June 2 – September 4, 2022
Reuven Rubin was a Romanian-born Israeli painter and Israel’s first ambassador to Romania. He was born in Galati to a Romanian Jewish Hasidic family, the eighth of 13 children. In 1912 he left for Ottoman-ruled Palestine to study art at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem. His conflict with the artistic views of the Academy’s teachers propelled him to move to for Paris in 1913 to pursue his studies at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts. At the outbreak of the First World War, he returned to Romania.
In 1921 Rubin traveled to the United States with friend and fellow artist, Arthur Kolnik. In New York City, the two met artist Alfred Stieglitz, who was instrumental in organizing their first American show at the Anderson Gallery. Following the exhibition, they both returned to Europe. In 1923, Rubin returned to Palestine where he remained for the rest of his life.
Rubin spent hours each day in his studio. For decades he illustrated the secular and religious life of Israel, painting Halutzim pioneers and rabbis dancing at Mount Meron, the port of Jaffa, its fishermen and its Arab coffee shops. An optimistic painter, he portrayed landscape and human life, fruit and flowers, joy, and tranquility.
The Prophets, a portfolio of twelve lithographs created in 1973 was generously donated by the family of Beatrice and Sigmund Gundle.