Avraham Ofek

Avraham Ofek (; August 14, 1935 – January 13, 1990) was a multidisciplinary Israeli artist.

Biography

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.  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. They settled in Kibbutz Ein HaMifratz. Informally, Ofek studied painting under his neighbour, Aryeh Rothman.

In 1952, Ofek's adoptive father passed away. Two years later, Ofek enlisted in the Nahal Brigade of the Israel Defense Forces.

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.

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. 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". Ofek's works included images of Arab workers and slums, which he painted during his visits to Haifa, Acre and Jaffa.

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.

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, elocationBinding 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

Gallery

Image:Ofek Untitled 1958.JPG, Untitled, 1958
Israel Museum Collection
Image:Ofek, avraham the russian compound b63 12 3440.jpg, Jerusalem, the Russian Compound, 1963
Israel Museum Collection
B63.12.3440
Image:Tefen0017.JPG, Homage to Asher, 1966
stone
Tefen Open Museum
File:Avraham Ofek1970a.jpg, Part of a Muriel, 1970
Kfar Uria
File:Avraham Ofek1970.jpg, Part of a Muriel, 1970
Kfar Uria
File:Jerusalem Central Post Office interior.jpg, Part of a Muriel, 1977
Jerusalem Central Post Office
File:Ofek gan harakevet 003.jpg, Hailek Ben Shachar, 1982
stone
Gan Hrakevet, Arlozorof straat, Tel Aviv-Yafo
file:Akedat izhak.JPG, Binding of Isaac, 1986
stone
Safra Square, Jerusalem
Image:'Stone', Jerusalem stone sculpture by Avraham Ofek, 1987, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Israel.jpg, Stone, 1987
sandblasting on Jerusalem stone
Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Israel
File:Avraham Ofek Haifa Uni 5.JPG, Part of a Mural, 1988
University of Haifa
File:Avraham Ofek Haifa Uni 3.JPG, Part of a Mural, 1988
University of Haifa

References

* Jewish Museum, ''Avraham Ofek'', New York, The Jewish Museum, 1973.
* Kampf, Avraham, ''Avraham Ofek – Murals'', University of Haifa, 1987.
* Mendelsohn, Amitai, ''Landscape of Longing: Avraham Ofek's Early and Late Works'', Jerusalem, The Israel Museum, 2007.
* Ofrat, Gideon Sifriat Poalim, ''Home – Avraham Ofek: Works 1956 – 1986'', Tel-Aviv, 1986.
* Ronen, Avraham, ''Avraham Ofek'', Tel Aviv, Hakibbutz Hameuhad, 1989.

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ofek, Avraham
1935 births
1990 deaths
Bulgarian Jews in Israel
Bulgarian emigrants to Israel
Israeli people of Bulgarian-Jewish descent
Israeli adoptees
20th-century Israeli male artists
Jewish Israeli artists
People from Burgas
Burials at Har HaMenuchot