Art and designמשה קסטל

Moshe Castel

Moshe Castel was an Israeli painter known for his basalt relief paintings and his role in founding the New Horizons group.

1909 to 1991Ground basalt relief paintingsCo-founding the New Horizons groupMurals in the Knesset

Died: 12 December 1991, Tel Aviv
Occupation: painter
Education: École du Louvre, Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Académie Julian

Moshe Castel was born in 1909 in Jerusalem

Moshe Castel was born in Jerusalem in 1909 to Rabbi Yehuda Castel and his wife Rachel. His Sephardic family traced its roots to Castile. He grew up in the Bukharim quarter and attended a religious school his father ran there.

He studied at the Bezalel Art School and also took lessons with the painter Yitzhak Frenkel in Tel Aviv. In 1927 he went to Paris, where he studied at the Académie Julian and the École du Louvre. That year he held his first exhibition in Paris.

In 1940 he returned and settled in Safed. In 1947 he helped found the New Horizons group with Marcel Janco, Yehezkel Streichman and others. After a 1948 visit to the ancient synagogue at Korazin, he began making relief paintings from ground basalt mixed with sand and glue.

He created murals for the Knesset, Binyanei HaUma, Rockefeller Center in New York and the President's Residence in Jerusalem. His works are held in collections such as the Tate and the Museum of Modern Art. He died on December 12, 1991, and a museum of his work opened in Ma'ale Adumim in 2010.