Laments Drawings
Naftali Bezem
1962
The book Lament Drawings *presents a series of ink drawings by Naftali Bezem, accompanied by poems by Ezra Zussman (1970–1973)—a poet, translator, editor, and theatre critic, and a recipient of the Bialik Prize. Bezem regarded himself as an artist who bound his personal story to the national narrative, above all to the tragedy left by the Holocaust. The Eichmann trial, which took place during that period (1961), had a profound impact on him: it reopened his wounds and confronted him anew with the catastrophe. The drawings constitute a lament for his parents, who perished in the Holocaust, and for the murder of innocent victims. Zussman’s texts echo the drawings in words; they incorporate motifs from the Jewish world that are also present in Bezem’s work, and likewise cry out the rupture and pain while calling for consolation.
Bezem’s oeuvre is composed of images that form a personal iconographic language. Symbols drawn from Jewish tradition are interwoven with depictions of destruction and the Holocaust; their juxtaposition generates surreal conjunctions that express his scarred psyche. The drawings are executed in a strong, rigid line—a style that reinforces and intensifies the sense of terror and horror.
The book was photographed courtesy of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art Library, where this copy is also available for viewing.
- Pages: 16
- Type of binding: Hardcover
- Dimensions (cm): 30x24
- Printing: plai-p.e.c
- Binding: plai-p.e.c
- Type of printing: Letterpress printing
- Publication: Massada
- Place of publication: Israel
- Book photography: Leafing Magazine
Naftali Bezem was born in Essen, Germany, in 1924. He immigrated to Israel in 1939 before World War II. From 1943 to 1946, he studied art at the "Bezalel Academy of Art and Design" in Jerusalem with the Israeli painter Mordechai Ardon, and after a year became his teacher and personal assistant. In 1947, he went with his wife to Cyprus to meet holocaust survivors, and that had a big influence on him.
In 194,9 Bezem spent three years studying in Paris in the catholic School of Modern Religious Art, and in 1952 he returned to Israel and worked for the "Kibbutz Movement" as an artist and painter. In 1954, he participated in the Venice Biennale of art and had a solo exhibition in the Tel-Aviv Museum of Art. A lot of Bezem's works are in the outdoors, outside the studio; in 1963, he created a mosaic wall for "El Al Airlines"; in 1970, he painted the ceiling of the reception hall in the President's house in Jerusalem, and in 1971, he created the relief on the exit wall in the "Yad Vashem" museum. In 1995, he moved to Paris, established an art studio, and after two years, moved to Switzerland. Most of Bezem's works of art refer to subjects related to Zionism and to the idea of the revival of the Jewish people in their land.
