Schloss, Ruth (1922-2013), Woman eating, c. 1990

Ruth Schloss(1922 Nuremberg - 2013 Kfar Shmaryahu), Woman eating , around 1990. Mixed media on watercolor paper, 22.2 cm x 26.5 cm, signed “Schloss” lower left and signed again in Hebrew lower right.

- Paper somewhat stained on the reverse due to the painting process, otherwise in very good condition

- Interior Pictures -

In particular during the last decades of her life, Ruth Schloss portrayed people in nursing homes and hospitals. She captured the seemingly unobserved people in their everyday lives. Through her virtuoso and concise brushwork, the artist illustrates the unique individuality of her subjects, each of whom has been marked by life in their own way. Through the pictures, the authentic fullness of often painful biographies becomes tangible.

Here, we see a woman eating who pauses and looks to the side instead of bringing her spoon to her mouth. However, her gaze does not focus on anything concrete; it is directed inward. She is distracted from the basic need to eat by something that seems like a dark secret that determines her life, evident in her black, empty eyes.

About the artist

Ruth Schloss's father was a social democratic stationer, and her mother ran a liberal kindergarten. In 1937, the Jewish family immigrated to Israel and settled in Kfar Shmaryahu, a village founded by German immigrants near Tel Aviv. There, they ran a model farm. Schloss studied at the New Bezalel Academy of Arts and Crafts in Jerusalem until 1942 under Mordecai Ardon, who had trained at the Bauhaus in Dessau. From 1946, she took painting lessons at the Haartzi kibbutz. In 1947, she participated in her first group exhibition in Tel Aviv. From 1949 to 1951, Schloss continued her studies at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris. There, she was particularly inspired by the works of Bernard Buffet. In 1962, Schloss opened a studio in Jaffa, where she gave painting lessons to mothers and children until 1983. She exhibited her work at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. In 1991, the Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art held the first retrospective of her work. In addition to painting, Schloss worked as a book and newspaper illustrator from 1939 onward. Due to her powerful socially committed art, she is known as the "Käthe Kollwitz of Israel."