Raffi Lavie: Life and Career
Raffi Lavie was an Israeli educator and music/art critic born in Tel Aviv during the British Mandate. He studied at the Art Teachers' Training College in Tel Aviv and later taught at the HaMidrasha – Faculty of the Arts in Ramat HaSharon, beginning his teaching tenure there in 1966. In that same year, he became a founder of the group Ten Plus.
His artistic practice involved spontaneous scrawls reminiscent of graffiti and comic strip art, often featuring writing on paintings as if they were walls covered with scribbles. Towards the end of the 1960s, Lavie began incorporating collage elements, gluing photographs, reproductions, and posters onto his works alongside kitsch, applied graphics, children's drawing, and political rhetoric. His work utilized low-cost materials such as plywood and cardboard.
Exhibitions and Recognition
Lavie's career included several notable exhibitions and honors:
- The Dizengoff Prize for Painting and Sculpture from the Municipality of Tel Aviv-Yafo in 1978.
- The "Want of Matter" exhibit at the Tel Aviv Museum in 1986.
- A retrospective exhibit at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem titled "Rafi Lavie: Works from 1950 to 2002".
- A solo exhibition at Givon Gallery in Tel Aviv in 2005.
- Representing Israel in the 53rd Venice Biennale in 2009.
In his final years, due to severe back problems, Lavie painted while sitting. He died of pancreatic cancer at his home in Tel Aviv.
