Enraptured Couple.

RIBAK, ZVI.

Ukrainian-Israeli, (1910-94)

Oil on canvas. Signed by artist lower right. Framed.

Born in Zhitomer, Ribak and his family relocated from Radomsyl to Kiev, beginning his art studies shortly after the Boshevik Revolution, a time when Kiev was the center of Soviet-Jewish cultural life. It was at the Studio for Jewish Art in Kiev that Ribak met Marc Chagall who offered to take the young artist to Paris, a proposal rejected by Ribak’s Orthodox father. As an adult, Ribak served as a highly decorated Red Army officer, indeed he was among the group that captured Hitler’s bunker in Berlin. In 1948 Ribak emigrated to Israel where he was pursuaded by the sage the Chazon Ish to settle in the newly developing religious town of Bnei Braq where he became chief city planner. The present painting epitomizes the Expressionist art popular in Ribak’s earlier years. The subject - a Jewish couple - is portrayed in a vivid emotional dialogue suggested by the powerful colors and dynamic composition. Beyond the couple, the drama reverberates in an abstract urban design. Writing of Ribak’s art, Jay Weinstein commented: “He did not paint the candelabrum, he painted the flame.” See Zvi Ribak: A Jewish Artist (1991).