Exhibition of Dvora Ben Shaul, Jerusalem

In the main hall of Beit HaNoar, Jerusalem , 12 Herzog St. are exhibited now 12 graphic pictures of Dvora Ben Shaul, Jerusalem . In spite of the smallness of the exhibit the very expressive style of her graphic conception comes to full account.

Ten of the exhibits are in black and white chalk, two are in crayon colors. Her graphic style is wholly dedicated to Nature around us, seen in its two main appearances as general background and single trees in the foreground.

The background is given in the lightness and airiness of Nature and in its infinite expansion while the foreground, which is taken by a tree or trees in their bodily might and in the growing strength of their trunks leading to the richness of their branches, which are expanding in harmony, creating balance between trunk and branches and between themselves, and at the same time forming contact with the background, representing Nature in its unity, life and infinity.

There are, of course, differentiations in the representation of Nature, instead of one tree there can be several or bushes and others forming the foreground.

But, human life as such is very rarely to be found in Dvora Ben Shaul’s work, as human life is separate from pure Nature in a high degree, and is contained in the architectural enclosures of towns and villages. Yet, there are transitions between human life and pure Nature as windows with their views of the outside world, or even human appliances like tables with colorful still life on them, or even chairs which are forming such transitions.

At the exhibition is one crayon work, which has in its center a fine baroque table, included without difficulty in the rich appearance of Nature around.

Dvora Ben Shaul’s work is rather in difference from modern abstract art. But it is full of Nature life and shows that a true artist has to be, beside his technical perfection, a kind of philosopher in his universal understanding of world and life.

This review was written by Dr. Ze’ev Goldmann who is maybe the oldest active art critic in the world (103 years old). Dr. Ze’ev Goldmann is the founder and director of the Akko Municipal Museum . He finished his art studies in 1936 in Germany and lives since then in Israel . After years of Kibbutz life he was working with the Israeli Archaeological Department in the Western Galilee, Haifa and Akko . He is still working writing research work on Jewish and Neo-Christian Symbolica.