Dancers by Naftali Bezem

About the Artist: Naftali Bezem was born in 1924 in Germany. Bezem immigrated to Israel in 1939, at the age of fourteen with a Youth Aliya group, before the outbreak of World War II. A member of the vibrant generation that built the state of Israel, his early adolescence was spent under Nazi oppression, in refugee camps and in constant fear for the safety of his parents, who died in Auschwitz. This personal history largely shaped his artistic style and work. He studied at the Bezalel academy in Jerusalem (1943-1946), principally with Mordechi Ardon and spent three years working and studying in Paris, France. Bezem's technique palette and style has changed through the years, but he has always remained a figurative painter. In the 1950s, social and political topics occupied a central position in his work: peace, immigrant transition camps, and proletarian scenes. Inspired by the Mexican painter Diego Rivera, he rendered social ideals in monumental mural wall paintings in public instit