Menashe Kadishman

Menashe Kadishman was an Israeli painter and sculptor, born in Tel Aviv in 1932, where he lived and worked until his death in 2015. A shepherd in his youth and later trained in Israel, at Saint Martin’s, and at London’s Slade School, he made the sheep a central motif. Free lines, vivid color, and monumental forms built an oeuvre that became emblematic.

His sheep, trees, silhouettes, and faces combine graphic simplicity with symbolic power. The sheep heads that became his emblem evoke the individual, the flock, pastoral memory, and biblical narratives. His monumental installation “Shalekhet” at the Jewish Museum Berlin gives this economy of form a profoundly moving intensity.

Kadishman represented Israel at the 1978 Venice Biennale and received the Israel Prize for sculpture in 1995. His work is held by institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tate, MoMA, and the Israel Museum. It forms an essential chapter in the history of modern Israeli art.