Ben-Zion

Ben-Zion, also known as Ben-Zion Weinman was a Russian-born American painter, printmaker, sculptor, educator, and poet. He was a member of "The Ten" group of expressionist artists.

He immigrated to the United States in 1920 after the death of his father, and started by teaching Hebrew language. When he started painting he dropped his last name and started hyphenating. His first large scale painting was Friday Evening (1933), depicting his family's Sabbath dinner table. Starting in 1935, many of his paintings were expressionist versions of reinterpreted biblical scenes. His first solo exhibition was in 1936 at the Artists' Gallery in New York City. His early artwork was primarily done in oil paint, watercolors, and intaglio printmaking. He was largely a self-taught artist.

From 1936 until 1942, he was a founding member of "The Ten" expressionist artist group, which also included the artists Mark Rothko, Louis Harris (artist), Adolph Gottlieb, Ralph Rosenborg, Louis Schanker, Joseph Solman, Nahum Tschacbasov, and Ilya Bolotowsky. The mission of the art group was, "to protest against the reputed equivalence of American painting and literal painting."From the 1930s to the 1960s, Ben-Zion taught art (through the Works Progress Administration) at Cooper Union and other locations.

In the 1950s, he began working in welded iron sculptures. In 1959, the Jewish Museum in New York City held a retrospective exhibition of his work.

Text courtesy of Wikipedia, 2023