About: Aviva Uri
Was born in France in 1922. She took up painting as early as in her adolescence, an activity which her father did not encourage. Despite of that fact, her first art lessons, taught by Moshe Castel, were held in 1943. The two were romantically involved, which ended up being the reason for her termination of her lessons with him.
In 1944 she began studying art again, this time with the painter David Hendler who, remained her spouse for the rest of her life. At the beginning of her career, in the 1950s, Uri's drawings were based on landscapes, portraits and sceneries, but even then they were only a basis of her paintings. In the late 1950s, the themes in Uri's paintings changed from figurative to more abstract, while still maintaining a strong formative vibe. The elements in her paintings appear as one layer on top of another, concealing each other.
A motif that appears in every stage of Uri's creation is the rectangle. In many of the works, the rectangles refer to "hidden graves" or to "surviving tanks." For Uri, the death in creation and the creation in death are ever more common opposites. Her work revolves around precise compositions which she drew in expressive and complex lines. The lines in her works express strong emotions and agitation, and all the while she remains in full control of line and composition. From the beginning of her career until the late 1960s, most of her paintings were based solely on black and white colors. The black color in her chalk drawings is broad, thick and dark.
Toward the end of the 1960s, Uri began using more and more colors influenced by pop art, including the use of oil and acrylic paints on canvas, but continued to work with paper as her main medium. Even when she did use colors, the black chalk would still be the basis in her painting. Aviva Uri was an Israeli painter who was best known for her drawings. The public strongly remembers her as a mysterious figure and one of the most influential creators in the Israeli art world.
