"Begerush Kafrisin" [In the Cyprus Exile], an album with twenty-six linocuts made by a group of art students at Naftali Bezem's art workshop in the Cyprus detention camps. Cyprus, [ca. 1948]. A copy from the estate of Naftali Bezem, signed by him; the prints are signed by the artists.
An album with twenty-six linocuts depicting the lives of the illegal immigrants imprisoned in the detention camps established by the British in Cyprus. The album, created under the guidance of Naftali Bezem by students of the art workshop (established by the Pinhas Rutenberg Seminar in Cyprus), was printed in 120 copies only.
The linocuts are signed in pencil by the artists, students of the workshop – Moshe Bernstein (his works, many of which deal with the shtetls of eastern Europe, were displayed in various exhibitions since the late 1940s. In 1999, he was awarded the Massuah Institute for the Study of the Holocaust prize for his "documentation of the world that vanished at the beginning of his career"), Peretz Weinreich (the drawings he made in Cyprus were published in several Israeli newspapers. After the establishment of the state, he worked as a caricaturist for the newspapers "Dvar Hashavu'ah" and "Al Hamishmar". In 2008 he received the Golden pencil award), Nachum Bendel, Shmuel Leitner, Meir Wachtel, Baruch Randsburg, Baruch Friedman, David Tashamovsky, Avraham Sher, Chana Stern, Elisheva Heiman, Yitzchak Samushi and others.
The album opens with a quote from the last will of Pinchas Rutenberg (linocut): "… we will be brothers in life, in creation, in action and in building" (Hebrew). On the following leaf appears a short introduction: "Cyprus, one station on the painful road to Palestine. Its Jewish meaning is barbed wire, forced idleness and degeneration. Yet even such reality was teeming with life. Friends from the camp in Cyprus tell about all these in this book". These two leaves, the print index appearing on the last leaf, and the cover illustration are all linocuts. The leaf with the quote from Pinchas Rutenberg's last will is signed by Naftali Bezem.
The Pinchas Ruthenberg Seminar operated in the Cyprus deportation camps from mid-1947 to 1949. The seminar established schools in the camps, which imparted education in many fields. Teachers, including artists Naftali Bezem and Ze'ev Ben Zvi, were brought to Cyprus to teach at the seminar.
Artist Naftali Bezem (1924-2018), born in Essen, Germany, immigrated to Palestine in 1939 as part of the Youth Aliyah. Between 1943 and 1946 he studied at the Bezalel Academy of Arts. His parents, who remained in Germany, perished in the Holocaust. After teaching art at the Cyprus detention camps, he lived for several years in Paris and with his return to Israel in 1952 became active as an artist in the Kibbutz Movement. Many of Bezem's works over the years dealt with the Holocaust, Aliyah and revival, examining the public, social and political realms of Israel. In 1957, he was awarded the Dizengoff Prize for Painting for his painting "In the Courtyard of the Third Temple" which he made in response to the Kafr Qasim massacre. In 1970, he was invited to paint the ceiling mural in the main reception room at the President's Residence in Jerusalem.
[29] leaves, approx. 50 cm. Good condition. Stains (mostly minor, to margins of leaves). The binding is in good-fair condition, with stains, tears and blemishes. Some open tears to binding's edges, restored. Tears to cloth spine.
Provenance: The Estate of Naftali Bezem (Hammersite auction, March 2019).