MOSKOVITZ, SHALOM

MOSKOVITZ, SHALOM (Shalom of Safed; 1887–1980), Israel primitive painter. Moskovitz worked in Safed as a watchmaker, stonemaker, and silversmith until at the age of 70, encouraged by the artist Yossl Bergner, he began painting, and gained international fame. Telling the story of the Bible in line and color, he laid out his visual narrations in strips, one above the other. These were characterized by a linear style and the use of repeated forms. In Moskovitz's work, kabbalistic and ḥasidic traditions blended anachronistically with features from his own surroundings.