Beloosesky Gallery is interested in purchasing paintings and sculpture by Moshe Castel.
Please call (917) 749-4557 or email us at info@beloosesky.com
Moshe Castel was born in Jerusalem in 1909 to a Sephardic Jewish family descended from Spain. The son of a Rabbi, Castel attended his father’s school until the age of 13. He went on to study at the Bezalel Art School in Jerusalem, where he was encouraged by his teacher to study in Paris.
Castel furthered his art education at the Academie Julian and Ecole de Louvre in Paris. He was greatly influenced by European masters Rembrandt, Velasquez, Delacroix and Courbert after spending his days copying their works hanging in the Louvre. Castel returned to Palestine at the onset of WWII.
The subject of Castel’s early paintings were scenes of Sephardic Jews in the Holy Land. In 1947, Castel helped to found the "New Horizons" (Ofakim Hadashim) group together with Yosef Zaritsky, Yehezkel Streichman, Marcel Janco and others.
In the 1950s his artwork shifted when he was inspired by ancient relief paintings depicting predecessors of the Jewish people. These paintings were surrounded by ancient ruins of basalt blocks, which ultimately became the foundation for his unique method. In 1955, a solo exhibition of his works was mounted at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. His murals hang in the Knesset, Binyanei Hauma Convention Center, Rockefeller Center in New York, and the official residence of the President of Israel in Jerusalem. In 1959, he purchased a studio in Montparnasse where he worked for several months a year.
Castel used ground basalt, mixed with sand and glue, to then mold into different forms that he would engraved. The engravings were derived from numerous ancient symbols of Hebrew culture. The artist produced two major commissions for the Israeli government, consisting of large reliefs in his signature style.
A large collection of the Mr. Castel’s artwork can be viewed at the Moshe Castel Musuem of Art outside of Jerusalem.
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
The Tate Gallery, London
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Jewish Museum, New York
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston-Texas
Phoenix Art Museum, Arizona
Art Museum Berkeley University, California
Brandeis University, Boston
Smith College Museum, Northampton, Mass
Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University
Wadsworth Athenaeum, Art Museum, Conn
The High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia
Baltimore Museum of Art
John Hopkins University, Baltimore
American Public Insurance Company, Des Moines
The Knesset House of Parliament, Jerusalem
The Brooklyn Museum of Art
Fairleigh Dickinson Fine Arts Museum, NJ
U.S. Steel, Pittsburg
Rehovot House of Sir Isaac and Lady Edith
Wolfson at the Weizman Institute
Temple B'nai Shalom, Rockville Center, New York
Temple Emanu-El, Providence, Rhode Island
San Francisco Museum of Art
The Dropsie College, Philadelphia
Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York
Temple Beth-El of Great Neck, New York
Museum of the Vatican, Rome
The Presidential Mansion, Jerusalem