Ephraim Mose Lilien
Women
From the works of E.M.Lilien 1874-1925

Tal Gallery in Kfar Vradim is honored to present a special exhibition of  the  work of E.M. Lilien who was recognized and known as the first Zionist Artist.
His graphic work, posters, book illustrations, drawings and etchings, as well as his photographs, are world famous and were highly appreciated during his life and after his death in 1925.
His ideas as expressed in his early works, became symbols for the Zionist Movement, and were adopted as its formal iconography for many years. He was one of the founders of Bezalel, Israeli Art Academy, together with Boris Schatz. At the fifth Zionost Congress he had a great deal of influence at the debates and the discussions on the issues of Jewish Art and Culture.
He made four trips to the Middle East, gathering through the lens of his camera the sites and people that he believed were the decedents of the ancient Jewish people. His work includes hundreds of photographs, graphic designs and etchings.
There have been four exhibitions in Israel after 1948. In 1974 an exhibition commemorating the centenary of his birth was shown at the Israeli Museum in Jerusalem. This exhibition included drawings and etchings from the works that were donated to the museum by the artist's family.
In 1988 Ben-Gurion University of the Negev held an exhibition in conjunction with a symposium on the subject of E.M. Lilien in the Middle East, showing etchings of views and the people he encountered in his journeys.
In 1990 Tel-Aviv Museum of Art, showed the exhibition Painting with Light, that emphasized the photographic aspect as compared with the etchings, in the work of E.M. Lilien.
In 1997 The Open Museum at Tefen, presented an exhibition of Lilien as
The First Zionist Artist.
The exhibition at Tal Gallery Kfar Vradim, shows illustrations from the original books and a selection of etchings representing different aspects of women images. It includes also a survey of self portraits, and those of his wife and children. It concentrates on a look at E.M. Lilien's work from another perspective, showing more personal aspects and analysing the various images of women in his works. From the letters to his wife Helene, we can learn about significant events in his life and about his opinions and views, related to the issues of liberation of women and their role in society.
Images of different types of women can be found throughout the span of Lilien's work, in various styles. These include symbolic nude figures, women from the east, dressed in oriental gowns carrying jars on their head, as shown in his late etchings. Women are shown also as Jewesses in striped clothing reminding the talit pattern. We can find the motive of the reading woman, surprisingly shown as a polish peasant or other common people. Several etchings show classical erotic nude women. The exhibition catalogue includes a study of the Women in E.M Lilien work, a biographical summary based on previous publications including recent published articles, a short description of his self portraits, portraits of Helene, and more.
We would like to thank the artist's family, Hannah Lilien-Kipnis and Tal Kipnis, and Chava & Reuven Givoni, who supplied all materials from the family collection, and who made this exhibition possible.
We send special thanks to Hannah Peters, the artist's daughter who lives in Denmark, for her interview, her stories about her memories of her father, for the rare photos from the family albums and for her help and support.
Ady Greenfeld, Exhibition Curator