Itzhak Assour retired from the Israeli army in the mid-1980s and embarked on a career as a sculptor just about the time the tourist industry, the primary consumers of Israeli art, dropped dramatically in the war-torn Middle East.
As his fellow artists bemoaned their declining sales, Assour approached the government with an idea: If officials agreed to subsidize the artists’ work, he would showcase and sell it in America, where it was bound to be popular.
The idea worked.
His 13th Israeli art show. which features more than 500 works, including paintings, sculpture, jewelry, Judaica and ceramics, will open Saturday at Temple Shalom’s Mendelson Gallery, 3840 N. Lake Shore Drive, in Chicago.
The event is sponsored by City North Kehilla, comprising the Anshe Emet, Anshe Sholom, Temple Sholom and Emanuel Congregation synagogues, and the Florence G. Heller Jewish Community Center.
“We felt it was very important to bring Israel to Chicago as part of the 50th celebration of Israel’s statehood,” said Denise Orlin, coordinator for City North Kehilla. “Here you have Soviet Jews and Ethiopian Jews who are expressing their Judaism as they never could before.”
Among the pieces are kiddush (holy) ceramic cups, candlesticks and Shabbat plates engraved with prayers in Hebrew and Amhara, an Ethiopian language, Assour said. The artist, who is Ethiopian, lives in Tel Aviv.
There are religious figurines made of carved wood and rubber from old tires that has been melted into thin sheets and dyed in rainbow hues. They were made by Soviet immigrants who live in Israel.
There are silver filigree spice boxes, menorahs and candlesticks by a Yemeni artist, and point and line paintings of Europe in the 1900s by Miriam Dauber, an artist who is from Sfat, a popular artist colony in the north of Israel.
And Assour’s bronze sculptures, which celebrate family bonds, also are available for purchase.
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The pieces cost from $30 to $4,500, and sales benefit the artists and the Heller Jewish Community Center.
Assour, 59, had spent 25 years in the Israeli army. Wounded in a raid, he spent three years in and out of hospitals, working to regain use of his legs.
One day, a sculptor visited the hospital to teach patients ceramics and he suggested Assour develop his talent.
Assour studied sculpture for the next 12 years, retired from the Army as the war in Lebanon ended and found that prospective art buyers were in short supply.
He met with the government and struck a deal and then persuaded artists from different regions to agree to sell their work at prices well below what they sell for in Israel. He said his prices are one-third of what Israeli galleries charge.
Assour visits the United States three times a year and does about 8 to 10 shows in Jewish community centers and synagogues.
“With the art, I am able to show that Israel also has beauty and not only rifles and wars,” Assour said.
“It is also a way for Israel to always be in touch with our people in the United States. When I come here from so far away, we make a connection.”
Gallery hours will be 8 to 10 p.m. Saturday; 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Friday; 8 to 10 p.m. April 4; and 1 to 3 p.m. April 5.