Basha Art Gallery

Israel Isaac was born 1944 in Nice, France. At age 16, upon reading about a Chagall exhibit, he became inspired to paint and express himself through this art genre. He has been painting in his own unique, evolving style ever since.
Expression through art also led Israel Isaac on a spiritual quest, resulting in his eventual adoption of Jewish Hassidic philosophy and practice and its influence on his art. Today, after decades of painting and after having achieved a notable level of Hassidic mastery, the fusion of these two realms has been realised through unparalleled depth, symbolism, joy and hope inherent in his art.
Israel Isaac may be said to belong to the Ecole de Paris, having followed on and learned from that generation of artists. He is one of a handful of contemporary artists – the likes of Raanan, Sorkin, Benaroche, Nachshon -- who have continued in the tradition of Chagall but each developed his own style. Despite the greater prominence of some of the others, Israel Isaac’s art, to the connoisseur, stands out as being especially significant, in that every one of his paintings and every element therein is a colourful and highly symbolic expression of a deeply rooted spiritual belief and, often, the product of a personal experience in his own spiritual metamorphosis.
At first, in his teens, Israel Isaac –- an autodidact -- taught himself to paint, discovering a natural talent and affinity for this pursuit. At age 20, he moved to Paris, where he exhibited in various venues, opened a gallery, and underwent more formal training. People bought his art, and he expanded sales to Belgium.
In the 1970’s Israel Isaac was discovered by, and taken under the wing of, a Californian patron. He branched into illuminated manuscripts, producing many beautiful works including Megillot and excerpts from the liturgy and Book of Psalms. In the 80‘s he completed a unique project whose development had spanned twelve years – an extraordinary Passover Haggadah, now in private hands, which was also re-produced in a limited edition that completely sold out and can be found in private collections in the US, Belgium, France, and elsewhere.
In keeping with the tenets of his Hassidic outlook and way of life, Israel Isaac — unlike the stardom sought by many other artists and their promoters — has preferred to not engage in self-promotion of his art. His priority and focus has been not commercial gain or personal prominence, but rather the humble fulfilment, through art, of a spiritual calling, a self expression that he feels is his true mission. Chagall had been perhaps the first artist to try to “paint the Jewish soul.” Prior to him, most Jewish art had taken a more conventional form of biblical characters and scenes. Chagall’s innovative breakthrough in style had triggered Israel Isaac’s own journey into the depths and expanses of his own soul and their interpretation through an art form unique to him. Where other artists — including the well-regarded — may use style and symbolism to evoke, or provoke, Israel Isaac’s art works are — each and every one of them — replete with the content and message of beliefs he has spent a lifetime understanding and formulating.
Israel Isaac’s art is not produced rapidly. Each work tends to emerge slowly, evolving into a statement of an aspect of his life, or his concerns, that he feels must be reflected through the visual medium. The reader may be interested to know that, complementing his art, he is also an active and recognised Hassidic leader and the author of some 10-12 books in French or Hebrew on the subject of spirituality and Hassidic philosophy. He is a family man, living in Israel, with six adult children and a growing extended family. Due to advancing age and his other commitments, he paints less these days and only at unspecified and unpredictable times do new works emerge. Therefore we encourage prospective collectors to obtain his works when they can, as we cannot predict when additional works will come onto the market. Collectors generally hold onto his works, and there is a very limited active after-market.
Israel Isaac’s art works are virtually all in private hands. Collectors are primarily in France, Belgium, the USA (New York, Miami, California), the UK (London, Manchester), and Canada (Toronto).
BASHA GALLERY of Jerualem is proud to introduce you to ISRAEL ISAAC BESANCON and to be able to offer selected works of his for sale. Basha Gallery’s co-owner, Mr. Asher Mene, has studied under Rabbi Besancon’s for many years, and thus it is with a special level of insight and appreciation that we offer his art works to prospective collectors.

Born - 2.11.1946 in the city of Kendige-Pogost, Komy Republic, Russia.
1980 - Completed M.A. Degree in Art. Faculty of Painting and Graphics, University of Magnetogorsk.
1980-1990 - Held the post of top artist in the Art and Desing Institute in city of Tashlibinsk, Russia.
Aliyah to Israel - December 1990
1991 - Accepted as a member in the Israeli Artist Association.
From 1991 lives and works in the Sanur Artists' Village.

"Nama Art-Gallery", Tel-Aviv, Israel
"Central Art Gallery", Ramat Hasharon, Israel
"Milwaukee Museum", U.S.A
"Municipal Gallery", Chicago, U.S.A
"Tevel-Art" Gallery, Miami New-York U.S.A
"Avantgard Gallery", Stockholm, Suede
"Sofia Gallery", Gelsenkirchen, Allemagne
"Art-Gallery", Heppenheim, Allemagne
"Zaslavski Gallery", Berlin Allemagne
"Central Art Gallery", Frankfurt, Düsseldorf, Allemagne
"Art-Gallery", Toronto Canada
"Tevel-art Gallery" Montreal, Canada
"Graal Gallery" Toulouse, Montpellier France
"Basha Art Gallery" Jerusalem Israel

Edouard Grossman's creative world fascinates and delights the viewer. It is almost impossible not to fall under the spell of his magical power; the mystery and charm of his pictures remain all-powerful throughout. His pictures seem to produce a magnetic field of attraction, enhanced by a powerful and creative energy. You can feel the free and powerful spirit of the artist in Edouard Grossman's works, whatever their genre, their subject, their style; the artist skillfully controls the expressive sources of his art without being tied by a dogma or canon of beauty. He has adopted the advantages of postimpressionist color, mastering them in a way that corresponds so greatly to his own vision, to his individual style and his striking temperament that he plunges us into the element of color with all its force.
The internal logic of the artist's spiritual and creative development, invisible to a stranger's eyes, has led him to understand the limits of the traditional language of description. The language of abstract painting is more universal, although one artist out of two uses it in his very personal way to express his feelings and ideas. Edouard Grossman is distinguished by a colorful, romantic way of thinking, a tendency to paint the eternal being in preference to prosaic everyday life. Certain of his abstract compositions frequently contain the silhouette of a bird or a fish or the outline of an imaginary animal. These elements, introduced forcefully in the melting pot of the artist's imagination, are inspired in the colorful panorama of a creative microcosm.
At the same time, the artist is motivated by an acute sense, the consciousness of his historic roots, and we can find in Edouard Grossman's pictures his attraction towards the original traditions of Oriental culture, with images and texts, forms and calligraphies, colours, assembled lines and letters which form a single organic whole.
In our age, the idea of the beauty of paintings has lost its attraction for many artists. For Edouard Grossman, beauty retains its fundamental importance, and aesthetic criteria are for him just so many landmarks in the oppressive labyrinth of postmodern timelessness. After such a dramatic and such a contradictory century, and in the context of a profound and lasting crisis of spiritual, artistic and humanist values, there is a vital and particularly intense need for an art which reveals to us the sparkling richness and charm of the world around us. Grossman's art does not degrade, but elevates, mankind. When we immerse ourselves for a long time in Edouard Grossman's painting, we become convinced that this world is beautiful and marvelous.
Professor Gregory Ostrovsky
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Doctor of Art History
Art Critic

Tzvi was born in the Bronx, New York City, in 1948 and grew up in the New Jersey suburbs. He received a BA in philosophy and religion from Oberlin College, Ohio, then came to Israel in 1970 to pursue rabbinical studies. He spent the next ten years as a theological student and teacher at academies in Israel, receiving Rabbinical Ordination in 1976.
In 1980 he began graduate work in Philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, while working in Jewish educational projects. After discovering Jewish Puppet Theatre he began to write plays, and within a few years was directing his own Theatre and Puppet Theatre. While engaged in the theatre work, he took up art studies, discovering a talent for painting. He pursued formal studies and also trained with American artists at the Jerusalem Studio.
His favourite subject in philosophy is metaphysics, especially the form that it takes in medieval Aristotelian philosophy. Metaphysics contemplates nature as being, reality as it relates to the Divine. His painting is a direct expression of this interest. The sense of beauty that guides his brush is the direct counterpart to a sense of truth that guides his philosophical contemplation. It represents a commitment to the real, and a fascination with the natural that is animated by a yearning to reach into and beyond it, to the Divine. The sense of nature as referring to something beyond itself is the foundation of his aesthetics. His visual portrayal of the objects he paints is guided by what he perceives they mean. To him, a good visual concept, like a good metaphysical one, should catapult the soul into the presence of the Truth and the Beauty which is its ultimate desire.
The paintings that an artist most admires are likely to influence his style and aesthetic judgment. Tzvi is influenced by Rembrandt, Vermeer and Medieval Painting. For him, they carry a similar message, offering an image that is a kind of magic mirror, reflecting the world yet conceived to communicate something which the eye cannot see: not what the painter felt, but what he hoped for. Most of Tzvi’s paintings express a tension between those two styles, two ways of using the eye to offer the soul a foretaste of eternity.
He considers himself a Still Life painter. In a very real, though somewhat narrower, sense he draws upon the western tradition of still-life painting. He expresses great admiration for 17th century still life painting and the painting of the great 19th century French artist Jean-Baptiste Chardin.

Hanna Fluk is an Israeli artist who was born in Argentina in 1953 and moved to Israel in 1978. She has been living in Jerusalem since 1993.
Hanna is an autodidact, having developed her own painting technique over the past twelve years. During her first years she focused on reproductions of famous artists and painters, but since 2000 has been creating her own original works. These have been described as expressions of the “Jerusalem Experience” wherein it is not so much the artist who chooses the subject but the subject that chooses the artist.
Her symbolic work is an attempt to recreate the spiritual dynamics of the Holy Land. The hidden and the obvious leave the observer wondering, while constantly discovering something new.
Fluk’s paintings can be found in private collections in the USA, Switzerland, Holland, South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, and Israel.
“Hanna Fluk is an Israeli artist born in Argentina in 1955. Suns and moons, stones, Jews, Muslims and Christians ascending between mosques, synagogues and churches, are merged with computers and modern buildings that define a new time and space. With a sense of humor and some irony in a figurative and expressionist manner, Fluk recreates the spiritual dynamics of ‘the‘Jerusalem Experience.’ ”
New York Art Magazine, Catalog

• Saatchi Gallery, "Head to Head" contest: Selected three times as Favorite, from more than 6,000 artists.
• Saatchi Gallery, "Showdown", UK, "Renew I - After Botero": Selected as one of 50 Favorites Artworks in 5th round.
• Saatchi Gallery, "Showdown", UK, "Time and Space": Selected as one of 50 Favorites Artworks in 4th round.
• Saatchi Gallery, UK, "Don Quixote Talks with the Messiah’s Donkey in Jerusalem - After Picasso": Selected as one of 50 Favorites Artworks in the 3rd round
2006
• NY ARTS Annual Catalog of Top Art. "H". pg. 120. N.Y, USA
• "Zeek," a Jewish Journal of Thought & Culture, on-line, October 2006. Parallel Worlds, NY, USA.
• NY Arts Magazine, "Tips & Picks," on-line, June, 2006, NY, USA.
• UN and Eurocircle Event, New York Institute of Technology (NYIT), NY, USA. June 2006
• First Annual Israel Investment Expo & Art Fair, Baltimore, Washington, USA. March 2006
• Permanent Exhibit, Technology Park, Bldg. 9-8, Malcha, Jerusalem, Israel.
• Secretaria de Urbanismo y Vivienda de la Pcia. de Buenos Aires, Bs. As., Argentina. March 2006
2005
• The Cultural and Education Center, Srigim, Ha-Ella Valley, Israel, October 2005
• Music and Art Center, Kadimah, Israel. September2005
• Yavneh Cultural center, Yavneh, Israel, July 2005
• Ramat Effal Cultural Center, May 2005
• Secretaria de Urbanismo y Vivienda de la Pcia. de Buenos Aires, Bs. As., Argentina, April 2005
• Keidar Architecture and Decoration Studio, Kiryat Ono, Israel, March 2005