Omri Amrany (born 23 May 1954) is an Israeli-American best known as a sculptor and painter, though he also works in architecture and wall
tapestry
Tapestry is a form of textile art, traditionally woven by hand on a loom. Tapestry is weft-faced weaving, in which all the warp threads are hidden in the completed work, unlike most woven textiles, where both the warp and the weft threads ma ...
art. Philosophically a
humanist
Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry.
The meaning of the term "human ...
, the human figure is his main subject matter. He is co-founder of the Fine Art Studio of Rotblatt-Amrany in
Fort Sheridan, Illinois
Fort Sheridan is a residential neighborhood within the cities of Lake Forest, Highwood, and Highland Park in Lake County, Illinois, United States. It was originally established as Fort Sheridan, an Army post named after Civil War cavalry gene ...
, a studio that brings to the United States the aims and traditions of the
Atelier
An atelier () is the private workshop or studio of a professional artist in the fine or decorative arts or an architect, where a principal master and a number of assistants, students, and apprentices can work together producing fine art or ...
s of Europe, as well as The Julia Foundation, a
not-for-profit arts organization.
Works
More than 1,000 drawings, paintings, sculptures, wall tapestries, architectural designs,
ceramics,
mural
A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage.
Word mural in art
The word ''mural'' is a Spanis ...
s, and
installations, including ''Battle of the Amaleks'' (painting), ''Revealing'', ''Quest for Freedom'', and ''Against the Wind'' (sculptures); ''
The Spirit: Michael Jordan'' (heroic sculpture); ''The Fusion'' (multi-sculpture installation for Gary, Indiana); Veterans Memorial Park (9-acre site in Munster, Indiana); and recently Dirk Nowitzki statue in Dallas sponsored by Mark Cuban
Early life and work
Born in the Scottish Monastery Hospital in
Tiberias
Tiberias ( ; he, טְבֶרְיָה, ; ar, طبريا, Ṭabariyyā) is an Israeli city on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. A major Jewish center during Late Antiquity, it has been considered since the 16th century one of Judaism's Fo ...
, Israel, and raised in
Kibbutz
A kibbutz ( he, קִבּוּץ / , lit. "gathering, clustering"; plural: kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1909, was Degania. Today, farming ...
Ashdot Yaakov in the
Jordan Valley
The Jordan Valley ( ar, غور الأردن, ''Ghor al-Urdun''; he, עֵמֶק הַיַרְדֵּן, ''Emek HaYarden'') forms part of the larger Jordan Rift Valley. Unlike most other river valleys, the term "Jordan Valley" often applies just to ...
, Omri Amrany is the son of a
Yemenite father and
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
* Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and p ...
mother, both
Jewish immigrants during the post-
World War I era. From his father he learned
wood sculpting and ceramics. His mother was a clothes designer who influenced his sense of design. Amrany grew up
sketching and painting as part of everyday life.
During the
Yom Kippur War
The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was an armed conflict fought from October 6 to 25, 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab state ...
, Amrany served as a
paratrooper
A paratrooper is a military parachutist—someone trained to parachute into a military operation, and usually functioning as part of an airborne force. Military parachutists (troops) and parachutes were first used on a large scale during Worl ...
in the
Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branch ...
(IDF) and saw a number of his fellow soldiers killed.Reentering
civilian
Civilians under international humanitarian law are "persons who are not members of the armed forces" and they are not "combatants if they carry arms openly and respect the laws and customs of war". It is slightly different from a non-combatant, ...
life, he dealt with
post-combat stress by focusing on his artwork.
In the late 1970s, influenced by his grandmother and aunt, he began to
weave wall tapestries. He also began to paint on canvas in a storytelling style he labeled "tribal surrealism" – most notably in ''Battle of the Amaleks''. This work, reminiscent of
Picasso's ''Guernica'' in its ambition and intent, was Amrany's protest against the
war in Lebanon. He humanized a landscape of Vadi Tzealim by integrating figures into the hills, stones, and
Acacia
''Acacia'', commonly known as the wattles or acacias, is a large genus of shrubs and trees in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. Initially, it comprised a group of plant species native to Africa and Australasia. The genus na ...
trees, and told a story graphically through tanks and dead soldiers below the looming face of
Moses
Moses hbo, מֹשֶׁה, Mōše; also known as Moshe or Moshe Rabbeinu ( Mishnaic Hebrew: מֹשֶׁה רַבֵּינוּ, ); syr, ܡܘܫܐ, Mūše; ar, موسى, Mūsā; grc, Mωϋσῆς, Mōÿsēs () is considered the most important pr ...
.
After attending college classes in
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the ...
, Amrany was assigned by his kibbutz in 1984 to work with the
Israeli Scouts organization in
Haifa
Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropo ...
, overseeing the education of 5,000 youths in the vicinity of
Mount Carmel
Mount Carmel ( he, הַר הַכַּרְמֶל, Har haKarmel; ar, جبل الكرمل, Jabal al-Karmil), also known in Arabic as Mount Mar Elias ( ar, link=no, جبل مار إلياس, Jabal Mār Ilyās, lit=Mount Saint Elias/Elijah), is a c ...
.
Pietrasanta
In 1985 Amrany was sent by his kibbutz to study marble carving in Italy. He traveled to
Pietrasanta Pietrasanta is a town and ''comune'' on the coast of northern Tuscany in Italy, in the province of Lucca. Pietrasanta is part of Versilia, on the last foothills of the Apuan Alps, about north of Pisa. The town is located off the coast, where th ...
, where
Michelangelo
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (; 6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known as Michelangelo (), was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was ins ...
had lived and worked. He wanted to join Renzo Santoli's Studio, through whose window he could see the white marble mountaintop of Michelangelo's famous Altissimo quarry. Santoli accepted him.
While at Pietrasanta, Amrany met his future wife, artist
Julie Rotblatt. She accompanied him when he returned to Israel in the spring of 1986. Upon arriving, he gave his first
major solo exhibition in the ruins of historic
Caesarea
Caesarea () ( he, קֵיסָרְיָה, ), ''Keysariya'' or ''Qesarya'', often simplified to Keisarya, and Qaysaria, is an affluent town in north-central Israel, which inherits its name and much of its territory from the ancient city of Caesare ...
, the seaport built by
Herod the Great
Herod I (; ; grc-gre, ; c. 72 – 4 or 1 BCE), also known as Herod the Great, was a Roman Jewish client king of Judea, referred to as the Herodian kingdom. He is known for his colossal building projects throughout Judea, including his re ...
. The two artists married in 1987, living first in Israel before relocating to the United States in 1989 and settling in the Chicago area. Amrany supplemented his income as an art instructor by taking jobs as a handyman.
New styles and experiments
Amrany's art has followed several strands throughout his career – distinct approaches or styles that he may set aside for years only to return to. In the early years after leaving the IDF, he explored
minimalism
In visual arts, music and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in post– World War II in Western art, most strongly with American visual arts in the 1960s and early 1970s. Prominent artists associated with minimalism include ...
(in sketches and drawings),
idealism
In philosophy, the term idealism identifies and describes metaphysical perspectives which assert that reality is indistinguishable and inseparable from perception and understanding; that reality is a mental construct closely connected to id ...
(as in his proposed work, ''The Peace Sculpture''), and an approach based on a psychological tool known as the
Johari window
The Johari window is a technique designed to help people better understand their relationship with themselves and others. It was created by psychologists Joseph Luft (1916–2014) and Harrington Ingham (1916–1995) in 1955, and is used primaril ...
(most notably in a bronze titled ''Fear, Shadow and Subconscious'').
His "sculpting
montage" approach – which blends images to symbolize new dimensions – was first used in ''Quest for Freedom''. Two
bronze
Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...
hands bound at the wrist suggest an eagle and convey the indomitable spirit of the unseen person to whom they belong. He later used the same approach in ''Whirlpool'' and ''One Minute before the 21st Century''.
Amrany's long-standing fascination with
quantum physics
Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistry, q ...
and
Fractal
In mathematics, a fractal is a geometric shape containing detailed structure at arbitrarily small scales, usually having a fractal dimension strictly exceeding the topological dimension. Many fractals appear similar at various scales, as il ...
math has also impacted his art in a variety of ways, from the design of silk wall tapestries to the fractal ground plan of the 9-acre Veterans Memorial Park in Munster, Indiana. The park opened in 2004, an array of works by Omri and Julie Rotblatt-Amrany that included seventeen bronze sculptures, three
bas reliefs
Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...
, fourteen
laser-engraved granite panels, and eight installations.
Fine Art Studio of Rotblatt-Amrany
In 1992 Omri and Julie opened the Fine Art Studio of Rotblatt-Amrany, an educational center and workplace intended to duplicate the ateliers they had encountered in Europe. In its first two decades of operation, the facility has completed over 200
art commissions, hosted a half dozen exhibitions, and trained and supported over 300 artists – some of whom went on to national recognition.
In 1994 the Rotblatt-Amranys were commissioned by the
Chicago Bulls
The Chicago Bulls are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago. The Bulls compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The team was founded on January 1 ...
to create a statue in honor of basketball legend
Michael Jordan
Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17, 1963), also known by his initials MJ, is an American businessman and former professional basketball player. His biography on the official NBA website states: "By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the g ...
. The 16-foot sculpture, permanently installed outside the
United Center
United Center is an indoor arena on the Near West Side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is home to the Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League (NHL). It is named ...
in Chicago, sparked major media interest and drew acclaim for the way a ton of bronze could appear to fly. The sculpture has become one of Chicago's most-visited tourist sites.
In 2008 Amrany co-founded The Julia Foundation, a not-for-profit organization with the mission of establishing a sculpture garden in historic
Fort Sheridan, Illinois
Fort Sheridan is a residential neighborhood within the cities of Lake Forest, Highwood, and Highland Park in Lake County, Illinois, United States. It was originally established as Fort Sheridan, an Army post named after Civil War cavalry gene ...
.
See also
*
''Teamwork'' (sculpture)
*
Henry Bacon (painter)
Henry Bacon (8 October 1839 – 13 March 1912) was an American painter, author, illustrator, and translator. Before his formal training as an artist, he served as a soldier and war artist during the American Civil War, and was badly wounded ...
*
Brian Andreas
*
Irving Guyer
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Amrany, Omri
1954 births
Living people
20th-century American painters
American male painters
21st-century American painters
Israeli artists
20th-century American sculptors
American male sculptors
People from Fort Sheridan, Illinois
Israeli emigrants to the United States
20th-century American male artists