Art

Item Description

Painting measures 21" width by 28" height

Painter/Sculptor Ahron Ben-Shmuel was born January 18, 1903 in New York, New York and died February 24, 1984 in Jerusalem, Israel.

Sculptor Ahron Ben-Shmuel began carving in his father's shop, where pelts and skins were removed from animals and placed over carved wooden replicas. He began carving anything he could find: pieces of chalk from school and pieces of marble, limestone, or sandstone from demolition rubbish.

Ben-Shmuel was exhilarated to discover his gift for sculpture as a "sixth sense" by which he could transform impressions from his other senses and "muscularly think them out into moving forms".

His formal training began in a stone yard, where he served a three-year apprenticeship as a monument carver. He also worked for other sculptors, reproducing their models in stone. His independent study of primitive and classical sculpture in museums confirmed his conviction that direct carving in "resistant" material was the basis of sound sculptural technique.

Ben-Shmuel's forms in granite seem to be emerging from their blocks of stone into stylized figures that retain the density of the original mass, yet counterpoint it by their fluid rhythms, projecting strength and power as well as delicate gracefulness.

Suffering from ailing lungs, he later changed medium to painting in an abstract style, producing quite a large body of work.

Artist Jackson Pollock studied with Ahron Ben-Shmuel at his studio in Greenwich Village in New York.

Source: James A. Michener Art Museum

Ahron Ben-Shmuel's works have been exhibited in museums including
* Art Institute of Chicago
* Brooklyn Museum of Art
* Museum of Modern Art, New York
* Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts
* Whitney Museum of American Art
* James A. Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, PA

From the artist's grandson:
"You can see that he was known for his sculpture. In the early 1950s he switched to painting because he was starting to get silicosis from the granite dust. He didn’t achieve the same level of fame with his painting because, according to family lore, he was “blackballed” in NYC galleries after a dispute with a gallery owner in which he slugged the guy and broke his jaw. However, he continued to paint for years. I have a fine collection of his work.

He was an influence on Noguchi (Ahron was featured in the opening exhibit at the Noguchi Museum in Long Island City), and taught sculpture to Jackson Pollack. He was a contemporary of Willem de Kooning and other abstract expressionists."

Item Special Note

The winning bidder pays for shipping and, if desired, insurance.

Save the shipping cost! This item can be picked up in New City, NY.