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| Woman Wearing a Hat,
1976
Woodcut, 17-1/2" x 10-1/2" |
Three Resting Figures,
1976
Woodcut, 11" x 20" |
A Couple, 1976
Woodcut, 19-1/4" x 22" |
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Gift of Granvil and Marcia Specks Oakton Community College, Ray Hartstein Campus, Skokie, A Wing, 2nd floor |
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Ben Menahem’s images are charged with darkness, fear, and death, in a sense of pessimism or even nihilism. These images are rooted in the artist’s life experiences, including the dark cloud cast by the Holocaust, an injury sustained during his military service, and turmoil in his native Israel. As the artist stated in the catalog for his 1988 exhibition at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, “In my woodcuts I depict what I’m trying to escape from.” The most unique quality of Ben Menahem’s work derives from his intensification of the already powerful medium of the black and white woodcut. The artist’s woodcuts from the late 1970s and early 1980s are inspired by German expressionism in their composition and scale; since the late 1980s Ben Menahem’s works have grown in size, but have been trimmed in detail. In these monumental woodcuts the artist uses close-up views, unusual perspectives, neutral backgrounds, and a more primitive approach. While the German expressionists conceptually turned small format graphics into monumental images, Ben Menahem achieves even greater emotional experience and empathy by enlarging the woodcut format. |
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| Woman Wearing a Hat,
1976
Woodcut, 17-1/2" x 10-1/2" |
Three Resting Figures,
1976
Woodcut, 11" x 20" |
A Couple, 1976
Woodcut, 19-1/4" x 22" |
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| Man, Woman, Beast,
1982
Woodcut, 12-1/4" x 10-1/4" |
Headscape, 1984
Woodcut, 28" x 22-1/2" |
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| Four Souls Ascending,
1984
Woodcut, 58-3/4" x 54-3/4" |
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