A Surrealist Judaica scene of a bearded man (Rabbi) in a boat with Shabbat candlesticks. Sight size: 17.75" x 22.5". Overall size with frame: 26.5" x31.5" Naftali Bezem (Hebrew: נפתלי בזם‎‎; born November 27, 1924) is an Israeli painter, muralist, and sculptor. Bezem was born in Essen, Germany, in 1924. His early adolescence was spent under Nazi oppression, in constant fear for the safety of his parents, who perished in the Holocaust in the Polish Auschwitz concentration camp. Naftali emigrated to Mandate Palestine in 1939, at the age of fourteen with a Youth Aliyah group. From 1943 to 1946, he studied art, painting and sculpture, at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem with Israeli painter Mordecai Ardon. He then spent three years studying in Paris. He was published by Editions Empreinte in Paris, France. They published, Jean Michel Folon, Sempe, Raoul Ubac, Raymond Savignac, Cesar, Bengt Lindstrom , Paul Aizpiri and many other modern masters. In addition to painting and sculpture, Bezem created murals, wall reliefs, tapestry wall hangings, and stained glass windows. His most famous public works include a wall relief at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem and the ceiling mural in the main reception room at the President's Residence, Jerusalem. Awards and recognition In 1957, Bezem was a co-recipient of the Dizengoff Prize for Painting Group Exhibitions Orit Art Gallery, Tel Aviv Artists: Yosef Zaritsky, Marcel Janco, Lea Nikel, Robert Baser, Bezem, Michael Druks, Israeli Painting (Watercolors and Gouache) Artists: Pinchas Abramovich, Bezem, Naftali Nachum Gutman, Haim Gliksberg, Mordechai Levanon, Avigdor Stematsky, Avshalom Okashi, Yehiel Krize, Yehezkel Streichman Solo Exhibitions 1959 Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem 1960 Tel Aviv Art Museum, Tel Aviv 1977The Rose Art Museum, Boston 1959 The Bezalel National Museum, Jerusalem 1964Museum for Modern Art, Haifa 1970Mabat - Art Gallery, Tel Aviv 1971Jerusalem Artists' House, Jerusalem 1979 Rosenfeld Gallery (1952-2009), Tel Aviv 1983 Inauguration of Tapestry Beit Hasofer, Tel Aviv 1984 Sara Kishon Gallery, Tel Aviv 2000 Open Museum, Tefen 2003 Matsa Gallery, Ramat Gan