The Binding of Isaac

Aharon Kahana

1952

The Binding of Isaac was painted at a time when Aharon Kahana was developing a new style that favored abstract forms divided by thick lines. His paintings were both an embrace of modern European art and a turn away from it, an attempt to forge a new Israeli art. Kahana and others in the New Horizons art movement drew inspiration from ancient myths and pagan imagery and what they saw as indigenous, Canaanite culture. Known for his paintings with biblical themes, Kahana returned to the subject of Abraham and Isaac a couple of years later in 1954 with a large ceramic wall mural, Sacrifice of Isaac, on the campus of Hebrew University in Jerusalem in Givat Ram.

We’re sorry. The Posen Library’s licensing agreements prevent this image from being printed or downloaded.

Credits

From the collection of Shoshana and Avraham Rabani.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 9.

Engage with this Source
Restricted
Some content is unavailable to non-members, please log in or sign up for free for full access.

Related Guide

Visual and Material Culture in the Mid-Twentieth Century

1939–1973

Jewish visual art flourished and diversified in the postwar period, reflecting the social and political transformations taking place in the world.

You may also like

Abstract painting of figures and lines.
Tooltip info icon

Yehiam (Life in a Kibbutz)

Yosef Zaritsky was a founder of the New Horizons art group, which, beginning in 1942, sought to break away from the artistic conventions established by the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts. He…
View Source
Large-scale abstract sculpture of sharp metal lines and edges installed on wall.
Tooltip info icon

And the Bush Was Not Consumed

Herbert Ferber’s twelve-foot-high sculpture was originally commissioned to adorn the façade of Congregation B’nai Israel in Milburn, New Jersey. Percival Goodman, the new building’s architect…
View Source
Abstract painting of circles in a spiral.
Tooltip info icon

Symphonie Vitale

Like most of Henry Valensi’s other “Symphony” paintings, Symphonie Vitale does not refer to a specific piece of music, but instead reflects the principles of Musicalism, the art movement founded by…
View Source
Comic book cover with the title "Superduperman" and a Superman-like figure in a cape who is attacking an elderly disabled man, surrounded by a crowd and a cityscape, with English text and three comic panels underneath, of the exterior of a skyscraper in the first panel, exterior of a window in the second panel, and interior of an office in the third panel.
Tooltip info icon

Superduperman, Mad #4

Over its more than fifty-two years of publication, Mad Magazine skewered everyone from politicians to movie stars, with a particular dedication to rooting out hypocrisy. Here it spoofs its own genre…
View Source