page_title: Joseph Zaritsky
section_title: Jerusalem, 1923–1925
hierarchical_section_title: Joseph Zaritsky / Biography / Jerusalem, 1923–1925
caption_attribution_description: English: Jerusalem, Kandinof courtyard, 1925. Sitting (left to right): Ms. Sarah (Sonia) Zaritzky, Israel Paldi, Joseph Zaritzky and daughter Etia. Standing (left to right): Arieh Lubin, Joseph Pressmane, Chaim Gliksberg, Todros Geller. NOTE: Baruch Agadati is NOT in this photo!!! עברית: ירושלים בחצר קנדינוף, 1925. ישובים: זריצקי ובתו אטיה, פלדי, גב' זריצקי. עומדים: גלר, חיים גליקסברג, פרסמן, אריה לובין.
context_page_description: Joseph Zaritsky was one of Israel's greatest artists and one of the early promoters of modern art in the Land of Israel both during the period of the Yishuv and after the establishment of the State. In 1948 Zaritsky was one of the founders of the "Ofakim Hadashim" group. In his works he created a uniquely Israeli style of abstract art, which he sought to promote by means of the group. For this work he was awarded the Israel Prize for painting in 1959.
context_section_description: In 1923 Zaritsky immigrated to the Land of Israel alone and settled in Jerusalem; a year later his family followed. In the city Zaritsky painted a number of watercolor landscapes in light colors. Gradually his artistic works became freer. In "Jerusalem: Abyssinian Gate” (1923), a precise rendering of nature is still apparent, but in later works there is a pronounced expressionistic tendency in the composition of his works. Examples of this can be seen in “Haifa, the Technion” (1924), and in the works called "Jerusalem: Nachalat Shiva" (1924), in which Zaritsky uses an expressionistic technique for dividing the format into separate spaces. The use of lines in his work as a means of expression can be seen also in his depictions of houses in Jerusalem and Safad from this period.
  In 1924 Zaritsky mounted his first solo exhibition in the club "Menorah" in Jerusalem. Another exhibition was opened in the Technion in Haifa. The journalistic criticism emphasized the lyricism in his works, and the fact that "the forms [in his paintings] turn into dots of abstract color, the subject of which is an allegory of color and light, and not the plot of a story." In addition, Zaritsky and the sculptor Abraham Melnikov, were the initiators of the first of the exhibitions of Israeli artists in the Tower of David. Also, from 1927 he served as the Chairman of the Israel Painters and Sculptors Association.
caption: Jerusalem 1925: sitting (left to right): Ms. Sarah (Sonia) Zaritzky, Israel Paldi, Joseph Zaritzky and daughter Etia. Standing (left to right): Arieh Lubin, Joseph Pressmane, Chaim Gliksberg, Todros Geller.
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