Bella Brisel


Bella Brisel was an Israeli painter and graphic artist. Her art is characterized by expressive, atmospheric compositions that blend figurative and abstract elements. Her works often feature delicate yet dynamic forms, evoking a sense of movement and emotion through subtle color harmonies and layered textures.

Biography

Bella Brisel was born in Tiberias into a Jewish ultra-Orthodox family from the Old Yishuv. In 1944 the family moved to Jerusalem where she studied at the Bet Yaakov Seminary. In 1946, after attending her first art exhibition, she decided to become an artist and moved to Tel Aviv alone. There, she studied painting under Avigdor Stematsky and Yehezkel Streichman at their Studia Art School, where she also took lessons with Marcel Janco.
In Studia she met the artist Sioma Baram, whom she married in 1949. From 1949 the couple lived in Paris, where Brisel studied fresco painting at the École des Beaux-Arts.
Starting in 1955, the couple made their permanent home on the Spanish island of Formentera, with occasional short visits to Paris and Israel. Their life story inspired the French writer Jacques Peuchmaurd to write the novel The Sun of Palicorna; in 1974, they appeared in its cinematic adaptation.
In 1954, a book of religious poems by Judah Halevi, Chants mystiques/Adaptés par Bruno Durocher, illustrated with 12 lithographs by Brisel, was published in Paris.
In 1980 Sioma Baram died in Formentera. Brisel moved to Tel Aviv in 1981 where she produced a book on Baram's oeuvre.
She died in 1982 and was buried on the Mount of Olives Jewish Cemetery in Jerusalem.
In 1988, the Baram-Brisel Gallery was established in their names in Formentera and remained active until the early 1990s.

Artistic style

Brisel's artistic development can be divided into three distinct periods, each marking a unique evolution in style and expression.
Brisel's paintings from the early 1950s are deeply infused with the spiritual heritage of the Jewish people and the religious traditions of her childhood. They are rich with symbols and motifs drawn from Jewish mysticism, Christianity, and Byzantine art – mythological themes that reflect the Christian visual culture surrounding her in Paris. The compositions are typically circular or symmetrical, featuring feminine figures alongside animals and celestial objects. These scenes depict a paradisiacal sexuality that existed before the Fall, separating Eve from nature and humans from their essence.
In the late 1950s and 1960s, Brisel's work underwent significant development following the couple's move to Formentera. During this period of consolidation and contraction, her paintings increasingly abandoned the symbolic motifs, animals, and landscapes that had previously defined her style. Instead, her canvases focused on figures engaged in dynamic relationships of dependency and protection.
A fluent visual language developed between the mid-1960s and Brisel's death in 1982. The circular movement that characterized her early paintings reemerged, while the gradual move away from mythology and traditional meanings paved the way for more introspective expressions.

Exhibitions

Brisel's works appeared in numerous solo and group exhibitions worldwide; a selection is listed below.

Selected Solo Exhibitions

1951 La Maison des Beaux-Arts, Paris1952 Galerie Creuze, Paris1954 Galerie Breteau, Paris1956 Tel Aviv Museum at Dizengoff House1959 Kaplan Gallery, London1961 Galerie M. Bernheim, Paris1963 Iida Gallery, Tokyo1963 Silman Gallery, New York1965 Ewan Phillip Gallery, London1965 Galerie Formentera 1966 Jean Tiroche Gallery, Jaffa1969 Tel Aviv Museum at the Helena Rubinstein Pavilion1970 Ramat Gan Museum at Beit Emanuel1973 Talma Gallery, Tel Aviv1977 Institute of Modern Art, Bangkok1991 Yad LeBanim Museum, Petach Tikva 2014 Artists' House, Tel Aviv2025 "," Tel Aviv Museum of Art

Selected Group Exhibitions

1948 "Young Artists," Tel Aviv1952 Young Painters' Salon, Paris1952 Autumn Salon, Paris1953 Paris Salon of Foreign Artists in France, Paris1954 Exhibition of winners of the Art Critics Prize, Paris1955 Exhibition of Israeli Artists in Paris, Galerie Zack, Paris1955 Autumn Salon, Tokyo1960 "Israeli Art Today," Paris1971 "Israeli Art: Painting, Sculpture, Graphics," Tel Aviv Museum2022 "," Tel Aviv Museum of Art

Literature

  1. . Catalogue for the exhibition held at the Tel Aviv Museum, December 1956 / Preface by Eugene Kolb
  3. . Catalogue for the exhibition held at the Tel Aviv Museum, Beit Dizengoff, November-December 1969 / Preface by Haim Gamzu
  4. Bella Brisel: Waters from Waters. Catalogue for the held at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, March - August 2025 / Preface by Adi Dahan