NEIMAN, YEHUDAH

NEIMAN, YEHUDAH (1931–), Israeli painter. Neiman was born in Warsaw. After immigrating to Ereẓ Israel in 1940, he studied painting in Tel Aviv and created stage designs for theaters but settled in Paris in 1954. From 1955 to 1965 he painted lyrical abstract paintings, concerning himself mainly with colors, by means of which he constructed his compositions of line, space, and light. At that time he was known as the leading "Luminist painter" because of his lyrical synthesis of space and light. In 1966, he made his first mechanical works using photographs which were printed on sheets of canvas or painted aluminum. This "photoméchanique," in which he was a master-artist, enabled him to multiply one photograph form and thus create a symmetrical composition. His art portrayed an erotic spirit, using different parts of the human body as subject matter and creating erotic suggestions in the composition. He applied this "photoméchanique" method to silkscreen and sculpture. Neiman held many exhibitions in Europe and Israel, and was represented at the "Erotic Art" exhibition in Sweden (1968), the "Mec-Art" exhibition in the Apollinaire Gallery, Milan (1969), and the Erotic Art exhibition in the Museum of Modern Art, Stockholm, in the same year. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: J.L. Swiners, in: Terre d'image 33 (1966); Y. Fischer, in: Kav, 7 (1967); J. Kultermann, The New Sculpture (1969). (Judith Spitzer)