Shaul Shats

Shaul Shats, Broshim, tempera on paper, 1990s

File:Shats etching.jpg

Shaul Shats, Jerusalem Portfolio, etching, 1999

Shaul Shats (born 1944) (variant names Shaul Shatz, Saul Shatz) is an Israeli painter, printmaker and illustrator, born in 1944 in Kibbutz Sarid, Israel. He studied at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem (1965–66), the Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam (1967), and the Freie Akademie, The Hague (1967). Shats taught at the Bezalel Academy from 1978-82. He won the Israel Museum Prize for Illustration (1990), the Jerusalem Prize (1992), the Ben Yitzhak Prize for Illustration of Israeli Children's Books (1992), and the Ish-Shalom Prize.

Shats's primary subjects are the landscapes of the Jerusalem environs - the Temple Mount, the vistas from the Armon HaNetziv Promenade (see Talpiot) in the Old City, and the views past the village of Siloah. His colours are vivid, and his impressionistic style calls to mind the European influences of Georges Seurat and Camille Pissarro, as well as those of his Israeli forebears Anna Ticho and Leopold Krakauer. "For Shats, Jerusalem is the heart of the world and forms a geographical boundary between desert and settlement, barbarism and civilization. Israel's Negev desert is a desolate wilderness not related to directly in his work, though he remains affected by its presence and proximity. Shats considers himself a religious painter. He has said of his work that religious painting is a frequent phenomenon and a more natural one than often realized."

Shats continues to live and work in Jerusalem.

Selected exhibitions

• 2007: Ella Gallery, Jerusalem
• 2005: Jerusalem Artists’ House, Jerusalem
• 2004: Our Landscape: Notes on Landscape Painting in Israel, University of Haifa Art Gallery, Haifa (online catalogue)
• 2003: Bineth Gallery, Tel-Aviv
• 1984: Cardo Gallery, Jerusalem
• 1971: Little Gallery, Jerusalem
• 1969: Engel Gallery, Jerusalem

Selected collections

• Israel Museum, Jerusalem
• Tel Aviv Museum of Art
• Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam

References

• Ayal, Avishay, and Yoram Bar-Gal. Our Landscape: Notes on Landscape Painting in Israel [exhibition catalogue]. Haifa: University of Haifa Art Gallery, 2004.
• Shaul Shats: Paintings [exhibition catalogue]. Jerusalem: Cardo Gallery, 1984.

External links

• Israeli Art Centre (Israel Museum, Jerusalem - Shaul Shats)