Avigdor Stematsky (1908-1989), Female Portrait. Oil pastel on paper. Signed. Approx. 48X34. Framed, 71X56 cm with frame (loss to lower part). Unexamined out of frame. Avigdor Stematsky (1908-1989), an Israeli painter, a leading member of the New Horizons (Ofakim Hadashim) art movement. Was born in Odessa and grew up in a Zionist home. In 1921, his family immigrated to Palestine, settling in the Neve Shalom neighborhood of Tel-Aviv (his father, Zvi Steimatzky, opened a small bookshop on 21 Herzl St. – the first branch of the future Steimatzky bookstore chain). In 1926 he was accepted to Bezalel. In the early 1930s, he moved to Paris, studied at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière and met the artists of the Paris School of Art, who greatly influenced his style. He was a member of the first group of artists who represented Palestine in an international exhibition – the 1931 Paris Colonial Exhibition. Upon his return to Palestine, he held his first solo exhibition at the Tel Aviv Museum (1939), participated in the "Exhibition of Eight" at the HaBimah Theater (1942) and was awarded the Dizengoff Prize for his painting "View of Rechovot" (during these years he was forced to make a living by taking odd jobs: delivering newspapers and designing sets for Purim balls and movie posters). In 1945, he established the "Studio" art school with Yechezkel Streichman and in 1948 was one of the founders of the New Horizons group (alongside Streichman, Joseph Zaritsky, Arie Aroch and others), identified with the "lyrical abstract" style. Provenance: The Uzi Agassi Collection.