Sami Briss, Fish On The Roofs, Oil On Panel, Signed

Sami Briss, Le Poisson Sur Les Toits, Oil On Wood, Signed lower right and signed, titled and dated 1979 on the reverse 18 x 14 cm. With frame 35 x 31 cm. the frame has minor wear free shipping within the EU Sami Briss was born in Jassy, Romania in 1930. He lived from 1960 to 1994 in Tel Aviv, then in Paris. The influence of his Jewish childhood environment still permeates his works today. He was deeply influenced by the landscape and imposing architecture of his hometown, as well as by the colorful exterior frescoes of the churches in his home country. His mother, a seamstress, passed on her love of design to him, and Briss showed an interest in rich fabrics and embroidery from an early age, surprising his mother with his drawings. She encouraged his artistic development and was proud when he was admitted to the School of Fine Arts in Bucharest. At first, Briss painted still lifes, where his sense of structure was clearly visible. He experimented with lithography and woodcuts, but by the 1960s he had devoted himself entirely to painting. He worked in both oil and watercolor and learned the art of iconography, an element of his Romanian heritage. Briss transformed this ancient technique to adapt it to the images in his works, where hues of blue, pink, deep green, black and gold leaf dominate. The use of gold leaf refers to both Jewish tradition and Romanian Christian folk art. Briss created a unique world by filtering his memories and emotions through his unconscious. He developed his own vocabulary of symbols, where the fish symbolises abundance, the hands evoke strength and luck, and the birds in flight represent hope. Sami Briss is a painter of magical and wondrous images. His art evokes a nostalgia for icons, inspired by his home country. He is often compared to artists such as Paul Klee and Victor Brauner, with a symbolic and subtly stylised formal language. His colour palette recalls the hues of enamel, ceramics and primitive art, and his work is rooted in universal myths and memories.