Ruth Schloss

Ruth Schloss (; 22 November 1922 – 2013) was an Israeli painter and illustrator. Major themes in her work were Arabs, transition camps, children and women at eye-level. She expressed an egalitarian, socialist view via realism in her painting and drawing.

Biography Ruth Schloss (Cohen) was born in Nuremberg, Germany, to Ludwig and Dian Schloss, as the second of three daughters of bourgeois assimilationist Jewish family well-integrated into German culture. As the Nazis came into power in 1933, her family immigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1937, and settled in Kfar Shmaryahu, then an agricultural settlement. Schloss studied at the Department of Schloss graphic design at "Bezalel" from 1938 to 1942 alongside Friedel Stern and Joseph Hirsch. She was a realistic painter who focused on disadvantaged people in the society and social matters as an egalitarian. Her realism was thus an "inevitable realism," motivated by an inner necessity: the need to observe reality as it is.

In 1951 she married Benjamin Cohen, who served as chairman of the national leadership of Hashomer Hatzair Workers Party in Tel Aviv. He was a theoretician and a man of principle, highly esteemed by its leaders who became a professor of history at Tel Aviv University. In 1953, following the Mordechai Oren affair and the publication of Moshe Sneh's followers from Kibbutz Artzi, she and her husband left the kibbutz and moved to the agricultural farm, Kfar Shmaryahu, where she lived until her death.

Art career Schloss was a minimalist whose focus was human fate. Her natural inclination was to portray the darker aspect of human existence. Her painting was an attempt to stop time and prolong the image's persistence in the retina. In a matter-of-fact manner devoid of mystery, she committed to paper man's tendency to generate chaos, suffering and pain.

She used the income from her "Mor the Monkey" project to study in Paris for two years. The series was exhibited at Beit Zvi, Ramat Gan, in 1966. In 1968, Schloss and Gansser-Markus presented "Drawing of War" in Zurich gallery. She expressed the war as an ultimate expression of destruction and ruin, regardless of victors and vanquished.

In the 2000s, Schloss turned to the animal kingdom: A huge rhinoceros, birds of prey, and other "bad animals," as her daughter Cohen Evron called them. "I connected this to the Nazis," said Schloss.

In 2006, a large retrospective exhibition of her work was presented at the Museum of Art in Ein Harod. 1946 painting course for Kibbutz Artzi artists with Yohanan Simon and Marcel Janco 1949–51 Académie de la Grande Chaumière, Paris

Awards and recognition 1965 Silver Medal, International exhibition in Leipzig, Germany 1977 Artist-in-residence, The Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris

Selected solo exhibitions 2004 "Micha Baram, Ruth Schloss: Painting-Photography," The Art Gallery, Kibbutz Cabri, Israel, Curator: Drora Dekel 2003 "Works on Photographic Paper," The Artists' House, Jerusalem, Curator: Irit Levin 2001–2003 "Ruth Schloss: Reacting to Reality, Works 1982–2002," Habama Center, Ganei Tikva, Israel (curators: Irit Levin, Miri Krymolowski) 2001 "The Last Years," Givatayim Theater, Israel (curators; Irit Levin, Doron Polak) 2001 "Works, 1991–2001," Beit Gabriel, Tzemach, Israel 1999 "New Born," Nophr Art Gallery, Tel Aviv 1998–2004 "Anne Frank in Perspective," Kunstraum am Hallop, Memmingen, Germanyת Traveling exhibition in France (as part of "Semaine contre le Racisme") 1997–1999 "In the Footsteps of Caravaggio," Municipal Gallery, Kfar Saba, Israel 1997 "Past Time," Nama Gallery and Shai Gallery, Tel Aviv 1993 "People and Years," Nelly Aman Gallery, Tel Aviv 1992 "Ruth Schloss: Retrospective, 1942–1992," Herzliya Museum of Art 1989 "Intifada: New Works," Tiroch Gallery, Tel Aviv 1989 "Borders," Produzentengalerie, Zurich 1982 "Borders 82," Herzliya Museum, Israel 1975 Rosenfeld Gallery, Tel Aviv 1974 Mishkan Le'Omanut, Beit Meirov, Holon, Israel 1968 "Drawing of War," Forum Gallery, Zurich (with photographer Ursula Gransser-Markus) 1966 "Area 9," Beit Zvi, Ramat Gan, Israel 1957 The Artists' House, Jerusalem 1956 Traklin Gallery, Haifa 1953 The Artists' House, Jerusalem 1949 Mikra Studio Gallery, Tel Aviv

Selected group exhibitions 2006 "Hero – Antihero," Munitipal Gallery, Kfar Saba, Israel, curator: Irit Levin 2005 "Nostalie de Paris," Ein Hod Gallery, Israel, curator: Avraham Eliat 2005 "Wounds and Bandaging," The Art Gallery, Umm el-Fahem, Israel, curator: Eif Gan 2004 " The Art of Aging," The Jewish Institute of Religion Museum, Hebrew Union College, New York, curators: Ayana Friedman, Laura Kruger (cat.) 2004 "Drawing. Old & New," Municipal Gallery at Beit Yad Labanim, Raanana, Israel, curator: Oded Feingersh (cat.) 2004 "Thirty + Three," Haifa Theater, curator: Smadar Schindler 2004 "You Don't Look Hungry to Me," Limbus Gallery, Tel Aviv, curators: Michal Shamir, Orly Wolkowiski 2003 "Ten Women and One Old Man," Habama Center, Ganei Tikva, Israel, curator: Miri Krymolowski 2003 "Ruins Revisited: The image of the Run in Israel 1803–2003," Time for Art – Israel Art Center. Tel Aviv, curator: Gideon Ofrat (cat.) 2003 "Wandering Library: Markers IV," Museo Ebraico di Venezia, Venice, curator: Doron Polak (cat.) 2002 "Imagine: Artists for Co-Existence," The Art Gallery, Umm el-Fahem, Israel; Plonit Gallery, Tel Aviv 2002 "Artist Against the Occupation," Beit Uri and Rami Nehushtan, Kibbutz Ashdot 2002 Yaacov Meuchad, Israel, curator: Doron Polak 2001 "Against Violence against Women," Bar-David Museum of Jewish Art and Judaica, Kibbutz Bar'am, Israel, curator: Hanna Barak (cat.) 2001 "Current Affairs," The Art Museum, Kibbutz Hanita, Israel, curator: Hanna Barak 2001 "Traces: Contemporary Drawing in Israel," The artists' House, Jerusalem, curator: Ilan Wizgan, (cat.) 2000 "The Third Color," The artists' House, Jerusalem, curator: Ayana Friedman (cat.) 2000 "Women Artists in Palestinian Art," Bar-David Museum of Jewish Art and Judaica, Kibbutz Bar'am, Israel, 1998 "Women in Israel Art," Haifa Museum of Art, curator: Ilana Teicher 1998 "Scream Quietly Please," The 9th Triennial, New Delhi, India, curator: Nella Cassouto 1998 "The East: Orientalism in the Arts in Israeli," The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Curator: Yigal Zalmona 1998 "Social Realism in '50s, Political Art in the '90s," Haifa Museum of Art, Curator: Gila Ballas 1998 "Homeland Bound: Form the Dream of a National Home to the Dream Home," The Israel Museum, curator: Tami Schatz 1997 "At Eye Level," The Artists' House, Jerusalem, curator: Nella Cassouto 1997 "Remembering Shlomo: Shlomo Weizmann, 1954–1995," The Art Gallery, Ben Gurion University of Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel, curator: Haim Finkelstein 1992 "Making Peace: In Memory of the Six Day War and the Lebanon War," exhibitions and meetings, on behalf of the Center for Peace, Givat Haviva, Israel 1991 "The Color Khaki: The Soldier in Israel Art," Habima Theater, Tel Aviv, curator: Gideon Ofrat 1991 "Animals," Erek Gallery, Tel Aviv 1989 "To Live with the Dream," Tel Aviv Museum of Art, curator: Batia Donner 1989 "Portrait," traveling exhibition, Omanut La'am, Israel, curator: Zvi Tadmor 1988 "A People Builds Its Dream: Israeli History as Reflected in Art," Herzliya Museum, Israel, curator: Ramy Cohen 1988 "Haifa: Portrait of the City in Painting and Photography," Haifa Museum of Modern Art, curator: Gabriel Tadmor 1988 "1948: The War of Independence in Israeli Art," Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv, Curator: Gideon Ofrat 1987 "New Bezalel: 1935–1955," The Artists' House, Jerusalem, curator: Gideon Ofrat 1986 "The 49th anniversary of Victory over Nazi Germany," Municipal Art Gallery, Arad, Israel 1982 "Opinions," The Artist' House, Jerusalem 1978 "Artist and Society in Israeli Art 1948–1978," The Tel Aviv Museum, curator: Sara Breitberg 1977 "Propaganda and Vision: Israeli and Soviet Art, 1930–1955," The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, curator: Batia Donner 1971 "Israeli Art," The Tel Aviv Museum, curator: Haim Gamzu 1970 "Exhibition of Drawings from the Museum Collection," Haifa Museum of Modern Art 1965 "Exhibition of Drawings, 1965," Haifa Museum of Modern Art 1951 "Back from Paris," Mikra-Studio Gallery, Tel Aviv 1947 "Artists in the Kibbutz and in the Army," Mikra-Studio Gallery, Tel Aviv