "documentationof the world that vanished at the beginning of his career."
His paintings appeared on thewalls of the defunct Kassit cafe in Tel Aviv, and in the Kiton restaurant -"places in which he ate and gave paintings," says gallery owner ZakiRosenfeld, whose father, Eliezer Rosenfeld, worked with Bernstein.
Bernsteins paintings always touchedon memories of the Jewish town he was forced to leave at a young age. They werea constant reminder of the destruction of European Jewry, but also expressedgreat yearning. Bernstein wrote in the catalogue of the 1973 exhibition in EinHarod: "In this exhibition, I once again bring you the experiences anddreams of my longed-for past, because for me it is an enchanted garden which Iwalk as if intoxicated by its fragrances and its beauty, and from which I drawthe inspiration for my work."
"Moshe was one of thoseyoung artists who gave expression to a different kind of experience in thatperiod," says Galia Bar-Or, curator and director of the Ein Harod Museumof Art. "He is perceived as the kind of Jewish artist that givessentimental expression to the memory of a Jewish culture that is gone forever.He also illustrated books of Yiddish poetry. He did the typography by hand, inblack ink; and in his decorations around the sides there appeared that samefigure of a Jewish girl, with a black braid and big eyes, and the houses of thetown."
At a certain stage he began toconcentrate increasingly on graphic art. Among others, he illustrated IsraelCh. Biletzkys book, "A Jewish Shtetl," which was published in 1986.
"My father, who also camefrom the shtetl, worked with him for years, and loved his work," says ZakiRosenfeld about Bernstein. "He belonged to that same vanishing group ofartists who represented and preserved the cultural fabric from which theythemselves came. When I turned the gallery into a gallery of contemporary art,he would walk down Dizengoff Street, look at the gallery, spit on the ground,make sure I had seen him, and continue on his way. There is no doubt that theface of this little man, and what he represented, will be missed on the TelAviv landscape."
