User:Hodbenzvi

Gedalia Ben Zvi is one of the renowned Israeli artists among the founders of the famous Artists village Ein Hod on the Carmel Mountains near Haifa. His long life experience in Art creation and his versatile approach to different media is well reflected in his works. In sculpture, painting, tapestry or prints his individual and unique style is the result of art professionalism underlined by his active life style. His extensive works can be found in many art collections and museums around the world. After his latest one man show of his Gouache paintings in Prague he concentrates, on his large bronze sculptures that can be seen in his sculpture garden in Ein Hod.

Ben Zvi believes that The Creation of the World and the wonders of creation in general occupy the mind of every thinking creature, and it is no wonder that artists in every field of creation devote to these their entire creative power. The Bible, which contains marvelously descriptive interpretations of the Genesis in a magnificent literary form, has for generations and to this very day served as a focal point of inspiration to creativity in all the fields of art and among them the plastic arts. When he undertakes describing some concept or other, he cuts himself off from the visual influences which manifest themselves in the written word, and unbridled imagination takes over from rational thinking.

One of the oldest techniques in prints in general and Art prints in particular, is the Woodcut or Woodblock print. Almost nothing have changed during thousands of years, even the traditional materials (except colors) are the same. Every Artist expresses his style and character in his own way, making a different use in the exclusion of the print. Ben Zvi's Woodcuts are unique in a few aspects: in small editions (30-50) in excellent materials and in professional execution of each print. The fact that he makes his prints himself in his own studio, his personal control, during and after completion of each print, enables him to add significant details by hand, which makes the prints unique. The special technique developed by Ben Zvi, requires the destruction of the "Plate" after the use of each color and makes a reprint impossible, after the completion of the edition.

His regard for the human figure, based on traditional and conventional education - characterizes the figurative features of nearly all his sculpture work, a manifestation which is almost non-existent in his painting. The human figure - even if merely hinted at - leaves its mark upon his sculpture, and especially upon his later work. He has covered a great deal of ground throughout the different periods, in search for an expression in his work; one that would fit both his character and the creative attitude toward his own life. The end of World War II found him detached from reality, hurt and lacking any guidance. The natural things he was striving for were stability, restoration of the family which was wrecked in the war, and national ideals. These also found their expression in his sculpture, though the last aspect is merely implied. The figurative groups which he frequently calls upon for situations and various "group ages", mirror the everyday life of human society and symbolize unpretentiously a specific situation for a particular scene. Where, for instance, the statue represents rest, this must be made clear to the viewer not only through the factual posture which is distinct to his eye, but also through the emotional tension among the figures set out in the group, and though the general atmosphere which inspired the statue. His wish is to put across to the viewer the emotions he experience at the time of creating; this letting him take part in the creation even if the touch of his hand never shared in its performance. The only thing that is conscious and controlled with him at the time he sets about sculpturing, is his strong will to express himself in the form of sculpture; and this is not especially connected with any particular subject. The form of the material which he chooses and the unconscious state of his mind are the main components which characterize the whole creation. He is not setting himself to sculpturing with a clear feeling of the final result. Only in the course of the work the idea gradually takes shape and even then without any finality. The tension and the expectation are his lot during every stage of the creation, and they do not cease even with its completion. Ben Zvi does not hesitate to quote Klei who said that the artist "but collects and passes on what rises from the depths". He feels that deep inside him there originate and crystallize ideas, partly hazy, which will realize at some unexpected time and in an unexpected shape, but always out of the unconscious depth, in spite of hiswell-ordered way of life and a reasonable discipline of work.