Arieh El-Hanani, born SapozhnikovArie El Hanani
Israel Museum website. Retrieved 3 November 2020. (1898–1985) was an

Israel Prize The Israel Prize ( he, פרס ישראל; ''pras israél'') is an award bestowed by the State of Israel, and regarded as the state's highest cultural honor. History The Israel Prize is awarded annually, on Israeli Independence Day, in a state cer ...

winner in the field of

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

for his "contribution to shaping Israeli culture." His Russian and Hebrew names have also been transliterated and spelled as Arie or Aryeh, Sapoznikov, Elhanani, etc. Elhanani002

Early life in Russia

El-Hanani was born in 1898 in

Poltava Poltava (, ; uk, Полтава ) is a city located on the Vorskla River in central Ukraine. It is the capital city of the Poltava Oblast (province) and of the surrounding Poltava Raion (district) of the oblast. Poltava is administratively ...

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

(today capital of the

Poltava Oblast Poltava Oblast ( uk, Полта́вська о́бласть, translit=Poltavska oblast; also referred to as Poltavshchyna – uk, Полта́вщина, literally 'Poltava Country') is an oblast (province) of central Ukraine. The administrative ...

in central

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

), to as one of the five children of Elhanan (Afanasi) Sapozhnikov and Chava Liva Sapozhnikov(a). His siblings were Mania Sapozhnikov, Zvi (Grisha) Elhanani, Avraham Elhanani, and Meir (Misha) Elhanani.

Education

Between 1913 and 1917, Elhanani completed a course in architecture at the

Kiev Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

School of Art and Architecture.

Avant-garde artist

In 1917 he joined a group of artists from

Kharkov Kharkiv ( uk, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest city and municipality in Ukraine.

with whom he designed revolutionary propaganda posters. El-Hanani participated in the anthropological Jewish expedition under the leadership of

S. Ansky Shloyme Zanvl Rappoport (1863 – November 8, 1920), known by his pseudonym S. Ansky (or An-sky), was a Jewish author, playwright, researcher of Jewish folklore, polemicist, and cultural and political activist. He is best known for his play ' ...

into the Pale of Settlement, which exerted a substantial influence on Russian-Jewish

avant-garde art The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or 'vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical D ...

Mandate Palestine and Israel

In 1922 El-Hanani immigrated to Mandate Palestine, where he settled in

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

Stage design

In the 1920s and 1930s Elhanani continued his avant-garde work by designing sets and costumes for theatre plays such as "Nishfei Peretz" (''lit.'' 'Peretz soireés'; 1926) and "Megilat Esther" (''lit.'' '

Book of Esther The Book of Esther ( he, מְגִלַּת אֶסְתֵּר, Megillat Esther), also known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as "the Scroll" ("the wikt:מגילה, Megillah"), is a book in the third section (, "Writings") of the Judaism, Jewish ''Tanak ...

'; 1930). He designed the set for the first production of the ''ohel'' (''lit.'' 'tent') workers'

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

, dedicated to the stories of

Isaac Leib Peretz Isaac Leib Peretz ( pl, Icchok Lejbusz Perec, yi, יצחק־לייבוש פרץ) (May 18, 1852 – April 3, 1915), also sometimes written Yitskhok Leybush Peretz was a Polish Jewish writer and playwright writing in Yiddish. Payson R. Stevens, Cha ...

, and was one of the designers for the second ''ohel'' exhibition of 1927.

Trade fair design

El-Hanani found work as a trade fair designer. In 1934 he both designed and managed the site of the

Levant Fair The Levant Fair (Hebrew: יריד המזרח; Yarid HaMizrach) was an international trade fair held in Tel Aviv during the 1920s and 1930s. History Early years One of the early precursors to the Levant Fair, an exhibition titled the "Exhibiti ...

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...

. This rendered him responsible for some of the buildings and sculptures at the fair, most specifically the Fair's symbol, the Flying Camel. Also for the Fair he created an 8-meter high sculpture in the style of Russian Constructivism, known as " The Hebrew Laborer", erected in 1934 and restored in 1989 when the original material, iron, was replaced by concrete and steel. Eventually he designed pavilions for trade fairs abroad. El-Hanani also planned the

Tel Aviv Convention Center Expo Tel Aviv (formerly the Israel Trade Fairs and Convention Center ( he, מרכז הירידים והקונגרסים בישראל) and later the Tel Aviv Convention Center ( he, מרכז הירידים - תל אביב), commonly referred to as ...

Architecture

PikiWiki Israel 6316 The central Synagogue in Tel

El-Hanani designed a number of buildings, some of which have become iconic in Israel. For

Yad Vashem Yad Vashem ( he, יָד וַשֵׁם; literally, "a memorial and a name") is Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; honoring Jews who fought against th ...

, the national

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

memorial, El-Hanani designed the Hall of Remembrance (1957-1961) working alongside Arieh Sharon and Benjamin Idelson, and participated as a judge in the design competition for the Valley of the Destroyed Communities. He designed the municipal auditorium in

Kfar Saba Kfar Saba ( he, כְּפַר סָבָא), officially Kefar Sava, is a city in the Sharon region, of the Central District of Israel. In 2019 it had a population of 110,456, making it the 16th-largest city in Israel. The population of Kfar Saba i ...

, the Gan Ha'ir Tower of Tel Aviv, and several buildings of the Weizmann Institute of Science, of which the Wix Library (1957) constitutes one of the works he's best known for. His other Weizmann Institute projects are the Jacob Ziskind Building (together with Israel Dicker and Uriel Schiller, 1947, according to a sketch by

Erich Mendelsohn Erich Mendelsohn (21 March 1887 – 15 September 1953) was a German architect, known for his expressionist architecture in the 1920s, as well as for developing a dynamic Functionalism (architecture), functionalism in his projects for department ...

), the Isaac Wolfson Building (1953), the Modernist-

Brutalist Brutalist architecture is an architectural style that emerged during the 1950s in the United Kingdom, among the reconstruction projects of the post-war era. Brutalist buildings are characterised by Minimalism (art), minimalist constructions th ...

Conference Center (1958), the Charles Clore International House (with Nissan Canaan, 1963), and the Stone Administration Building (with Nissan Canaan, 1966). After the first Weizmann Institute projects, El-Hanani went on to design other buildings for institutes of higher learning, such as the Wurzweiler Central Library of the Bar-Ilan University (with Nissan Canaan, 1967).

Other design work

Apart from

stage design Scenic design (also known as scenography, stage design, or set design) is the creation of theatrical, as well as film or television scenery. Scenic designers come from a variety of artistic backgrounds, but in recent years, are mostly trained ...

, Elhanani also worked in the fields of

graphic design Graphic design is a profession, academic discipline and applied art whose activity consists in projecting visual communications intended to transmit specific messages to social groups, with specific objectives. Graphic design is an interdiscipli ...

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

, and

typography Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line-spacing ( leading), and ...

. The Russian avant-garde style can be easily recognised in his work for the

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

-language monthly youth magazine "Moledeth" ("Homeland") published in the 1920s in

Erez Israel The Land of Israel () is the traditional Jewish name for an area of the Southern Levant. Related biblical, religious and historical English terms include the Land of Canaan, the Promised Land, the Holy Land, and Palestine (region), Palesti ...

.Moledeth
("Homeland") monthly, c. 1926, front cover: illustration and design by Sapozhnikov (El-Hanani). e-Bay, with illustrations. Retrieved 3 November 2020. El-Hanani designed the

logo A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name it represents as in a wordma ...

s of the pre-state

Palmach The Palmach (Hebrew: , acronym for , ''Plugot Maḥatz'', "Strike Companies") was the elite fighting force of the Haganah, the underground army of the Yishuv (Jewish community) during the period of the British Mandate for Palestine. The Palmach ...

paramilitary, and later that of the

Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the Israel, State of Israel. It consists of three servic ...

Awards - both received and created in his name

* The Israel Prize for Architecture, awarded to El-Hanani in 1973 * The Elhanani Prize for Integration of Art and Architecture, named for him and awarded by his family and the Yehoshua Rabinowitz Fund

Personal life

Arieh Elhanani was married to Sara with whom he had two children including a daughter, Michal (later Michal Golan).

External links

16 posters
by Arieh El-Hanani (Sapozhnikov), mainly 1920s-30s, at The Palestine Poster Project Archives. Retrieved 3 November 2020.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:El-Hanani, Arieh 1898 births 1985 deaths Architects in Mandatory Palestine Israeli architects Israel Prize in architecture recipients Burials at Trumpeldor Cemetery