Menia Litvak, Israeli Folk Art Bright Colorful Naive Dragon Painting, 1979

Description

My life as an artist started in 1976 when I left Kishinev (Bessarabia) for Israel. In my youth I did … more My life as an artist started in 1976 when I left Kishinev (Bessarabia) for Israel. In my youth I did not have the opportunity to study an regularly, although I learned painting during some two years at the Belle-Arts Academy in Kishinev and one year in Bucarest. My youth was spent during world war 2 when Bessarabia was annexed by the Soviet Union, years of hunger and the need to work very hard to be able to survive. I worked as a retoucher of photographs in a studio. When I arrived in Israeli went to live in Jerusalem and took up painting as my only ocupation, not as in Russia where it was one of my occupations which I had to do sometimes in hiding, stealong time from my everyday jobs. Israel, its colourings, impressed me much: the blue of the sky, the turquoise of the sea, the palette of desert colours. The stones of Israel looked alive and I wished I could paint them all. In 19761 started to expose my work. Since then I participated in a number of exhibitions in groups and alone. Since 1984 I am a member of the Israeli Union of Painters and Sculptors. The last exhibition where I took part was at the Salon des Beaux-Arts in Paris together in a group of Jerusalem artists. Israel has had a Vibrant Folk Art, Naive art scene for a long time now artists like Yisrael Paldi, Nahum Guttman, Reuven Rubin and even Yefim Ladizhinsky had naive periods. The most well know if the strictu naive artists are Shalom of Safed, Irene Awret Gabriel Cohen, Natan Heber, Michael Falk Kopel Gurwin.

Mania Litvak - From Paris to Jerusalem
Jerusalem Artists' House, Jerusalem
24 February, 1996 - 19 March, 1996

Group Exhibitions
Painting on Aluminum Painting on Aluminum
Debel Gallery, Ein Kerem, Jerusalem

''Together'' - Veteran and Olim Artists ''Together'' - Veteran and Olim Artists
Holiday Inn, Jerusalem
2 October, 1993 - 12 October, 1993
Artists: Litvak, Mania Ben Shalom, Jacob Lekar (Lecar), Boris Tarkay, Yitzchak Schatz, Shaul Avnieli, Mordechai Yehudayan, Shlomo

Jerusalem Artists' House, Jerusalem
3 July, 1994 - 19 July, 1994
Artists:
Ben Moshe, Yona Blum, Motke (Mordechai) Gilhar, Dalia Weiss, Yoav Reiner, Arona Schenkelbach, Erwin Brosh, Shlomi Remez, Varda Rakia, David Jano, Jacques Shahar, Reut Oppenheimer, Giora Eyal, Malka Gavish, Galia Shemesh, Hedvah Epstein, Chava Ergas, Yemima Peiser, Hanna Kalai, Carmela Schreckinger, Jacob Caspi, Aliza Litvak, Mania
Jerusalem Artists Creat in the Refinery in Ashdod Jerusalem Artists Create in the Refinery in Ashdod.

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

1979 - Immigrant artists from USSR - Jerusalem Theatre
1981 - Painters sitting in Gilo-Jerusalem
1982 - Ludmilla Gallery, Tel-Aviv
1988 - Knesset Israel - Jerusalem
1990 - Artexpo. New York, Japan
1995 - Ashdod-Museum

ONE PERSON SHOWS

1980 - Beit Haomanim, Jerusalem
1981 - Sokolov House, Tel-Aviv
1982 - Miniatures, Municipal Gallry, Jerusalem
1983 - Debel Gallery, Jerusalem
1984 - The Artists House, Jerusalem
1985 - Jerusalem Artists in Salon de Beaux Arts, Grand Palais, Paris
1996 - The Artists House, Jerusalem
1989 - Debel Gallery, Jerusalem
1990 - Beit Haomanim, Jerusalem
1993 - Cite internationale des Art-Paris
1999 - Galleria Nora - Jerusalem
2000 - Galleria Gvanim less