Larry Abramson

Larry Abramson
Photograph of Larry Abramson, 2005
Born	1954 South Africa
Nationality	Israeli, Jewish
Education	Chelsea College of Art & Design
Known for	Painting
Notable work	"Hevel" (1989-1990)
Movement	Israeli art

Larry Abramson (1954) is an Israeli artist.

Biography

Larry Abramson was born in 1954 in South Africa. In 1961 his family emigrated to Israel and settled in Jerusalem. In 1970 he was one of the signators of the "Letter from the Twelfth Graders" [Shministim] (high school age conscientious objectors to army occupation of Gaza). In 1973 Abramson studied art at the Chelsea College of Art and Design, London. Upon his return to Israel he took a position as printer and curator of exhibitions at the Jerusalem Print Workshop, where he remained from 1975 to 1986.

His first solo exhibition was in 1975. His work during the 1980s dealt with a variety of symbols from modernistic European art, particularly the "Black Square" by Kazimir Malevich, which he used to create dynamic situations combining simplification and a figurative art style of drawing.

During 1993 and 1994 Abramson created the series of works "Tsuba," which was displayed in the kibbutz gallery. The series was composed of 38 nature paintings (oil on canvas), 38 prints on newsprint of nature drawings, and still lifes based on samples of flora taken onsite.

This series of work relates to archeological ruins near Kibbutz Tzova, a site which was drawn a decade earlier by the artist Joseph Zaritsky (under the name "Tsuba)." While Zaritsky ignored the Arab ruins found on the site and therefore flattened out the space, Abramson paints the view realistically. By including the ruins of the Arab village, in essence he criticizes the Israeli viewpoint which seeks to erase the Arab identity from the conquered territory.

In 1984 Abramson joined the teaching staff of the art department of the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem. In 1992 he was appointed head of the art department and head of the Bezalel program for young artists (the masters degree program). For the 2002-2003 academic year he was invited as a guest lecturer to the San Francisco Art Institute, and at the same time he began the process of founding the art department in the Shenkar College of Engineering and Design in Ramat Gan, Israel. In May 2002 Abramson published in the journal Studio an article entitled "We're all Felix Nussbaum," in which he raised the problematic nature of creating historical painting in the post-Holocaust era. In 2004 Abramson mounted an exhibition of works under the name "Piles" which included charcoal drawings of piles of construction debris which were related to the subject of describing ruins in art and the image of Jewish-German painter Felix Nussbaum. This series was presented in the Felix Nussbaum Museum in Osnabrück, Germany and in the Chaim Atar Museum of Art Ein Harod on Kibbutz Ein Harod in the Jezreel Valley. In 2007 Abramson presented an exhibition of his paintings at The Gordon Gallery in Tel Aviv.

Education

• 1973-1974 Chelsea College of Art and Design, London

Teaching

• 1984 onwards Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design
• 1992 onwards Head of Art Department, Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design
• 2000 Guest lecturer, San Francisco Art Institute

Awards and Prizes

• 1979 The Beatrice S. Kolliner Award for a Young Israeli Artist, Israel Museum, Jerusalem
• 1988 America Israel Cultural Foundation
• 1991 Zak Ohana Prize, Tel Aviv Museum of Art
• 1993 Sharet Award for Culture and Art, Science, Culture and Sport Minister of Israel
• 1998 The Minister of Education, Culture Prize, Ministry of Culture and Education

External links

• Larry Abramson from the collections of the Israel Museum [1]
• Larry Abramson from the Israeli artist list of the Information Center for Israeli Art at the Israel Museum [2]
• Europeana - Search results Europeana -- Abramson, Larry