Page 36 - Studio International - November 1965

Azaz Sculpture as architecture

by Charles S. Spencer

· I had the notion that small scale sculpture was no longer organised his training and skills in order to fulfil a pre­
valid in the new post-war social circumstances-cer­ meditated role. The more we discussed his career and
tainly not in an egalitarian society like Israel. The class achievements. and studied his work of the last ten years,
which had patronised Western art for close on 2.000 the more it became clear that each step. each experi­
years was losing its power. I had strong convictions ment and discovery, fitted into a planned design.
that art should become public art. or find a form which The beginnings could not have been more inaus­
the average person could relate to modern life'. picious. At the age of nine he was severely punished by
This assessment of Azaz·s attitude as an artist. at the his father for carving stone figures and he had no
time when he was reaching maturity, would likely be further contact with art until he was eighteen.
echoed by most Israeli sculptors. In an article ·sculpture His parents had come to Palestine in 1920; his father.
in the Sun· (Studio International. August 1964) I stated a Russian-born expert on water irrigation. pioneered
that Israeli artists · are not concerned with domestic scientific farming at Zichron Ya'acov. south of Haifa.
decoration. with interior set-pieces. even with museum Azaz was. however. born in Berlin in 1923 since his
representation. Invariably they think in large-scale mother feared the inadequacy of medical facilities in the
terms-public monuments. town-centres. parks. still primitive country. At the age of three months he
schools. in some cases overall town-planning. In tune was taken to Palestine. His father distrusted the non­
with a class-less society. a country with Mediterranean utilitarian aspect of art-an attitude. it will be seen.
out-door life. a people drunk with freedom after cen­ inherited by the son. The young Azaz was educated in
turies of physical and psychological darkness. it is an Palestine and at the American College in Beirut. As a
art for the people. for the totality of society .. · youth he was a champion sprinter; when he was asked
Azaz. who has perhaps gone further than his com­ to pose for a visiting South African painter that. at the
patriots in re-establishing the relationship of artist and age of eighteen. he decided to take up drawing.
community, is today Israel's leading architectural artist. By this time the World War had started and Azaz
whose diverse talents have also been widely employed enlisted in the British Navy. Severely wounded in a
in the United States and Great Britain. tanker explosion. he became an external student at the
A powerful. bearded figure. he projects the positive. Hebrew University to study archaeology, a subject which
vital personality of a man who has consciously has become an abiding passion and which has con­
tributed to his sculpture. He later joined the British
Army and served first in Italy and then throughout
Europe. 'It was in Italy that I awakened to art and
resolved to become a sculptor·. At first aroused by
Renaissance sculpture. especially Michelangelo. Gothic
art in Italy, Germany and France later made a more pro­
found impression.
Invalided out of the Army with a small pension. and
with a legacy from his mother, he ignored paternal
objections and embarked on an art career. He enrolled
in Bologna University, but after six months resigned to
work with a local stone-mason. 'That was the founda­
tion of my training·, the beginning of his concern with
skills and techniques rather than stylistic theories.
The same set plan led to his joining Stauthamer. the
leading Dutch Catholic sculptor and stained-glass
worker. in 1947 at the end of his Army service. Living in
the master's house. like a medieval apprentice. 'I learned
technique and attitude. As a sculptor he was not par­
ticularly interesting. but he was a first class teacher with
absolute control over the skills of sculpting and the use
of stained glass·.
Anxious for wider experience Azaz then enrolled in the
La Grande Chaumiere in Paris. but the outbreak of the
War of Independence in Israel interrupted his plan.
After the war he returned to Paris and studied under
Zadkine for six months. ·1 didn't find it very profitable
and went back to Stauthamer in Holland'. However.
now he sees that 'Zadkine (and to a lesser degree
Archipenko) has been my greatest modern influence·.
Later he joined the Hague Technical Institute to study
ceramic engineering. ·1 was interested in gaining control
of as many mediums as possible. At the time I undertook
the course I had in mind creating an art centre in Beer­
sheba'. Yet another example of the continuity of his
planning. The art centre was closely related to the
philosophy referred to at the opening of this article­
creating works of art accessible to the ordinary public.
'Art originated from utility' Azaz says. 'when man first
expressed his aesthetic. atavistic or religious needs in
utilitarian forms. I do not like art being shut away in
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