Ruth Schloss (1922-2013), three portraits.
1. Portrait of Woman. Felt-tipped pen on paper. Signed.
27X35 cm. Good condition. Stains. Minor stain (where ink has run) surrounding signature.
2. Portrait of Woman. Pen on paper. Signed.
22X28 cm. Good condition. Minor stains.
3. Male Portrait. Pencil on paper. Signed.
25X33 cm. Good-fair condition. Numerous stains. Tears, open tears to edges of sheet.
Ruth Schloss (1922-2013) was born in Nuremberg, Germany, and immigrated to Palestine with her family in 1935. When she was only sixteen she began her studies at the Bezalel School, and then joined the founding group of Kibbutz Lehavot HaBashan. Schloss devoted her talents to the art and printing enterprises of the Kibbutz Movement, working as an illustrator for the newspaper "Mishmar LiYeladim" and as a book cover designer for "Sifriyat Poalim." From ca. 1950 to 1952, she studied art at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris, and after returning to Israel, due to the rift in the Kibbutz Movement, she left her kibbutz. Schloss was a member of the Communist Party, and her paintings, in the style of Social Realism, often conveyed a socialist message, exposing social differences and class distinctions. Her works focused on the weaker members of society – downtrodden women, hungry children, workers, and residents of transit camps. Later, she turned her attention to the lives of women, to the helplessness of birth, and to the decline of old age, all of which she painted from the perspective – and with the sensitivity – of a woman viewing human beings as rooted in their surroundings. In the words of the poet Nathan Zach: “Her motto remained the same over the years. Life itself. Without embellishment".
Reference: Gideon Ofrat, “Broader Horizons, 120 Years of Israeli Art, from the Ofrat Collection to the Levin Collection, Selected Works," Part II, Vienna-Jerusalem Foundation for Israeli Art, Jerusalem, 2013, Hebrew (English edition available).
Provenance: The Uzi Agassi Collection.