Yehiel Krize (1909-1968), Figures.
Oil on board. Signed.
Approx. 46X35 cm, in a 72X61 cm frame. Cracks and minor losses to paint.

Yechiel Krize (1909-1968), born in Turek (Poland), immigrated to Palestine with his family in 1923. At first, he worked as his father's apprentice, painting houses, and in his twenties, was employed as a packer in citrus orchards. At that time, having no background in art, he started painting. Later, he studied at the studios of Avigdor Stematsky and Joseph Zaritsky, and in 1935, travelled to study art in Paris. During his stay in Europe, he worked in the artists' colony in Kazimierz Dolny, Poland. In 1947-1948, he was twice awarded the Dizengoff Prize for Painting.
Krize was close to artists of the New Horizons movement, his style growing increasingly abstract over the years, especially after his seven-month stay in New York in 1958-1959. Nevertheless, he chose to work as an independent artist, not joining any group. Solo exhibitions of his work were held at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, at the Artists' House in Tel Aviv and Haifa and elsewhere, but his works were also exhibited in the official New Horizons exhibition at the Mishkan Museum of Art, Ein Harod, in 1963.

Provenance: The Uzi Agassi Collection.