Benni Efrat (born 1936) is an Israeli painter, sculptor, printmaker and filmmaker who was born in

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

Biography

Benni Efrat immigrated to

Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...

in 1947. From 1959 to 1961, he studied at the

Avni Institute of Art and Design Avni Institute of Art and Design is an Israeli art school located in Tel Aviv. History The Studia school (later Avni Institute) was established in 1936 by a group of Jewish artists. Among the founders was Aharon Avni, who became the school's fir ...

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 ...

under

Yehezkel Streichman Yehezkel Streichman ( he, יחזקאל שטרייכמן, 1906 – January 12, 1993) was an Israeli painter. He is considered a pioneer of Israeli modernist painting. Among the awards that he won were the Dizengoff Prize and the Israel Prize. Bi ...

(1906–1993). From 1966 to 1976, he lived in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, where he studied at

Saint Martin's School of Art Saint Martin's School of Art was an art college in London, England. It offered foundation and degree level courses. It was established in 1854, initially under the aegis of the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields. Saint Martin's became part of t ...

in London.

Art career

Benni Efrat was one of the first of Israeli

Conceptual artists Conceptual art, also referred to as conceptualism, is art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic, technical, and material concerns. Some works of conceptual art, sometimes called instal ...

and influenced others in this direction (e.g.,

Joshua Neustein Joshua Neustein (born 1940) is a contemporary visual artist who lives and works in New York City. He is known for his Conceptual Art, environmental installations, Land Art, Postminimalist torn paper works, epistemic abstraction, deconstructed c ...

, Michael Gitlin,

Buky Schwartz Buky Schwartz (pronounced BOO-kie) ( he, בוקי שוורץ; June 16, 1932 – September 1, 2009, Tel Aviv) was an Israeli sculptor and video artist. Biography Moshe (Buky) Schwartz was born in Jerusalem. From 1956 to 1958, he studied sculpture ...

). His works were systems of components which spoke for themselves and sought to represent no more than the sum of their parts. In the mid-1970s his displays were accompanied by films, on the back of which the artist had painted. After settling in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in 1976, became involved with conceptual art, producing drawings, prints and photographs that explore energy, space and the perception in sculpture. Efrat currently lives in

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

Awards and recognition

* 1966 America-Israel Cultural Foundation * 1969 Sixth Paris Biennale for Young Artists * 1974

Sandberg Prize The Sandberg Prize for Israeli Art refers to a prize for art and design awarded at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, with a particular focus on Israeli art. The prize was inaugurated in 1968 with funds from an anonymous New York–based donor. The pr ...

for Israeli Art, Israel Museum of Jerusalem * 1992 America-Israel Cultural Foundation

Gallery

File:Buky Schwartz.JPG, Substance moving, 1969
Sponge, foam rubber and metal panel File:Tel aviv campos 012.JPG, Energy, 1969
Stainless steel

Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) ( he, אוּנִיבֶרְסִיטַת תֵּל אָבִיב, ''Universitat Tel Aviv'') is a public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Locate ...

File:'Extrapolations', limestone and steel cable sculpture by Benni Efrat (Israeli), 1978, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel.JPG, Extrapolations, limestone and steel cable sculpture, 1978,

Israel Museum The Israel Museum ( he, מוזיאון ישראל, ''Muze'on Yisrael'') is an art and archaeological museum in Jerusalem. It was established in 1965 as Israel's largest and foremost cultural institution, and one of the world’s leading encyclopa ...

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

File:'Stain on the Vision, Summer 2048', zinc coated barbed wire sculpture by Benni Efrat (Israeli), 1999, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Israel.jpg, Stain on the Vision, 1999
Zinc coated barbed wire sculpture

Tel Aviv Museum of Art Tel Aviv Museum of Art ( he, מוזיאון תל אביב לאמנות ''Muzeon Tel Aviv Leomanut'') is an art museum in Tel Aviv, Israel. The museum is dedicated to the preservation and display of modern and contemporary art from Israel and aroun ...

, Tel Aviv

References

External links

* * * * Bex, F., W. van Mulders, and H. van Pelt, ''Beyond Surface: Peter Berg, Benni Efrat, Tim Head, Buky Schwartz'',

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

. Internationaal Cultureel Centrum, 1980. * Gintz, Claude, ''Benni Efrat: Quest for Light'',

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, Internationaal Cultureel Centrum, 1982. * Ikon Gallery, ''In fusion: New European Art: Ben Bella, Carlos Capelan, Benni Efrat, Chohreh Feyzdjou, Claudio Goulart, Ying Liang, Lea Lubin, As M'Bengue, Flavio Pons, Felix de Rooy, Ohannes Tapyuli'',

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

, UK,

Ikon Gallery The Ikon Gallery () is an English gallery of contemporary art, located in Brindleyplace, Birmingham. It is housed in the Grade II listed, neo-gothic former Oozells Street Board School, designed by John Henry Chamberlain in 1877. Ikon was set u ...

, 1993. * Internationaal Cultureel Centrum, ''Nature's Factory, Winter 2046, 1888: Benni Efrat and Ronny SomeckWinter 2046'',

, The

, 1998. * Internationaal Cultureel Centrum, ''Benni Efrat: Putney Bridge, 1976. Printed After A Film Projected on a Blackboard, Wiped and Scribbled on With White Chalk'',

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), ...