Israel Matveevich Basau

Background

Israel was born on the 7th of October 1918 in a small Belarusian town of Mstislau, Mogilev Region, Belarus into a traditional Jewish family; the son of Matvei Moishavich Basau. The family was devout and observed all Jewish traditions.

Education

Israel studied at the 9-year Jewish school in Mstislau from1926. From 1947-1951 he studied at the artistic and pedagogical department of Minsk Art School.

Career

Israel's artistic career began in Mstislau as a retoucher in The Puts Oktybrya Photo Studio where he worked in 1935-1941. In 1942-1943, I. Basau was called up for military service in Pavlovsky Pasad, where he demobilized due to illness and returned to Uzbekistan. Here, he was hired to the Yangiyul Drama Theatre as a painter. After the end of the Great Patriotic War, Israel Basau and his family returned to native Mstislau. There he worked as a graphic designer from time to time. In 1946, artist moved to Mins. After graduating from Minsk Art School in 1951, Basau joined the Belarusian branch of the Central Art Studios of the USSR Art Fund (now MUE "Art Centre") where he worked almost until the mid 1970s. In 1959, he was admitted to the BSSR (Belarus) Union of Artists.

All Israel's creative life Basau was a supporter of the cityscape genre. In his early works, the artist topographically depicted recognizable places of Minsk, preserved documentary reflection of reality and loyalty to natural impressions: "Industrial Outskirts", 1960; "Minsk at Noon", 1960; "Green Minsk", 1961; "Minsk. Main Entrance to M. Gorky Park", 1957.

In the mid 1960s, I. Basau abandoned completeness and elegance of the pictorial language. He was governed by a desire to understand fundamental principles of expressiveness of the language of lines and colours. The best works of this period include: "House with Red Roof", 1966; "City Outskirts", 1967; "City Rhytm", 1967; "Recollection", 1968; "Girl from a Ghetto", 1967. In these works the city appears as a completely different, fragile and homeless, sometimes hostile life environment.

Cityscape in the art of Basau developed in close connection with other genres, especially with the genre of portrait. They are depicted as if from a bird`s eye view when their faces indistinguishable, generalized, often twisted, more like faceless human masks. A striking example is "Girl from a Ghetto" which is full of reflection about the fate of countrymen killed in the war.

Graphic sheets of Basau have different qualities. Many drawings preserve unexpectedness. Hence also is the favorite graphical technique of drawing with a felt-tip pen: "Dance"; "Eternal City", 1969; "Dawn", 1960.

Israel's work did not fit into the official line of Soviet art. The artist preferred not contents, or rather narrative and plot structure, but development in plasticity. Therefore his art was defined as the art of formalism and, accordingly, it was not always recognized. It became especially visible at the turn of the 1960s-1970s during the "stagnation" period and the most dramatic manifestations of conflict between official and unofficial culture. In his fifties it was made clear to him that his country did not need his art:works were hardly accepted to exhibitions and more often were not accepted at all. After 1975, Basau occasionally participated in exhibitions. During this period he exhibited several times in Vilnus (1972, 1975), Kiev (1975, 1982). In 1972, due to the reorganization, the artist was fired from the art centre and since that time he was never registered at a workplace again. According to official Soviet aesthetic cocepts, works of Basau had all the warning signs of uncontrollable liberty and distance from the usual artistic language.

Since the beginning of the 1980s the style of I. Basau was much more expressive and dramatic. His creative work developed in the space between abstarct and figurative painting, symbol and image: "The Singing One", 1983; "Rivals", 1981; "Al Fresco", 1986. The theme of the road (path, way out, movement) took hold of the artist at the end of his creative and life path: "Dance", 1985; "Running", 1989-1990; "On the Way", 1991; "Uneasy Talk", 1993; "Conversation", 1993; "Struggle", 1993.

Achievements

• The Works of Israel Basau are kept in the National Museum of the Republic of Belarus, Belarusian Union of Artists, the National Polotsk History and Culture Museum and Reserve, the Mahileu Regional P. V. Maslenikau Art Museum, in private collections abroad. A greater part of the artist`s creative heritage is kept in his family.
  
  Basau`s artistic talent found recognition in numerous exhibitions of the erly 1990s. Among them were exhibitions: "From Mark Chagall to the Past and Present. The 19th-20th century" (The Brama Gallery), "Diaspora-2" (Central House of Artists, Moscow).
  
  The First personal exhibition at the National Art Museum of the Republic of Belarus was held in 1996. At the same time a small catalogue of his works was published. The catalogue was compiled by V. Kapenkina, V. Vaitsakhouskaya, N. Pagranousky.

Works

• graphics

  • Dance

  • Eternal City

    1969

  • Dawn

    1960

• painting

  • Recollection

    (This painting creates a feeling of cold, insecurity, desp...)

    1968

  • Industrial Outskirts

    1960

  • Minsk at Noon

    1960

  • Green Minsk

    1961

  • Main Entrance to M.Gorky Park

    1957

  • House with Red Roof

    1966

  • City Outskirts

    1967

  • City Rhytm

    1967

  • Houses and Trees

    1972

  • canvas The Singing One

    1983

  • canvas Rivals

    1981

  • canvas Al Fresco

    1986

  • canvas Dance

    1985

  • canvas Running

    1990

  • canvas On the Way

    1991

  • canvas Uneasy Talk

    1993

  • canvas Conversation

    1993

  • canvas Struggle

    1993

• portrait

  • Girl from a Ghetto

    (The painting says that the world is cruel and the people ...)

    1967

  • Portrait of the Wife

    1967

Membership

• BSSR Union of Artists

  1959

Interests

• Artists

  Paul Cezanne, Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Robert Falk

Connections

Israel was married to Bela Barisauna.

Father:

Matvei Moishavich Basau

Mother:

Mary Grigoryevna

Son:

Barys Israelivich Basau

Son:

Matvei Israelivich Basau

He was born in 1950. He is the Belarusian artist, member of the Union of Artists of the Republic of Belarus (1988), the participant of more than 100 republican and international exhibitions.

Brother:

Benyamin Moishavich Basau

He is a graduate of Vitebsk Art College, who later become a well-known Moscow graphic artist.

Wife:

Bela Barisauna

teacher:

Vital Tsvirka

teacher:

Ivan Akhremchyk

teacher:

Chaim Lifshitz