WEILL, SHRAGA

WEILL, SHRAGA (1918– ), Israeli artist. Weill was born in Nitra, Czechoslovakia. He first studied sculpture with a local sculptor, but continued at the Prague School of Art. His first graphic works were produced during World War ii, part of which he spent in prison, having been convicted of membership in the underground movement. Weill immigrated to Israel in 1947 and settled in kibbutz Ha-Ogen. During 1949–1955 he worked as an illustrator, illustrating several books of poems and biblical stories, such as Lea *Goldberg's "The Love of Samson," "The Song of Songs," and the "Dead Sea Scrolls," with drawing depicting desert landscapes or local people. In 1954, he studied in Paris at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Weill worked in many artistic media – painting, drawing, illustration, mural painting, and reliefs. In 1965, he illustrated Kohelet (the Book of Ecclesiastes) with more abstract stylization, but a continuity of his earlier style is still noticeable. He was commissioned to prepare several large works for public buildings, including metal reliefs for the doors of the main entrance to the Knesset building in Jerusalem (1966), in which he used popular symbols and motifs, diffusing them in an abstract composition with biblical and Jewish subjects; a relief for the Hilton Hotel, Tel Aviv; one for the Wolfson House at the Weizmann Institute, Reḥovot; and another for the Israel Pavilion at "Expo 67," Montreal, Canada. His works are represented in the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, the Nelson-Atkins Gallery of Art, Kansas City, Mo.; the William Hayes Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University; and Los Angeles County Museum.

[Judith Spitzer]