Aryeh Elhanani

Arieh El-Hanani born Sapozhnikov (1898–1985), was an Israel Prize winner in the field of architecture for his "contribution to shaping Israeli culture".

His Russian and Hebrew names have also been transliterated and spelled as Arie or Aryeh, Sapoznikov, Elhanani, etc.

Early life in Russia El-Hanani was born in 1898 in Poltava, Russian Empire (today capital of the Poltava Oblast in central Ukraine), as one of the five children of Elhanan (Afanasi) Sapozhnikov and Chava Liva Sapozhnikova. In 1917 he joined a group of artists from Kharkov with whom he designed revolutionary propaganda posters.

Mandate Palestine and Israel In 1922 El-Hanani immigrated to Mandate Palestine,

Stage design In the 1920s and 1930s Elhanani continued his avant-garde work by designing sets and costumes for theatre plays such as "Nishfei Peretz" (lit. 'Peretz soireés'; 1926) and "Megilat Esther" (lit. 'Book of Esther'; 1930). Eventually he designed pavilions for trade fairs abroad. the Isaac Wolfson Building (1953), the Modernist-Brutalist Conference Center (1958), and the Stone Administration Building (with Nissan Canaan, 1966).

Other design work Apart from stage design, Elhanani also worked in the fields of graphic design, sculpture, and typography.

The Russian avant-garde style can be easily recognised in his work for the Hebrew-language monthly youth magazine "Moledeth" ("Homeland") published in the 1920s in Erez Israel.

El-Hanani designed the logos of the pre-state Palmach paramilitary, and later that of the Israel Defense Forces.