Ruth Schloss (1922-2013), Demonstration, [1950s]. Wash and acrylic on paper. 50X35 cm. Framed, 63.5X48.5 cm with frame. 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. 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 gaps and the ramifications of 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 the birth experience, 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: Gila Ballas, Ilana Tenenbaum, and Yael Lotan (curators and eds.), "Social Realism in the 50's, Political Art in the 90's, " exhibition catalogue, Haifa Museum of Art, Haifa, 1998, Hebrew and English (p. 91, no. 11). Provenance: The Uzi Agassi Collection.