LIFSCHITZ, URI

LIFSCHITZ, URI (1936– ), Israeli painter. Lifschitz was born in kibbutz Givat ha-Sheloshah. His first paintings were lyrical abstractions, influenced by the Israeli painter yossef zaritsky . His compositions are restless, with intense line and color. Since the late 1950s Lifschitz has become one of the leading representatives of the "New Figuration" in Israel art. He uses dramatic images as a direct and immediate reaction to social problems. In his large and expressive paintings of the 1960s, there is a mixture of abstract background and twisted figures drawn with black contours, and the artist himself is involved in the drama depicted on the canvas. There is a feeling of ironical criticism of the surrounding world, for example in his painting In the Field (1969), and the drawings I am a chair and I don't know (1969). In 1972, he held an exhibition in Tel Aviv, showing paintings and etchings made during 1971 in Spain. These reflect another artistic turning point in which he is inspired by Velasquez and Goya. In After Velasquez (1971) he uses a portrait made by the Spanish artist as an element in an abstract surrounding. Lifschitz has received many awards, including the Marc Chagall Fellowship in 1966. (Judith Spitzer)