|
Aryeh Navon was born in 1909 in the Ukraine, formerly part of the Russian empire. He immigrated to Israel with his family as a boy of 10 in 1919 on the famous Russian ship “Rosalyn” along with the other early third wave immigrants.
His was a family of five children, three of which grew up to become artists. His two brothers, Haim and Zeev, were also painters and graduates of the Bezalel Art Academy in Jerusalem. Haim studied there with the famous painter and illustrator Nahum Gutman, who he considered to be a great talent. However, neither of Navon’s brothers achieved any artistic success or managed to support themselves as artists. Zeev was forced to teach painting and Haim made an unsuccessful attempt at a career in graphics design in the U.S.
Unlike his brothers, Aryeh decided not to study art. His parents preferred he study something “practical” and sent their unwilling son to trade school. He was not a great talent in this field but during his studies he found that he excelled in drawing and quickly began creating caricatures. And thus Aryeh Navon found himself fast becoming the first active professional caricature artist of the Jewish settlements in the Land of Israel.
He began publishing his caricatures in humor and satire magazines and in 1928 his works appear in Itamar Ben-Avi’s newspaper Doar HaYom (“Mail of the Day”), although he was not paid for these works. Ben-Avi even coined a truly Hebrew term for the caricatures supplied by Navon, calling them tachdid (puns) and the caricaturist himself mehaded (pun artist), but these Hebrew names were not adopted by the public.
The star of “Davar”
Navon was then commissioned to provide works for Davar, the official journal of the Histadrut (federation of labor) established by Berl Katznelson, thus beginning a thirty year partnership with the editor as his chief caricature artist. From 1933 to 1964 every edition of Davar included a Navon caricature on the week’s events, excluding a period in 1934 when Navon studied in Paris. He continued to send drawings and caricatures to the newspaper. The caricatures in Davar were all characterized by a particular brand of minimalism. With a few thin, clean, dynamic lines Navon succeeded in portraying key figures of the time and their mannerisms. He instinctively knew how to create an atmosphere, to express an idea or capture the nuances of each situation. His drawings reflected topical events in Israeli society and his involvement as an artist in society, politics, culture and Israeli theatre. He presented not only social and political caricatures but also caricature portraits of well-known politicians, people of literature and actors. Navon’s caricatures became very popular and were soon the favorite section of the newspaper along with the poet Nathan Alterman’s rhymed verse in "HaTur HaShevi'i" (“The Seventh Column”). Both sections often defied British censorship rules that banned the publication of caricatures depicting topical events and the Jewish settlers struggle against the British.
One example of this is the famous caricature “Pshitat Regel” (“Bankruptcy”) showing a British boot trampling a ship full of illegal immigrants on their way to Palestine. British censorship even closed the Davar newspaper for ten days because of another Navon caricature published after an incident where British soldiers wounded eleven Jewish children. In this work the doctor is shown examining the wounded children and exclaiming in surprise: “What wonderful marksmanship. How did they manage to hit such tiny targets?”
The caricature “Pshitat Regel” (“Bankruptcy”)
Navon would often transport current events to biblical times as if they belonged in some bygone era. One of his most well-known caricatures is a painting from the War of Independence of the newly conquered Mount Castel with a stocking cap at its peak, the typical Palmach fighters’ garb, and the military convoys passing beneath it. Another example is the
caricature showing mosquitoes standing dejected
|
Aryeh Navon, Photographer: Yaakov Agor
after the invention of DDT with one saying: “See what they created for us” and the other calming him down –“They made the atom bomb for themselves”. In the early days of Israel’s independence Navon published drawings of his old-time comics hero “Uri Muri” from Davar LeYeladim (Davar for Children). Uri was a short-statured Israeli boy who wore a sock cap and embodied the young Israel, solving various problems that plagued the developing state in funny and grandiose ways.
Navon’s caricatures often provoked irate phone calls and letters to the newspaper. After publishing his satiric portrayal of the rude “Dan” company bus drivers Dan drivers bombarded the newspaper with letters ending their subscriptions to the paper. Although Navon’s caricatures dealt with topical events some are still as relevant today as they were then: A caricature of Stalin, the Russian dictator, standing in a cemetery among the graves of friends he had executed and raising his glass in toast: “Cheers! And long live the revolutionaries!”
Navon was responsible for the making of the first animated film in Israel and for the first continuous comics strip in Hebrew with poet Leah Goldberg. From 1948 on he began working as a theater set designer. His first theatre job was designing the set for Moshe Shamir’s He Walked Through the Fields and Navon continued to create sets for over 150 more plays. He became the chief set painter for the Cameri Theatre.
Exhibitions:
1943 Group exhibition, Bezalel, Jerusalem
1949 Ofakim Hadashim, Tel Aviv Museum
1954 Caricatures, Haifa Museum of Art
1959 Group exhibition, Bezalel
1959 Caricatures, Haifa Museum of Art
1960 “ Paintings from Israel”, Musée d'Art Moderne in Paris
1960 Paintings and graphic work in Boston, U.S.A
1969 White-Hepbro-Webster Gallery in New York
1978 Solo exhibition, Israel Museum
1979 Theatre sketches, The Helena Rubinstein Pavilion for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv Museum
1981 The International Triennial for Stage Art Design, Yugoslavia
1982 “Israeli Art in the Twenties”, Israel Museum
1983 Ofakim Hadashim Painters, Holon Art Centre
1983 Set design in Jerusalem Theatre, Haifa University and Habima, Tel Aviv
1993 “Works for the Theatre”, solo exhibition in the Open Museum of Israeli Art, Western Galilee
Books:
1938 Shahor veLavan (“Black and White”)
1943 Rishumim MeHaEmek (“Drawings of the Valley”)
1945 BaHazit UbaOref (“In the Frontline and the Home Front”)
1947 Ad Achshav (“Until Now”)
1950 Alpaim Shanim veShana Ahat (“Two Thousand Years and One”)
1956 Mar Israel (“Mr. Israel”)
1958 Ani Ben Eser (“I am Ten Years Old”)
1982 Rishumim (“Drawings”)
Prizes:
1939 Dizengoff Prize for Painting
1944, 1941 Jerusalem Prize for Painting
1960 Gvia Halapid Prize for Stage Design
1966 Yedioth Ahronoth Harp of David Prize for Theatre
1972 Ministry of Education and Culture Prize
1975 Chosen by ITI as one of 13 most influential artists to affect Israeli theatre 1970-75
1978 Meir Margalit Prize for Theatre
1984 Israel Prize
1984 Yad Ben Tzvi Prize for Excellence in Illustration for his book “Uri Caduri”
|