Painting, sculpture, and interdisciplinary artworks
Movement
Leviathan Group
Avraham Ofek (Hebrew: אברהם אופק; August 14, 1935 – January 13, 1990[1]) was a multidisciplinary Israeli artist.
Biography
Avraham Ofek at Kibbutz Ein Hamifratz, 1952
Avraham Ofek was born in Burgas, Bulgaria. Within two years of the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, 45000 of Bulgaria’s 50000 Jews left voluntarily for Israel, including fourteen-year-old Avraham Ofek.[2] Ofek’s birth parents died prior to this, and he emigrated with an adoptive family. Ofek's adoptive status remained unknown to him until his twenties.[1] They settled in Kibbutz Ein HaMifratz. Informally, Ofek studied painting under his neighbour, Aryeh Rothman.
In 1958 he went to Italy to continue his studies and to participate in the mural on a wall of the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence. Under the spell of the art of mural painting, which Ofek considered the primary medium of his work, he painted several of his best-known works, such as the mural on the wall of Beit Haam in Kfar Uria (1970), the mural in the Central Post Office in Jerusalem (1972) and the mural 'Israel, a Shattered Dream', at Haifa University (1986–1987).
Upon returning to Israel in 1962, Efrat, his eldest daughter, was born in Kibbutz Ein Hamifratz. The family shortly moved to Jerusalem, and in 1966 began teaching at the Bezalel Academy.
In 1963, Ofek served as one of the coffin-bearers at the funeral of Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, the second president of Israel.
In 1977, Ofek began studying at Yeshiva Mercaz HaRav.
Artistic style
Avraham Ofek's early works were traditional landscapes, in a distinctly hybrid style that is particular to Middle Eastern, Jewish art. Later in his career, landscapes became undefined and receded into the background. Towards the end of Ofek's life, the landscape of Jerusalem became an important motif, reflecting loss and despair. Many of Ofek's landscapes convey a sense of alienation and solitude, as well as nostalgia for the city of his birth, Sofia.[4]
In 1957 his first solo exhibition was held at the Acre Museum. Following the exhibition, Ofek was invited to exhibit in the prestigious exhibition hall of the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design. Most of his works in these years and until the early 1960s are made of gouache and tempera on paper.[5] Iconographically, the paintings are characterised by the use of concrete images such as cows, agricultural machinery and landscapes of the country, painted using dark coloration that differs from earlier attempts to reflect the "light of the Land of Israel".[6] Ofek's works included images of Arab workers and slums, which he painted during his visits to Haifa, Acre and Jaffa.[7]
Throughout his life, Ofek's horizon was far from the mainstream of Israeli art; when Israel's art turned to abstraction, scrawl, collage, and concept, he insisted on figurative painting; when Israel's art examined the boundaries of medium, he painted with extensive symbolism; when Israel's art wanted to be autonomous, Ofek wanted to be social; when Israel's art was universal, Avraham Ofek was Jewish.
During the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s he was an active member of the Leviathan Group, with the artists Shmuel Ackerman and Mikhail Grobman. The group, which was founded in 1976, combined symbolism, metaphysics, Judaism and conceptual and environmental art. Within the framework of this group Ofek created performances and symbolic activities into which Jewish traditional symbolism was integrated.
From the 1980s onward, Ofek returned to more traditional painting, which continued to feature Jewish themes, Israeli landscapes, and views of his city, Jerusalem.[8]
In 1989, the Jerusalem Print Workshop issued a collection of reproductions of his prints edited by Uri Katz, with text in Hebrew and English.
Education
-1958: Under the tutelage of Aryeh Rothman
1958–1960: Academy of Fine Arts, Florence
1961: Study Tour to Seville and Madrid, Spain, and London
1969: Study Tour to Europe and U.S.A.
Teaching
1965–1975: Bezalel Academy, Jerusalem
1975: Head of the Television Broadcasting Art Department, Jerusalem
1978–1981: Art Department, Haifa University
1984–1990: Professor, Art Department, Haifa University
Prizes
1959: America-Israel Cultural Foundation
1969: Jerusalem Prize for painting and Sculpture
1990: Ish-Shalom Prize for Life's Work in Art
Outdoor and Public Art
1970, mural, Beit Haam, Kfar Uria
1972, mural, Central Post Office, Jerusalem
1973, mural, Agron School, Jerusalem
1974, 'Mountains About Jerusalem', mural, Stone School, Jerusalem
1976, 'Return to Zion', mural, Tel Aviv University Library, Tel Aviv
1982, 'Hailek Ben Shachar', stone sculpture, Gan Harakevet, Arlozorof Street, Tel Aviv-Yafo
1986, 'Homage to Asher', 1966 stone sculpture, Tefen Open University, Tefen
1986–1987, 'Israel, A Shattered Dream', mural, Haifa University, Haifa
1987, stone sculpture, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Israel
2000, [relocation] Binding of Isaac (1986), stone sculpture, Gan Daniel, Safra Square, Jerusalem
Selected exhibitions
Exhibition of gouache paintings and drawings by Avraham Ofek, The Municipal Museum, Acre, 1957
Avraham Ofek – Solo exhibition, Dugith Art Gallery, Tel Aviv, 1964
Avraham Ofek: Paintings, The Bezalel National Museum, Jerusalem, 21 December, 1957 – 15 January, 1958
Retrospective – Works 1956–1986, Museum of Art, Ein Harod, 3 May, 1986 – 3 June, 1986
Prints and Miniature Sculpture by Avraham Ofek – On the Occasion of the First Anniversary of his Death, Yad Labanim Museum, Petach-Tikva, 9 February, 1991 – 16 March, 1991
Night's Final Watch, Avraham Ofek: The Last Gouache Work, University of Haifa, Faculty of Humanities, The Art Gallery, Haifa, 12 March, 1991 – 12 April, 1991
Landscape of Longing: Avraham Ofek's Early and Late Works, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 15 March, 2007 – 23 June, 2007
Avraham Ofek: Body, Work, Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Pavilion, Main Building, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, 31 May, 2018 – 20 October, 2018
^Haskell, Guy H., 1956- author. (2018-02-05). From Sofia to Jaffa : the Jews of Bulgaria and Israel. ISBN978-0814344057. OCLC1014124913. {{cite book}}: |last= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^עפרת, גדעון, בית, אברהם אופק, עבודות 1956-1986 , ספרית פועלים, תל אביב, 1987, עמ' 14-21
^Mendelsohn, Amitai. Ullman, Micha, 1939- ... Gurevitch, Zali, 1949- ... Bamberger, Yael. (2007). נופי געגוע : מוקדם ומאוחר ביצירתו של אברהם אופק : [תערוכה, מוזיאון ישראל, אולמות מרצבכר לאמנות ישראלית, הבניין לאמנות המאה ה-20 ע"ש נתן קמינגס, ירושלים, אביב תשס"ז (מרס-יוני 2007)]. Israel museum. ISBN9789652783479. OCLC646355417.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^עפרת, גדעון, "הדיאלקטיקות של שנות החמישים: הגמוניה וריבוי", בתוך: בר אור, גליה; עפרת, גדעון,העשור הראשון: הגמוניה וריבוי , משכן לאמנות עין חרוד, 2008
