Meir Shlomo

1914-1979
Born in Germany
Immigrated to Israel in 1936

Shlomo Meir left Germany before the second world war and settled in Kibbutz Dalia.

Far from the art epicentre of Tel Aviv, Shlomo worked like many other artists in the periphery, away from the spot light and public awareness. This, however, did not prevent Shlomo from developing a unique style. He studied art with Marcel Janco and Zvi Meirovich, whose influence is very obvious in his work. Shlomo Meir studied sculpture with Dov Feigin and created numerous stone and wood sculptures.

In the 50’s, Shlomo Meir’s work underwent an abstraction process, simultaneous to the abstract revolution of the New Horizon group in Tel-Aviv, although figurative elements were still recognizable in his work. Towards the end of his creative life, Shlomo’s art became completely abstract and very vivid in colour.

In contrast to other kibbutz artists of his time, such as Yohanan Simon and Avraham Ofek, Shlomo Meir was not concerned with socialistic realism. The focus of his paintings was nature, still life and animals.

Shlomos’ work decorated various spaces in his kibbutz and its surroundings, while he did, in fact, gain recognition abroad, exhibiting in various countries including London, Zurich, and Stockholm.

Shlomo Meir left behind an impressive body of work – paintings and sculptures of high quality – that should rightly stand amongst the works of the top Eretz Israel artists. His talent was acknowledged by Galia Bar-Or from the Ein Harod museum, who included him in the show “The Dialectics of the ’50s: A Hegemony and a Plurality” – the first exhibition out of six , representing six decades of Israeli art in six major exhibitions in 2008 – as part of Israel’s 60th anniversary.