Prof. Boris Schatz
Boris Schatz (1866-1932)
The father of the Israeli art. Founded
in 1906 the Bezalel academy of art, design and architecture in Jerusalem,
Israel.
I looked upon art as temple and upon artists as its priests. I
dreamed that I should become a high priest in the service of sacred art, that I
would teach mankind the ideal of the great and beautiful… (Schatz 1910)
Shlomo – Zalman Dov Baruch was born in Lithuania
in 1866 to a religious family with a rabbinical lineage. With his special
talents he was meant to continue the family dynasty and was sent to Vilna to
study in yeshiva (Talmudic college). But Boris was quizzical and had a desire
for experience, and religious studies were not suitable for him. [From the
autobiography: “…as much as I tried not to think about things that cause one to
sin, they still crept into my mind… from that time on I began drawing and
loving human portraits, in which I find also today the most interesting
material for art…”]
He moved to Warsaw where he began his life as an artist and
created his first sculpture “Hendel” which perpetuates the Jewish peddler.
In 1889 he married Jennie, his first wife, and together they
went to Paris. Schatz studied with the sculptor Mark Antokolski, and at the
same time studied painting in the Cormorn Academy. He earned a living through
random jobs and also engaged in boxing and wrestling. In 1894 he sculpted his
famous sculpture “Mattithyahu HaHashmonai” and started gaining recognition as
an artist.
Following Prince Ferdinand inviting him to be the court sculptor
of the Bulgarian Kingdom, Boris transferred his residence to Bulgaria and
founded the Royal Academy of Art in Sofia. After the move to Bulgaria his
marital life ended in divorce and separation from his wife Jennie and their
daughter Angela. The disappointment from the dissolution of his marriage
accelerated his uprooting from Bulgaria.
In 1903 he met (Theodore) Binyamin Zeev Hertzel and presented
him with the idea of founding a Talmudic college for art-crafts, that would be
called “Bezalel” after Bezalel Ben Uri Ben Hur, from the tribe of Yehuda (the
first artist mentioned in the bible). The decision to found this establishment
was accepted in the Seventh Zionist Congress in Basil.
In 1906 Boris Schatz arrived in Israel and founded “Bezalel”
which began operating with a fabrics and carpets department. Departments for
silver design, brass work, wicker furniture, lithographs and others were
gradually added, 30 different handicrafts in total. At a certain point such a
broad variety of works were made that they could be displayed in exhibits, and
a small museum could be opened in the school. This museum became the basis for
the Israel Museum.
In 1909 Boris Shatz began presenting “Bezalel” exhibits all over
the world for commercial and publicity purposes in order to acquire supporters
and donors who would buy the schools products and in that fashion contribute to
its development. The school prospered, social life and art works were created
in it, as were ideas that served as a founding stone for the revival of a
renewing Hebrew culture in Israel.
In 1911 he married Dr. Olga Pavzner, an art critic 15 years
younger than him. A year later their first son was born, Bezalel Schatz, and
four years later their daughter Zohara Schatz was born. The “Bezalel” school
was closed down by the Turks for the first time during the First World War.
Professor Schatz was arrested and deported, at first to Syria and then to
Zephath.
With its reopening after the war the school encountered extreme
economic difficulties. Boris Schatz died in 1932 in Colorado, USA while
journeying to collect donations for “Bezalel”.
The
Bezalel School went through many ups and downs throughout the last century
since Schatz’s days. The Bezalel Academy in its current form is a fruitful and
active continuation of that important foundation which Boris Schatz laid, and
is the leading institute for the study of art, design, and architecture in
Israel.
