Yechiel Shemi
| Yechiel Shemi | |
|---|---|
Yechiel Shemi
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| Born | 1922 |
| Died | October 31, 2003 |
| Nationality | Israeli |
| Awards | Sandberg Award Israel Prize for sculpture |
Yechiel Shemi (Hebrew: יחיאל שמי ) (1922-2003) was an Israeli sculptor. His environmental sculptures are displayed in open spaces around the country.
In 1959-1961, Yechiel Shemi studied art in Paris. In 1977-1979, he taught sculpting and lectured on environmental sculpture at Oranim Teachers College. He also taught at the Technion in Haifa and the Ein Hod artist's colony. Shemi was a member of New Horizons group.
After a show in the United States in the 1960s, the Museum of Modern Art acquired his work. Shemi was the first Israeli artist to have his work purchased by the MoMa.
Shemi won the Sandberg Prize in 1981 and the Israel Prize for sculpture in 1986. In 1966 and 1997, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art mounted exhibitions of his work.
Yehiel Shemi, (born Yehiel Stizberg), was born in 1922, to parents Moshe and Esther Stizberg. When he was two months old Yehiel with his family immigrated to the Mandate Israel and settled in Haifa. At the age of 14 he joined a youth movement called "The Working Camps". It was at this time that he started studying art with Paul K. Henich. In 1938 Stizberg was one of the founders of Kibbutz Beit HaArava which is located north of the Dead Sea. Alongside his agricultural work, Stizberg was interested in art. First he created landscape drawings and paintings, but then moved onto sculpting.
In 1942 Stizberg joined his friend Yitzhak Danziger's studio where he painted for 3 months. In 1945 Stizberg changed his last name to Shemi and joined the HeHalutz Movement as a courier activist. Up until 1948 Shemi continued as a missionary in Italy, France and Egypt to fulfill his job. Shemi then went to New York as a missionary where he studied with Chaim Gross, there Shemi was exposed and became acquainted with modern art and art history.
During the independence war Kibbutz Bet Haarava has abandoned and since Shemi was in New York at the time his artwork that was left in the kibbutz was abandoned or got lost. In 1949 after Shemi came back from the states he founded and lived in Kibbutz Kabri, Israel in the Galil. During the years 1950-52 Shemi worked as the kibbutz secretary and worked with Avigdor Stematsky and Joseph Zaritsky. He was influenced by them and in 1952 he became a member of New Horizons Group. In 1954 (the year he won a Dizengoff Prize) the members of the Kibbutz decided that Shemi would be able to work solely on his sculpting and art, assuming that his art work would bring money into the Kabri Kibbutz.
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