2008 – <em>The Square in Kfar Yehoshua</em>, Elie Shamir

Elie Shamir (b.1953), son of Kfar Yehoshua, former fighter pilot and now artist, did a series of works about his moshav, which was founded in 1927. In the foreground of this oil painting we see a memorial on the moshav made by Batia Lishansky (1899-1992) in 1953 in memory of those killed in 1948. While the front of the sculpture depicts the fighters, a woman among them, the other side portrays a woman farming, as if to say, “Life must go on; we fight because we must.” The sculpture becomes softer in Shamir’s rendition, and the monochrome tones stand in sharp relief to the verdant moshav landscape. In the background is the original water tower of the moshav, an iconic and essential element of early agricultural settlements. Shamir’s admiration for the generations that built the moshav through sacrifice is apparent in this series. (Image courtesy of the artist; painting from a private collection)