Hantaï launched his first series of pliages in 1960. Crumpling his large canvases with the aid of pulleys and ropes, he applied bright colors to the ridges while leaving the furrows untouched, like the reserved areas in Indonesian batiks. He distributed the jagged patches of color across the canvas, achieving an allover dynamism – comparable to, though distinct from, that of Jackson Pollock, whose abstractions were an important source of inspiration. Painting is part of the 1972–82 series of pliages titled “Blancs.” Numerous multicolored yet muted bird-shaped patterns float in the pictorial space, appearing quasi three-dimensional.

Arina Zhukova and Adina Kamien

The triptych depicts terrazzo tiles (of the kind known as “sesame”) made of molded and polished concrete, gravel, and sometimes also marble fragments. Glossy tiles such as this were popular in Israel from the 1920s to the 1990s. Until the first Intifada, they were mainly manufactured by Palestinians. Using a decollage technique, Geva applies a layer of paint on the canvas; next he sticks pieces of paper or cloth onto it, applies another layer of paint on the entire canvas, and then removes the glued pieces, exposing the layer of paint underneath.

Geva’s works deal with the tension between minimalism and formalism on the one hand and symbolic, archetypal, and politically charged images on the other; between random, abstract forms and forms that are laden with political overtones taken from the local architecture, traditional clothing (keffiyeh), and even games (backgammon). Geva follows in the footsteps of American abstract painting, creating an aesthetic and spiritual experience through shapes, blots, and lines, while at the same time using ready-made visual tropes (iron bars, keffiyehs, tiles) – thus synthesizing Abstract Expressionism with a specific place, local symbols, and Islamic ornamentation. In Geva’s art, abstraction is not detached from a particular place or from its existential political questions, nor does it serve a purely aesthetic purpose. In contrast with the typically suspicious attitude of the Israeli public, Geva appropriates forms taken from the local Muslim culture and gives them pride of place in his work.

Ido Targano

In 1948 or 1949 Kline visited de Kooning in his studio, and the latter showed him the possibility of enlarging his drawings by projecting them onto canvas, revealing how well they worked as wall-sized compositions. Kline soon abandoned figuration in favor of abstraction, and easel painting for mural-scale works. His monochromatic palette, together with brushstrokes that resemble an exaggerated version of Japanese ink calligraphy, caught the attention of the Bokujin-kai, a Japanese avant-garde association of calligraphers. Kline and the group’s leader, Morita Shiryū, exchanged letters regarding the relationship between abstraction and calligraphy. While some scholars claim that Kline was directly influenced by traditional Japanese art, the artist later rejected this claim, siding with American art critics who, influenced by growing cultural chauvinism, slandered traditional and modern Japanese influences and insisted that Abstract Expressionism was a distinctly American invention. Kline stressed that unlike calligraphy paintings, in his work black carries the same importance as white.

Although carefully planned, the composition of Bethlehem exudes a feeling of spontaneity and physical momentum. Within the gestural chaos of the painting, the artist creates a balance between intense black brushstrokes and a white surface, allowing for space and breath. The abstract image conveys a great sense of movement, sensuousness, and dynamism.

Yam Traiber

The gold leaves that cover the entire surface of the screens serve as a glowing substrate for the painting in black ink, designed so that the fold of the screen will reveal the image in a bent and partly concealed position. The performing gesture of ink painting on a gold metallic substrate is extremely complex, as gold does not absorb the wet ink. Thus, the artist has to calculate the degree of wetness of the brush and act in a well-planned motion, bending over the substrate on the floor and making the ink drawing in a single hand gesture. Unlike the long process involved in creating an oil painting, with ink it is impossible to erase or correct a line. Appreciating ink painting lies in tracking the flow and confident movement of the master’s hand. The technique of painting with brushstrokes was perfected in East Asia over the centuries, and it encompasses a vast vocabulary of hand movements and ink weights that produce different shades of black. On this particular screen, we can clearly discern the different areas where the artist created texture and shape with the help of a delicate play between dry and ink-laden brushwork as opposed to aqueous and transparent strokes. This skillful combination of wet and dry, thick and thin allows the artist to complete a full and rich range of visual expression using only black ink.

Miriam Malachi

The year 1979 marked a turning point in Soulages’ career, when he initiated his series of mono-pigmentary paintings “Outrenoir” (“beyond black”). “I have always liked this color for its power, for its pictorial action. . . . You put black next to dark, suddenly the dark lights up. It is very active.” Throughout his career Soulages was fascinated by darkness, exploring diverse and complex textures of black produced by absorption or refraction of light. Black progressively stops being black and starts reflecting light, the result depending on the position of the viewer: “There are nuances between the blacks. I paint with black but I’m working with light. I’m really working with the light more than with the paint.”

The title of Painting 202 x 143 cm, 21 Dec. 64 – a technical formula referring to the work’s technique, dimensions, and date – expresses a refusal to orient the spectator and an invitation to free interpretation. With its black structure on a white background, the composition – reminiscent of oriental calligraphy – is characterized by broad and heavy brushstrokes applied with large arm and shoulder gestures. Employing a type of paint commonly used by house painters rather than artists, Soulages retains within the black shape a few light gaps, ocher hints that imbue the work with a chiaroscuro effect.

Soulages uses objects such as spoons, tiny rakes, and bits of rubber to work away at the painting, often scraping, digging or etching to create a smooth or rough surface. Bold cuts, vertical and horizontal lines, and crevasses break up the surface of the painting, disrupting the uniformity of the black. The highly cadenced work reveals a balancing force in the disposition of the shapes (upper left versus lower right) and in the opposition between dark and light areas, opaque and transparent shades, matt and brilliant sections, thin and thick layers, and vertical and horizontal brushstrokes. This harmonious balance reveals an intuitive and direct creative process, devoid of pre-planning: As the artist put it, “It is what I do that teaches me what I am looking for. Painting always comes before thinking.”

Sarah Benshushan and Adina Kamien

During his last years, Borduas reduced his palette to black and white. He adopted a unique use of palette knives to apply paint on the canvas in visible layers of impasto. Part of a series, Magnetic Silence features a grouping of black shapes that emerge from a painted white surface covering the majority of the black underpainting. The clear borders between the dark and light sections of the composition emphasize their contrast and draw attention to the plastic properties of the material.

Shir Hoori

Known for his exuberantly colorful, large-scale abstractions, Francis incorporated in his works elements from Abstract Expressionism, Color Field painting, Impressionism, and Eastern philosophy. Closely associated with the work of Helen Frankenthaler and with the Art Informel movement while he was living in Paris during the 1950s, Francis was more interested in the formal arrangement of the picture plane than the expressivity of the individual artist.

In this painting from 1973, he worked on the floor, applying blue, burgundy, green, and yellow paint directly on the canvas with a roller. At times, the layers of diluted colors absorbed into the canvas produce a watercolor effect; elsewhere, the denser stains have an enamel-like quality. The crossed diagonal intersections, vaguely reminiscent of airplanes, hark back to the artist’s experience as an army pilot, and the vivid colors against a white luminous background evoke an aerial view. The work reflects Francis’s interest in Eastern philosophy and aesthetics: in his words, it is about “the beauty of space and the power of containment.” Francis became acquainted with Zen Buddhism during his university years and began making frequent trips to Japan in 1957. In form and spontaneity, the dynamic central motif resembles the calligraphic characters found on Japanese folding screens. In both cases, the relationship between the strokes and drips of paint or ink and the void-like background creates a sense of tension while at the same time conferring a meditative aspect on the work.

Eliad Moreh-Rosenberg and Adina Kamien

In 1961 Resnick married Pat Passlof, a pupil of de Kooning, and in the 1970s they participated together in an art residency in Roswell, New Mexico. The work Resnick produced during that time earned him critical acclaim and his reputation surged. Over his long career, Resnick painted works that gave the impression of allover monochromatic fields, although in fact they include a myriad of hues. Through the 1970s and 1980s his paint application became increasingly dense and his palette generally darkened, resulting in canvases of subtle, almost topographical presence.

The muscular impasto reddish-green surface of Roswell #4 evokes a sense of the organic. The application of paint in short, heavy dabs and in every direction creates a dappled effect in this “overall” monumental composition. In an interview, the artist claimed that “there is nothing physical” about what he does – all he does is “breathe” onto the canvas. Interested in the balance between art and its viewer, Resnick sought an intimate relationship with his audience, inviting us to breathe with him.

Adina Kamien

Best known for his expressive brushwork and free-association abstraction, Goldberg combined Western European painting traditions with Eastern philosophies and the cultural reservoir of postwar New York. “I’ve always felt that art comes out of art,” he said. “Art requires looking, and a little bit of selective thievery, too. You take a little bit from here and a little from there without being conscious of it.” The improvisational nature of jazz, which he admired, also influenced his work. Goldberg saw abstract painting as “the primary visual challenge of our time. It might get harder and harder to make an abstract image that’s believable, but I think that just makes the challenge greater.” Monumental Engine Co, is earthy and gritty, with dark rust-red, the color of brick or clotted blood, cut through with strong irregular stripes of white. The paint is thick and opaque, laid in strokes and splattering towards the bottom of the painting.

Adina Kamien

Nikel’s works are based on a dynamic and bold composition that feeds off the tension between the painted and exposed parts of the painting, its texture, line, stain, and especially its strong and contrasting colors, which create a musical feeling reminiscent of jazz improvisation – but also of powerful baroque drama. Unlike the Israeli lyrical abstract artists, whose paintings were based on a landscape or a scene viewed from the studio, Nikel’s work deals with pure abstraction, detached from visible reality, and in this respect she is closer to the American Abstract Expressionists.

In this painting, Nikel took a bold – and for her unusual – step, basing the entire composition on a single color: orange. The music of the abstract painting or the sounds it conjures – to use Wassily Kandinsky’s characterization of colors in terms of musical instruments – is of a single instrument. Concentrating on a scale of shades of that one color, the work consists of broad, spontaneous stains, which can be seen as a refined expression of pure abstraction – a solo concerto for one color rather than an orchestral work for a symphony of colors. It is the performance of a single musician, before the creation of other colors: the initial, primordial stain, a sun rising onto the canvas like an explosion of pure energy.

Nikel was never accepted into the New Horizons group, which dominated abstract art in Israel from the 1950s to the 1970s and was the most prominent group of artists in the country. The group’s central figures, led by Yosef Zaritsky, found it difficult to accept the absolute abstraction that characterized Nikel’s work and its colorfulness, which differed from the murky and faded colors typical of their own work. And perhaps this also had something to do with their unwillingness to include such a prominent and gifted woman in a group that was composed almost entirely of men – a chauvinism that sadly prevailed in the field of art too in those years.

Amitai Mendelsohn