Shmuel Raayoni

Shmuel Raayoni was born in 1905 in Žiežmariai

Shmuel Raayoni was born Shmuel Maslovati in 1905 in Žiežmariai, Lithuania, to a Zionist family. Encouraged by Boris Schatz, he immigrated alone to the Land of Israel in 1923.

He studied at the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts and finished in 1927. He then lived in Petah Tikva, where he did various jobs, including teaching painting. From 1939 he studied architecture and engineering while teaching, and he received his degree in 1945.

In 1931 he moved to Haifa and taught art at a high school and later at a teachers' seminary. In 1935 he married his former student Ella Brettler, later a fabric collage artist, and around then he took the name Raayoni. He studied in Paris at the Académie Julian in 1947 and at the Grande Chaumière in 1955.

He joined New Horizons in 1952 and took part in nearly all its exhibitions. He represented Israel at the São Paulo Biennial in 1953 and the Autumn Salon in Paris in 1958. His style moved from expressionist figures to lyrical abstraction, a white period of Negev landscapes, and late figure painting.

In 1953 he was among the founders of Ein Hod, where he lived with his family until his death in 1995.