Halevy, Yosef
HALEVY, YOSEF
HALEVY, YOSEF (1924– ), Israeli painter. Halevy was born in Tel Aviv and graduated from the Painting Teachers' School there. Of Yemenite origin and deeply imbued with Yemenite folklore, he chose as subjects for his early paintings his memories and his inner world, and in this period one sees wide brushstrokes, forming color planes and contoured patterns, with a clear development toward abstraction. In his second stage, the Yemenite background almost entirely disappears, and his painting is based more on color and form, the colors on the canvas being more spontaneous and expressive. In his third phase, the forms become smaller and Halevy gives expression to mythological and lyrical forms, suggesting figures that intermingle with each other, sometimes creating almost completely abstract patterns.
[Judith Spitzer]