K e s t e n b au m & C om pa n y . IsraelI & InternatIonal art Wednesday, deCember 14th 2016 Lot 17 Catalogue of I SRAEL I & I NTER NAT I ONAL A RT . HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE COLLECTION OF THE LATE STANLEY I. BATKIN ——— And: Important Soviet, Early Zionist & American Yiddish Theater Posters The Property of a Gentleman To be Offered for Sale by Auction, Wednesday, 14th December, 2016 at 3:00 pm precisely 242 West 30th Street, 12th Floor (Between Seventh & Eighth Avenues) New York, NY 10001 Viewing Beforehand: Sunday, 11th December - 12:00 pm - 4:00 pm Monday, 12th December - 10:00 am - 7:00 pm Tuesday, 13th December - 10:00 am - 7:00 pm And by Appointment No Viewing on the Day of Sale This Sale may be referred to as: “Scarsdale” Sale Number Seventy-One Illustrated Catalogues: $38 (US) * $45 (Overseas) KESTENBAUM & COMPANY Auctioneers of Rare Books, Manuscripts and Fine Art . 242 West 30th Street, 12th Floor, New York, NY 10001 • Tel: 212 366-1197 • Fax: 212 366-1368 E-mail: [email protected] • World Wide Web Site: www.Kestenbaum.net K est e n bau m & C o m pa ny . Chairman: Daniel E. Kestenbaum Operations Manager: Jackie S. Insel Client Relations: Sandra E. Rapoport, Esq. Printed Books & Manuscripts: Rabbi Eliezer Katzman Rabbi Dovid Kamenetsky (Consultant) Ceremonial & Graphic Art: Abigail H. Meyer Catalogue Art Director and Photographer: Anthony Leonardo Auctioneer: Zushye L. J. Kestenbaum (NYCDCA License no: 2044881) For all inquiries relating to this sale please contact: Abigail H. Meyer Order of Sale: Israeli & International Art: Lots 1 - 42 Soviet and Zionist Posters: Lots 43 - 64 Front Cover Illustration: Lot 8 Back Cover Illustration: Lot 22 Inside Pages (front): Lot 13 Inside Pages (rear): Lot 1 List of prices realized will be posted on our website following the sale www. kestenbaum. net — FOREWORD — ollowing Kestenbaum & Company’s auction “One Hundred and Fifty Years of Jewish Art” successfully held twelve months ago, we are now honored to present “Israeli & International Art: Highlights from the Collection of the late Stanley I. Batkin.” F Batkin, who passed away a year ago aged 101, was a life-long New Yorker, who, along with his wife Selma, was passionate about documenting the history of the Fine Arts in the State of Israel. This pursuit began in the 1950’s with twice-yearly visits to Israel where the Batkins formed deep and long- standing friendships with a great many of the dozens of artists represented in their collection. Developing such a collection was Batkin’s way of demonstrating his commitment to the nascent and growing State of Israel and its community of artists. In addition to serving with distinction on the board of many Israeli cultural organizations, collecting provided Batkin with the means of becoming deeply involved with the development of the State of Israel. His regular visits afforded him the opportunity to provide direct patronage and close personal contact with his favored artists. The extensive range of works collected by Batkin provides a highly personal choice and the offerings in this catalogue present a selective survey of artists and artistic styles that have emerged over almost a century of Israel’s growth. More broadly, Batkin sought to acquire artwork from each and every Israeli artist of note - even if he was not entirely enthusiastic about the artist’s particular style. Included in his collection are works from every juncture in the timeline of Israel’s art history - from the early 1920’s to the close of the 20th-century. A great many of the artists represented in the collection have experienced national fame, indeed many are internationally celebrated, such as Yaakov Agam, Avigdor Arikha, Mordecai Ardon, Marcel Janco, Reuven Rubin, etc. In 1985 the Jewish Museum of New York exhibited highlights of the Batkin collection in a Israeli Ambassador to UN Dan Gillerman rests on the lap of singular exhibition, which was accompanied by a detailed illustrated shipping magnate Sammy Ofer to the delight of Stanley Batkin and Tel Aviv Museum director/chief curator Mordechai Omer catalogue. Those paintings that were included in that exhibition are individually referenced in the present auction-catalogue. Tangentially, Batkin was also a talented photographer. He photographed some 200 Israeli artists (the collector becoming the artist) and thus became well acquainted with each individual artist on a level quite atypical from his collecting peers. In 2005 the Tel Aviv Museum of Art held an exhibition of Batkin’s photographs, curated by director Mordechai Omer. Many of these artist portraits are incorporated throughout the present auction-catalogue. We invite you to enjoy the Batkin Collection offered at Kestenbaum & Company, and appreciate one man’s personal mission in documenting the 20th century history of the Fine Arts in the State of Israel. DEK — INTRODUCTION — o better understand the historical context of the art that comprises the Batkin Collection, it is necessary to familiarize ourselves with the timeline of Israeli art history. The emergence of what has come to be known as “Israeli Art” dates to 1906 when Lithuanian- T Jewish artist and sculptor Boris Schatz established in the city of Jerusalem the Bezalel School of Art. Schatz sought to create an ‘Arts & Crafts’ movement inspired by Jewish Biblical symbolism within the context of modern Art Nouveau style. The first generation of great Israeli artists – many of who emigrated from Germany - expressed in their art their wonder at the experience of living in the Land of Israel. Works by artists including Mordecai Ardon (lot 23), Anna Ticho (lots 6 & 7), Leopold Krakauer (lot 31) and Jacob Steinhardt (lot 5) illustrate the spiritual encounter with the Land of Israel in various degrees of expressionistic styles. Additionally, while combining a romanticized view of the ancient landscape, this era saw the works of Ludwig Blum (lot 1) and Arieh Lubin (lot 32): Local landscapes and panoramic views, executed in an Orientalist motif. The art of Anna Ticho expresses an almost maternal relationship with the land, viz. the shading, delicate line and gentle use of watercolor. In 1920, the Hebrew Artists’ Association was formed, the members of which explored landscape through a modern and secular lens, creating what became to be known as Eretz Israel-style. This was especially popularized by pioneer artist Reuven Rubin (lot 8). The directness of Rubin’s work, whose technique, clearly influenced by Henri Rousseau, bordered on the naïve and utilized an approach associated with the Ecole de Paris. Moshe Castel (lot 10) shared this perspective, while Nahum Gutman (lot 19) took the genre one step farther and celebrated the local Arab aesthetic. Another approach to the arts in Israel was expressed by the Canaanite School, who rebelled against both traditional Jewish identity and current European artistic trends, favoring instead the animist dimensions of the ancient Canaanite world. They created a political fusion of art and nature, referencing primitive Assyria or Mesopotamia. This was part of a cultural philosophy and ideology of Israel, connecting with its archeological roots. An altogether different artistic pioneer was Yohanan Simon (lots 13 & 14) who expressed in his art an ecstatic enthusiasm for the lifestyle that was developed and subsequently flourished in the kibbutzim - the collective communities, mostly governed by the strictest rules of socialism. Simon himself was a member of such a kibbutz. Following the establishment of the State of Israel, the New Horizons (“Ofakim Hadashim”) evolved into a coherent artistic movement. It was formed by pioneering abstractionists who incorporated European avant-garde influences into their semi-abstract figure and landscape paintings. Members of this group include Avigdor Stematsky (lot 12), Yehezkel Streichman (lot 25), and Joseph Zaritzky (lot 24). A particularly individualistic member of this movement, Mordecai Ardon (lot 23), focused less on the present, but rather on the mystical aspects of past Jewish historiography. The 1950’s and 60’s saw many milestones in the development of Israel’s art narrative: The development of artists’ colonies in the northern part of the country, the establishment of Omanut L’Am (“Art for the People”), the Contemporary Art exhibition space added to the Tel Aviv Museum of Art in 1959, the founding of the Israel Museum as the national museum in 1965, and the endowment of public prizes such as the Dizengoff and Young Artist awards. Indeed art had become so respected by Israeli society that in 1968 the Kibbutz Art Gallery founded by the Kibbutz Movement in Tel Aviv, viewed artists as equal laborers on the kibbutzim, permitting them to maintain their craft full-time. The disbandment of the New Horizon group led to the rise of abstract expressionism as seen in the work of Avigdor Arikha (lot 26). This was soon countered by Pop Art – as American and British artistic influences reached Israel. The rise of Conceptual Art combined with a changing political atmosphere in the country, as the Six Day War of 1967 led to the Yom Kippur War of 1973, and politically-charged art and the art of protest became far more present. By the 1980’s there was a shift from the conceptual to the narrative image by such artists as Menashe Kadishman (lot 28), Ivan Schwebel (lot 29) and Moshe Gershuni (lot 27), the latter often using everyday materials in his work and whose career spanned several artistic styles over the decades. Finally, the pure “timeless” abstraction of kinetic artist Yaakov Agam (lot 22) rounds out this most abbreviated historical survey of modern art in Israel. The primary criteria that inspired the development of the Stanley Batkin Collection was the importance of each particular artist within the context of the history of Israeli art.