Ruth Schloss

Ruth Schloss (Hebrew: רות שלוס‎; 22 November 1922 – 2013) was an Israeli painter and illustrator. Major themes in her work were Arabs, transition camps, children and women at eye-level. She expressed an egalitarian, socialist view via realism in her painting and drawing.

Ruth Schloss
Ruth Schloss
Born1922
Germany
Died2013
NationalityIsraeli, Jewish
EducationBezalel Academy
Known forPainting
MovementIsraeli art

Biography

Ruth Schloss was born in Nuremberg, Germany, to Ludwig and Dian Schloss, as the second of three daughters of bourgeois assimilationist Jewish family well-integrated into German culture. As the Nazis came into power in 1933, her family immigrated to Israel in 1937, and settled in Kfar Shmaryahu, then an agricultural settlement. Schloss studied at the Department of Schloss graphic design at "Bezalel" from 1938 to 1942 alongside Friedel Stern and Joseph Hirsch. She was a realistic painter who focused on disadvantaged people in the society and social matters as an egalitarian. Her realism was thus an “inevitable realism,” motivated by an inner necessity: the need to observe reality as it is.[1]

Her painting repeatedly addressed the door pulled from its frame, employing drawing's unique ability to stop time and prolong the image's persistence in the retina, she repeatedly committed to paper - in a matter-of-fact, non-evasive manner devoid of mystery – man's tendency to generate chaos, suffering and pain.[1]

Throughout her life, Schloss remained minimalist. Painting about human fate was the main subject of her artworks.[2] Her natural inclination was to describe the darker aspect of human existence.[3]

1940s

In this period she mainly depicted landscapes of kibbutz and wretched women living hard life, children in huger, older people, refugees.[2]

Life in the Kibbutz

After completing her art studies, Schloss joined a training group at Kibbutz Merhavia in 1942, and after two years moved to Karkur region, the nucleus established Kibbutz Lehavot Habashan in the Upper Galilee. Through this time, she fell in love with the surroundings and drew landscapes. They are simple and direct with fresh, lucid lines. These paintings were selected as the main works of her first exhibition in 1949.

In early 1945, Schloss started to draw illustrations in the children's magazine Mishmar Leyeladim, and designed the logo of Al Hamishmar, the paper's new name in 1948. In 1948, upon the founding of Mapam (United Workers’ Party), she designed her party's emblem, which became a well-known icon. She kept working as an illustrator for Mishmar Leyeladim until 1949.[4]

"Mor the Monkey" project yielded financial profits and this income was used for a study trip to Paris for two years.[1] She was succeeded as illustrator however, she had inner conflicts of her identity as witnessed painter toward neglected class in Israeli society.

First Exhibition at Mikra-Studio Gallery, 1949

She presented forty drawings on paper in her first solo exhibition, representing a selection of the themes of kibbutz landscape, its lifestyle. Schloss confidently proposed her direction through simplicity without using colors in her drawings.

1950s

Between 1949 and 1951, she studied at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris.

She began working in oils, with which she continued throughout the 1960s.

The exhibition “Back from Paris” opened in November 1951 at Mikra-Studio Gallery .

In 1951 she married Benjamin Cohen, who served as chairman of the national leadership of Hashomer Hatzair Workers Party in Tel Aviv. He was a theoretician and a man of principle, highly esteemed by its leaders who became a professor of history at Tel Aviv University. In 1953, following the Mordechai Oren affair and the publication of Moshe Sneh 's followers from Kibbutz Artzi, she and her husband left the kibbutz and moved to the agricultural farm, Kfar Shmaryahu, where she lived until her death.

At a certain point in Israeli history, segments of the socialist movement felt that Israel should become part of the Communist bloc, rather than seek the support of the western world.[3] Because the Schloss couple support of Moshe Sneh's left-wing party, they had to leave the kibbutz.[5]

She depicted ordinary women without hiding or making up anything. The poet Natan Zach wrote about her works in 1955: “Her motto remains that which has been all these years: life as it is, without bluffing."[2]

Schloss's “Pietà” (1953) became a universal cry expressing the pain of mothers on either side of the divide. In the late 1950s, she was the mother of two daughters. When she drew her daughters, unlike the universal babies she depicted, naked and with clenched fists, the painting of her children employed babyish sweetness to the full.[1]She also painted children in the transition camp and Jaffa in the 1950s and 1960s.

1960s-1980s

Schloss painted at a studio in Jaffa from 1962 till 1983. In this time, she turned her interest to people around her more than kibbutz – the children, mothers, and poor workers, the alleys and houses. She opened the space to the street and its dwellings, built interactions around it, and was nurtured by the presence of the outside in her work.[1]

1960s

Schloss painted an Arab woman, Nabva, and images of old people.

In the late 1960s, she began to paint in acrylic and never went back to oils.

In 1965 Schloss devoted a series “Area 9 (1965)” to the demolition of Arab houses and expropriation of land, carrying a socio-political messages.[6] The series was exhibited at Beit Zvi, Ramat Gan, in 1966. In 1968, Schloss and Gansser-Markus presented “Drawing of War” in Zurich gallery. She expressed the war as an ultimate expression of destruction and ruin, regardless of victors and vanquished.[1]

1970s

In late 1970s Schloss began printing selected photographs directly on the canvas, reworking them in acrylic. She printed her work at Har-El Printers in Jaffa. This technique was mainly adopted in two large series: Anne Frank (1979-1980) and Borders (1982). Through this technique she placed the figure of elder Frank next to that of the famous young Frank, and released it at the exhibition at Beit Ariela Cultural Center, Tel Aviv, in 1981. The series touched upon the Holocaust.[1]

1980s

She dedicated a large series Borders, one of the most powerful image linked to the series is the figure of Yemenite woman raising her hand. She was the first to raise the Black Panthers demonstration to the level of a social icon.[1]In the 1980s and again in 2000, the Intifada uprisings led Schloss to render representational and symbolic works that could be interpreted as critical of Israel's political and military actions.[6]

1990s – 2000s

Schloss exhibited in private galleries and small museums.[3] The main museums, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art and the Israel Museum, included her works only in group exhibitions, and only in 1991 was her retrospective exhibited at the Herzliya Museum.[5]

In the 2000s, Schloss turned to the animal kingdom and Bedouins in the south. A huge rhinoceros, birds of prey, and other "bad animals," as Cohen Evron, daughter of Ruth, calls them and "I connected this to the Nazis," said Schloss.[7]

In 2006, a large retrospective exhibition of her work was presented at the Museum of Art in Ein Harod, curated by Tali Tamir.[5]

Education

Awards and recognition
  • 1965 Silver Medal, International exhibition in Leipzig, Germany
  • 1977 Artist-in-residence, The Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris

Selected solo exhibitions
  • 2004 “Micha Baram, Ruth Schloss: Painting-Photography,” The Art Gallery, Kibbutz Cabri, Israel, Curator: Drora Dekel
  • 2003 “Works on Photographic Paper,” The Artists’ House, Jerusalem, Curator: Irit Levin
  • 2001-2003 “Ruth Schloss: Reacting to Reality, Works 1982-2002,” Habama Center, Ganei Tikva, Israel (curators: Irit Levin, Miri Krymolowski)
  • 2001 “The Last Years,” Givatayim Theater, Israel (curators; Irit Levin, Doron Polak)
  • 2001 “Works, 1991-2001,” Beit Gabriel, Tzemach, Israel
  • 1999 “New Born,” Nophr Art Gallery, Tel Aviv
  • 1998-2004 “Anne Frank in Perspective,” Kunstraum am Hallop, Memmingen, Germanyת Traveling exhibition in France (as part of “Semaine contre le Racisme”)
  • 1997-1999 “In the Footsteps of Caravaggio,” Municipal Gallery, Kfar Saba, Israel
  • 1997 “Past Time,” Nama Gallery and Shai Gallery, Tel Aviv
  • 1993 “People and Years,” Nelly Aman Gallery, Tel Aviv
  • 1992 “Ruth Schloss: Retrospective, 1942-1992,” Herzliya Museum of Art
  • 1989 “Intifada: New Works,” Tiroch Gallery, Tel Aviv
  • 1989 “Borders,” Produzentengalerie, Zurich
  • 1982 “Borders 82,” Herzliya Museum, Israel
  • 1975 Rosenfeld Gallery, Tel Aviv
  • 1974 Mishkan Le’Omanut, Beit Meirov, Holon, Israel
  • 1968 “Drawing of War,” Forum Gallery, Zurich (with photographer Ursula Gransser-Markus)
  • 1966 “Area 9,” Beit Zvi, Ramat Gan, Israel
  • 1957 The Artists’ House, Jerusalem
  • 1956 Traklin Gallery, Haifa
  • 1953 The Artists’ House, Jerusalem
  • 1949 Mikra Studio Gallery, Tel Aviv

Selected group exhibitions
  • 2006 “Hero – Antihero,” Munitipal Gallery, Kfar Saba, Israel, curator: Irit Levin
  • 2005 “Nostalie de Paris,” Ein Hod Gallery, Israel, curator: Avraham Eliat
  • 2005 “Wounds and Bandaging,” The Art Gallery, Umm el-Fahem, Israel, curator: Eif Gan
  • 2004 “ The Art of Aging,” The Jewish Institute of Religion Museum, Hebrew Union College, New York, curators: Ayana Friedman, Laura Kruger (cat.)
  • 2004 “Drawing. Old & New,” Municipal Gallery at Beit Yad Labanim, Raanana, Israel, curator: Oded Feingersh (cat.),
  • 2004 “Thirty + Three,” Haifa Theater, curator: Smadar Schindler
  • 2004 “You Don’t Look Hungry to Me,” Limbus Gallery, Tel Avuv, curators: Michal Shamir, Orly Wolkowiski
  • 2003 “Ten Women and One Old Man,” Habama Center, Ganei Tikva, Israel, curator: Miri Krymolowski
  • 2003 “Ruins Revisited: The image of the Run in Israel 1803-2003,” Time for Art – Israel Art Center. Tel Aviv, curator: Gideon Ofrat (cat.)
  • 2003 “Wandering Library: Markers IV,” Museo Ebraico di Venezia, Venice, curator: Doron Polak (cat.)
  • 2002 “Imagine: Artists for Co-Existence,” The Art Gallery, Umm el-Fahem, Israel; Plonit Gallery, Tel Aviv
  • 2002 “Artist Against the Occupation,” Beit Uri and Rami Nehushtan, Kibbutz Ashdot
  • 2002 Yaacov Meuchad, Israel, curator: Doron Polak
  • 2001 “Against Violence against Women,” Bar-David Museum of Jewish Art and Judaica, Kibbutz Bar’am, Israel, curator: Hanna Barak (cat.)
  • 2001 “Current Affairs,” The Art Museum, Kibbutz Hanita, Israel, curator: Hanna Barak
  • 2001 “Traces: Contemporary Drawing in Israel,” The artists’ House, Jerusalem, curator: Ilan Wizgan, (cat.)
  • 2000 “The Third Color,” The artists’ House, Jerusalem, curator: Ayana Friedman (cat.)
  • 2000 “Women Artists in Palestinian Art,” Bar-David Museum of Jewish Art and Judaica, Kibbutz Bar’am, Israel,
  • 1998 “Women in Israel Art,” Haifa Museum of Art, curator: Ilana Teicher
  • 1998 “Scream Quietly Please,” The 9th Triennial, New Delhi, India, curator: Nella Cassouto
  • 1998 "The East: Orientalism in the Arts in Israeli,” The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Curator: Yigal Zalmona
  • 1998 “Social Realism in ‘50s, Political Art in the ‘90s,” Haifa Museum of Art, Curator: Gila Ballas
  • 1998 “Homeland Bound: Form the Dream of a National Home to the Dream Home,” The Israel Museum, curator: Tami Schatz
  • 1997 “At Eye Level,” The Artists’ House, Jerusalem, curator: Nella Cassouto
  • 1997 “Remembering Shlomo: Shlomo Weizmann, 1954-1995,” The Art Gallery, Ben Gurion University of Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel, curator: Haim Finkelstein
  • 1992 “Making Peace: In Memory of the Six Day War and the Lebanon War,” exhibitions and meetings, on behalf of the Center for Peace, Givat Haviva, Israel
  • 1991 “The Color Khaki: The Soldier in Israel Art,” Habima Theater, Tel Aviv, curator: Gideon Ofrat
  • 1991 “Animals,” Erek Gallery, Tel Aviv
  • 1989 “To Live with the Dream,” Tel Aviv Museum of Art, curator: Batia Donner
  • 1989 “Portrait,” traveling exhibition, Omanut La’am, Israel, curator: Zvi Tadmor
  • 1988 “A People Builds Its Dream: Israeli History as Reflected in Art,” Herzliya Museum, Israel, curator: Ramy Cohen
  • 1988 “Haifa: Portrait of the City in Painting and Photography,” Haifa Museum of Modern Art, curator: Gabriel Tadmor
  • 1988 “1948: The War of Independence in Israeli Art,” Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv, Curator: Gideon Ofrat
  • 1987 “New Bezalel: 1935-1955,” The Artists’ House, Jerusalem, curator: Gideon Ofrat
  • 1986 “The 49th anniversary of Victory over Nazi Germany,” Municipal Art Gallery, Arad, Israel
  • 1982 “Opinions,” The Artist’ House, Jerusalem
  • 1978 “Artist and Society in Israeli Art 1948-1978,” The Tel Aviv Museum, curator: Sara Breitberg
  • 1977 “Propaganda and Vision: Israeli and Soviet Art, 1930-1955,” The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, curator: Batia Donner
  • 1971 “Israeli Art,” The Tel Aviv Museum, curator: Haim Gamzu
  • 1970 “Exhibition of Drawings from the Museum Collection,” Haifa Museum of Modern Art
  • 1965 “Exhibition of Drawings, 1965,” Haifa Museum of Modern Art
  • 1951 “Back from Paris,” Mikra-Studio Gallery, Tel Aviv
  • 1947 “Artists in the Kibbutz and in the Army,” Mikra-Studio Gallery, Tel Aviv

See also

References
  1. Galia, Bar Or (2006). Ruth Schloss. Ein Harod: Ein Harod Museum of Art.
  2. Schatz, Oren. "Ruth Schloss".
  3. Barasch Rubinstein, Emanuela (24 December 2016). "Ruth Schloss – Artist, Socialist, Israeli".
  4. Information Center for Israeli Art: Ruth Schloss
  5. Armen Azoulay, Eli (7 July 2013). "Ruth Schloss died".
  6. Stern Goldfine, Gil (30 November 2006). "Women with a past".
  7. Rauchwerger, Daniel (5 March 2012). "Final Strokes of the Brush".
  8. "Schloss Ruth".
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