Winter 1973 Ein Kerem

Ivan Schwebel (West Virginia 1932–2011 Ein Kerem)
Ein Kerem, 1973
Oil and pen on canvas, h. 25 1/6 x w. 28 5.16 in.
Cincinnati Skirball Museum, gift of Nancy M. Berman and Alan J. Bloch, 2018.13

American-born Schwebel joined the United States Army during the Korean War, and when the war ended, was sent to Japan with the amorphous title of “information officer.” It was there that he began painting, taught by a Zen master-painter in Kyoto, Kimura Kyoen. In 1963, after art studies in New York, he settled in the hills of Ein Kerem, a village on the fringe of Jerusalem, where he found a stone house in which he lived for the rest of his life.

He was committed to his art and produced a huge body of work, which related to Israel, past and present, to Jewish themes and Jewish history. He brought together characters and narratives regardless of time and set them in modern- day Tel Aviv or Jerusalem, the Judean hills, or New York City.  He showed David and Bathsheba next to a Nazi deportation train, and Job despairing over his relationship with the Palestinians.

This canvas, set in his home and studio, depicts the artist and another figure with glowing, rich color, achieved with pigments that he would grind and mix himself. The quirky composition appears unfinished, its narrative enigmatic and unclear.