Fusion
By Gedalia Ben-Zvi
Location: 635 / 645 Elliott
Created in 2005
Acquired in 2008
Martin Selig added “Fusion” by Gedalia Ben-Zvi to his collection in 2008. Ben-Zvi was born in Czechoslovakia in 1925. The now-famous artist was passionate about art from a young age, which he pursued until World War II, when the Nazis cast their shadow over Europe. Ben-Zvi was forced first into Slovakia, then to a concentration camp in Poland in 1942. In 1945, he escaped the concentration camp, and hid in the forests of Northern Poland until Russian liberation. In his biography, the artist says he found himself “wandering about Europe, together with thousands of survivors from the Holocaust, until, in 1948 [he] came to Israel via the Camps of Cyprus.”
Fusion, Ben-Zvi says, stems from the beauty of mankind’s ability to come together. This piece honors the unique ability humans have to “melt from individuals into groups and form small families into clans, living and working together.” This work of art was cast in traditional technique in Israel, and is now located at at 635 Elliott West.