Ilana Shafir (21 March 1924 – 12 April 2014) was an Israeli mosaic artist, globally known for her unique style spontaneous mosaic, a technique in which the artistic work emerges without prior painting unlike the traditional mosaic work.[1][2][3] Since the 1960s, she fashioned “extraordinary works mixing figurative and abstract motifs” in her studio in Ashkelon.[4]
Biography
Ilana Shafir was born on 21 March 1924 in the city of Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, now the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina.[3] Since her childhood, she showed interest in paintings.[5] During the World War II, her family managed to escape to a small town called Kula, where they found protection.[3] While in hiding, Shafir drew landscapes and portraits of the people around using old book covers for canvases which helped her to survive.[6]
After the war, Shafir continued her studies at the Academy of Fine Arts, University of Zagreb, Croatia.[5] In 1949, at the age of 25, she ultimately arrived to Ashkelon, the coastal town of Israel, where she settled for the rest of her life.[3][7]
In the beginning, she experimented with different techniques but finally focused on mosaic art.[3][5][8] She created mosaic murals in public buildings in Israel.[9] She founded Ashkelon art centre which she directed from 1970 to 1985. From 1985 she produced numerous works for the Ashkelon mosaic garden.[9]
Her works were exhibited in Israel, Italy, and Japan, and won numerous international awards.[9] The society of American mosaic artists (SAMA) honoured her with lifetime achievement award.[6] In 2011 she was also honoured with the only solo exhibition organized during the biennale Ravenna Mosaico.[3][4]
She was the member of International association of contemporary mosaicists.[9]
