Raffi Lavie 1937-2007

Overall good condition. Canvas not lined. Slight surface soiling throughout. Under UV: small splatterings fluoresce that are not otherwise visible.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
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Raffi Lavie, born in Tel Aviv in 1937, referred to himself as a "self taught" artist. He  was one of the founding members and organizers of the Ten Plus group in 1965 and The Israel Museum in Jerusalem held a retrospective of his paintings in 2003. A far reaching influence in the history of Israeli art, his body of works will be exhibited at Israeli Pavillion at the 53^rd Venice Biennale in 2009.

Painted at the time Lavie's work came of age, the artist employs his familiar visual language of scribbled and hatched lines and pink and pale blue color planes in the present lot. Structurally divided into a formal syntax consisting of three friezes, the arch joins these shapes, providing a kind of stage in which the artist places two rows of stars of David. They unfold, as if in a performance, from amorphous forms into the recognized symbol of the Jewish nation.