Oz Almog
Encyclopedia
Oz Almog, an Israel
i–Austrian
artist was born on April 15, 1956, in Kfar Saba
, Israel. He comes from a family of Russian/Ukrainian pioneers (Avrutzki) and Romanian/Russian immigrants (Abramovich). After studying classical painting and completing his military service in the Israeli Navy, he finished his studies at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts.
in Austria, Oz Almog took an active part with his performances in the off-scene underground culture in Austria and Europe. In the ‘90s he turned his interest into artistic reconstructions of complex issues of human sexuality, totalitarian ideologies, consumerism and terrorism. The result were numerous exhibitions. In 1994, for example, a much talked-about exhibition Birth of a Myth (German title Geburt eines Mythos) took place at WUK, an alternative arts center in Vienna, converted for the occasion into a shrine with flags and flower-strewn floor. In some 70 oil paintings Almog auto-portrayed himself in the style of Nazi art, classicism and social realism
as a ruler and savior, as a naked, provocatively muscle-bound godlike figure, as a fiery agitator or simply with the stern regard of a stormtrooper
, complete with leather belt and jackboots.
Almog’s next concept was shown in 1995 exhibition The Psychonaut and His Mind Navigator, featuring 360 oils, mostly self-portraits in the style of pulp magazine covers
. The artist presented himself as a lecherous vampire drooling over a beautiful blond, a revolver-toting gangster, a crazed toy alien
, or monstrously endowed porno star. The same year Oz Almog undertook the project En Face – Not seen and/or less seen of/by, reconstructing the images of the famous visual artists by using an original collection of interchangeable facial features' templates of Austrian Federal Police from the 70s. This was followed by conceptual exhibitions: Blok Brut (auto-erotic deaths) and Blood Addict - Bloody scenes of Murder 1949-1960, presented in Janco Dada Museum in Israel in 1997, and Shaheed (Suicide Terror phenomena) in Limbus Gallery, Tel Aviv. It is a series of selected real police photos of fatal auto-erotic strangulations
, extracts from the scene-of-the-crime photos, metamorphosed with real blood into abstract light and dark compositions,
and Jesus
, Bob Dylan
and Fred Astaire
, Mr. Spock and Albert Einstein
, Frida Kahlo
and Madeleine Albright
could possibly have in common. In more than 400 small size oil portraits, each accompanied by a short biography, Oz Almog features flamboyant heroes and anti-heroes whose only common denomination is their Jewish origin: names like Baruch Spinoza
, Jack Ruby
, Bob Dylan
and Rosa Luxemburg
. Showing the opposite to the racist anthropologists
image of the Jewish Face
and underling the diversity, Almog selected the personalities portrayed from the Bible, Myth and Heroic tales, Nobel laureates, politicians and soldiers, humanists, Hollywood celebrities, saints, freaks, gangsters and murderers – people who made history.Albert Einstein
rubs shoulders with fashion designer Ralph Lauren
, sex symbol Hedy Lamarr
with the writer Franz Kafka
, actress Winona Ryder
with Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, film director Stanley Kubrick
with gangster Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel
, Meyer Lansky
with rock musicians Gene Simmons
, Paul Stanley
and Lenny Kravitz
. There are also numerous local celebrities such as Leonard Cohen
, the rock musician Marc Bolan
, film director and producer Sir Alexander Korda, politician Benjamin Disraeli and many more. After being presented in the Jewish Museum, Vienna in 1999, the exhibition traveled for full 10 years and was seen in Tel Aviv, Berlin, London, Amsterdam, Rendsburg, Budapest, Belgrade, Sarajevo, Subotica and many more European cities.
, Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, and Louis "Lepke" Buchalter
had a determining influence on the development of organized crime in America
. Kosher Nostra, shown in 2004-2005 at the Jewish Museum, Vienna, featured more than 160 realistic oil portraits, with most of personalities shown both an face and from profile. Each "mug shot
" was accompanied with a short biography, resulting in two books with over 1000 pages. After Vienna the exhibition was shown in other museums and galleries, getting significant media attention worldwide.
2007/08 a number of international artists joined Almog in Judaica Kid’s Box project, taking up the challenge of presenting Jewish tradition, concepts, symbolism, thought and teachings in a form accessible to children. The colorful and entertaining presentation was designed to provide young and “adult” children with the means to understand the significance of the Hebrew alphabet. Judaica Kid’s Box was running for more than two years in the Jewish Museum, Vienna. At the same time Oz presented an exhibition entitled GODDEVILAETHEAR - Oz Almog + Wilhelm Reich: A Journey to Hell ("GOTTTEUFELAETHER - Oz Almog + Wilhelm Reich: Ausfluss der Hölle"). Like Wilhelm Reich has a fanatical and often esoterically inspired following, so here we have Oz’s artistic interpretation of the complex plane of Wilhelm Reich
’s concepts in conjunction with a dark, phantasmagorical underworld of Jewish Hell (Gehinom).
In 2010 Oz Almog showed in Jewish Museum, Vienna, the exhibition Walls of Sound – Jewish Worlds of Music featuring Jewish music and Jewish musicians.
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i–Austrian
Austrians
Austrians are a nation and ethnic group, consisting of the population of the Republic of Austria and its historical predecessor states who share a common Austrian culture and Austrian descent....
artist was born on April 15, 1956, in Kfar Saba
Kfar Saba
Kfar Saba , officially Kfar Sava, is a city in the Sharon region, of the Center District of Israel. At the end of 2009, Kfar Saba had a total population of 83,600.-History:...
, Israel. He comes from a family of Russian/Ukrainian pioneers (Avrutzki) and Romanian/Russian immigrants (Abramovich). After studying classical painting and completing his military service in the Israeli Navy, he finished his studies at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts.
Work
The works of Austro-Israeli painter and concept artist Oz Almog tend to be confrontational, extreme and provocative. Throughout the ’80s, while still a student of the Academy of Fine Arts ViennaAcademy of Fine Arts Vienna
The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna is an institution of higher education in Vienna, Austria.- History :The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna was founded in 1692 as a private academy by the court-painter Peter Strudl, who became the Praefectus Academiae Nostrae. In 1701 he was ennobled as Baron of the Empire...
in Austria, Oz Almog took an active part with his performances in the off-scene underground culture in Austria and Europe. In the ‘90s he turned his interest into artistic reconstructions of complex issues of human sexuality, totalitarian ideologies, consumerism and terrorism. The result were numerous exhibitions. In 1994, for example, a much talked-about exhibition Birth of a Myth (German title Geburt eines Mythos) took place at WUK, an alternative arts center in Vienna, converted for the occasion into a shrine with flags and flower-strewn floor. In some 70 oil paintings Almog auto-portrayed himself in the style of Nazi art, classicism and social realism
Soviet art
Soviet art was the visual art produced in the Soviet Union.-Early years:During the Russian Revolution a movement was initiated to put all arts to service of the dictatorship of the proletariat...
as a ruler and savior, as a naked, provocatively muscle-bound godlike figure, as a fiery agitator or simply with the stern regard of a stormtrooper
Stormtrooper
Stormtroopers were specialist soldiers of the German Army in World War I. In the last years of the war, Stoßtruppen were trained to fight with "infiltration tactics", part of the Germans' new method of attack on enemy trenches...
, complete with leather belt and jackboots.
Almog’s next concept was shown in 1995 exhibition The Psychonaut and His Mind Navigator, featuring 360 oils, mostly self-portraits in the style of pulp magazine covers
Pulp magazine
Pulp magazines , also collectively known as pulp fiction, refers to inexpensive fiction magazines published from 1896 through the 1950s. The typical pulp magazine was seven inches wide by ten inches high, half an inch thick, and 128 pages long...
. The artist presented himself as a lecherous vampire drooling over a beautiful blond, a revolver-toting gangster, a crazed toy alien
Bug-eyed monster
Bug-eyed monster is an early convention of the science fiction genre. Extraterrestrials in science fiction of the 1930s were often described as grotesque creatures with huge, oversized...
, or monstrously endowed porno star. The same year Oz Almog undertook the project En Face – Not seen and/or less seen of/by, reconstructing the images of the famous visual artists by using an original collection of interchangeable facial features' templates of Austrian Federal Police from the 70s. This was followed by conceptual exhibitions: Blok Brut (auto-erotic deaths) and Blood Addict - Bloody scenes of Murder 1949-1960, presented in Janco Dada Museum in Israel in 1997, and Shaheed (Suicide Terror phenomena) in Limbus Gallery, Tel Aviv. It is a series of selected real police photos of fatal auto-erotic strangulations
Erotic asphyxiation
Erotic asphyxiation or breath control play is the intentional restriction of oxygen to the brain for sexual arousal. The sexual preference for that behavior is variously called asphyxiophilia, autoerotic asphyxia, hypoxyphilia. Colloquially, a person engaging in the activity is sometimes called a...
, extracts from the scene-of-the-crime photos, metamorphosed with real blood into abstract light and dark compositions,
Him Too?
With his exhibition Him too? ... A Chronicle of a Cultural Obsession, Oz Almog confronts visitors with the question as to what Anne FrankAnne Frank
Annelies Marie "Anne" Frank is one of the most renowned and most discussed Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Acknowledged for the quality of her writing, her diary has become one of the world's most widely read books, and has been the basis for several plays and films.Born in the city of Frankfurt...
and Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
, Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
and Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute...
, Mr. Spock and Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...
, Frida Kahlo
Frida Kahlo
Frida Kahlo de Rivera was a Mexican painter, born in Coyoacán, and perhaps best known for her self-portraits....
and Madeleine Albright
Madeleine Albright
Madeleine Korbelová Albright is the first woman to become a United States Secretary of State. She was appointed by U.S. President Bill Clinton on December 5, 1996, and was unanimously confirmed by a U.S. Senate vote of 99–0...
could possibly have in common. In more than 400 small size oil portraits, each accompanied by a short biography, Oz Almog features flamboyant heroes and anti-heroes whose only common denomination is their Jewish origin: names like Baruch Spinoza
Baruch Spinoza
Baruch de Spinoza and later Benedict de Spinoza was a Dutch Jewish philosopher. Revealing considerable scientific aptitude, the breadth and importance of Spinoza's work was not fully realized until years after his death...
, Jack Ruby
Jack Ruby
Jacob Leon Rubenstein , who legally changed his name to Jack Leon Ruby in 1947, was convicted of the November 24, 1963 murder of Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged assassin of President John F. Kennedy. Ruby, who was originally from Chicago, Illinois, was then a nightclub operator in Dallas, Texas...
, Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
and Rosa Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg was a Marxist theorist, philosopher, economist and activist of Polish Jewish descent who became a naturalized German citizen...
. Showing the opposite to the racist anthropologists
Scientific racism
Scientific racism is the use of scientific techniques and hypotheses to sanction the belief in racial superiority or racism.This is not the same as using scientific findings and the scientific method to investigate differences among the humans and argue that there are races...
image of the Jewish Face
Stereotypes of Jews
Stereotypes of Jews are generalizations or stereotypes about Jews. Jewish people have been stereotyped for over two millennia throughout Europe and the Western hemisphere as scapegoats for a multitude of societal problems. Antisemitism continued throughout the centuries and reached a climax in the...
and underling the diversity, Almog selected the personalities portrayed from the Bible, Myth and Heroic tales, Nobel laureates, politicians and soldiers, humanists, Hollywood celebrities, saints, freaks, gangsters and murderers – people who made history.Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...
rubs shoulders with fashion designer Ralph Lauren
Ralph Lauren
Ralph Lauren is an American fashion designer and business executive; best known for his Polo Ralph Lauren clothing brand.-Early life:...
, sex symbol Hedy Lamarr
Hedy Lamarr
Hedy Lamarr was an Austrian-American actress celebrated for her great beauty who was a major contract star of MGM's "Golden Age".Lamarr also co-invented – with composer George Antheil – an early technique for spread spectrum communications and frequency hopping, necessary to wireless...
with the writer Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka was a culturally influential German-language author of short stories and novels. Contemporary critics and academics, including Vladimir Nabokov, regard Kafka as one of the best writers of the 20th century...
, actress Winona Ryder
Winona Ryder
Winona Ryder is an American actress. She made her film debut in the 1986 film Lucas. Ryder's first significant role came in Tim Burton's Beetlejuice as a goth teenager, which won her critical and commercial recognition...
with Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, film director Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick was an American film director, writer, producer, and photographer who lived in England during most of the last four decades of his career...
with gangster Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel
Bugsy Siegel
Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel was an American gangster who was involved with the Genovese crime family...
, Meyer Lansky
Meyer Lansky
Meyer Lansky , known as the "Mob's Accountant", was a Polish-born American organized crime figure who, along with his associate Charles "Lucky" Luciano, was instrumental in the development of the "National Crime Syndicate" in the United States...
with rock musicians Gene Simmons
Gene Simmons
Gene Simmons is an Israeli-American entrepreneur, singer-songwriter, actor, and rock bassist. Known as "The Demon", he is the bassist/vocalist of Kiss, a hard rock band he co-founded in the early 1970s.-Early life:...
, Paul Stanley
Paul Stanley
Stanley Harvey Eisen , better known by his stage name Paul Stanley, is an American hard rock guitarist, singer, musician, painter and songwriter best known for being the rhythm guitarist and primary lead vocalist of the rock band Kiss. He is the writer or co-writer of many of the band's...
and Lenny Kravitz
Lenny Kravitz
Leonard Albert "Lenny" Kravitz is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and arranger, whose "retro" style incorporates elements of rock, soul, R&B, funk, reggae, hard rock, psychedelic, folk and ballads...
. There are also numerous local celebrities such as Leonard Cohen
Leonard Cohen
Leonard Norman Cohen, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963. His work often explores religion, isolation, sexuality and interpersonal relationships...
, the rock musician Marc Bolan
Marc Bolan
Marc Bolan was an English singer-songwriter, guitarist and poet. He is best known as the founder, frontman, lead singer & guitarist for T. Rex, but also a successful solo artist...
, film director and producer Sir Alexander Korda, politician Benjamin Disraeli and many more. After being presented in the Jewish Museum, Vienna in 1999, the exhibition traveled for full 10 years and was seen in Tel Aviv, Berlin, London, Amsterdam, Rendsburg, Budapest, Belgrade, Sarajevo, Subotica and many more European cities.
2000–2001 exhibitions
Aktion T-4: Opera Euthanasia – part of the Memorial exhibition at the Upper Austrian State Museum, Linz in the year 2000 – featured a child's bedroom with over 350 paintings of prominent Nazis, serial killers and other criminals and once again produced a massive public reaction. Wiener en face – Portraits of Careers (Viennese en face – Portraits of Careers), with 350 paintings of prominent Viennese personalities, was shown from October 2000 to April 2001 at the Hermes Villa (part of the Historical Museum of the City of Vienna). It has been followed by Towards the Light of Dawn – Jewish Heroes of the Soviet Union (Dem Morgenrot Entgegen). With this exhibition Oz Almog has attempted to uncover what he says is the "repressed history" of the 500,000 Jews who fought in the Soviet army – a third of the 1.5 million Jewish soldiers from all Allied nations.Kosher Nostra
In the exhibition Kosher Nostra. Jewish Gangsters in America 1890–1980, Oz Almog created an impressive documentary summary of an entire epoch of crimes committed by Jewish gangsters. Through pictures, newspaper articles, and official documents, he showed how such criminals as Meyer LanskyMeyer Lansky
Meyer Lansky , known as the "Mob's Accountant", was a Polish-born American organized crime figure who, along with his associate Charles "Lucky" Luciano, was instrumental in the development of the "National Crime Syndicate" in the United States...
, Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, and Louis "Lepke" Buchalter
Louis Buchalter
Louis "Lepke" Buchalter was a Jewish American mobster and head of the Mafia hit squad Murder, Inc. during the 1930s. After Dutch Schultz' request of the Mafia Commission for permission to kill his enemy, U.S. Attorney Thomas Dewey, the Commission decided to kill Schultz in order to prevent the hit...
had a determining influence on the development of organized crime in America
Organized crime
Organized crime or criminal organizations are transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals for the purpose of engaging in illegal activity, most commonly for monetary profit. Some criminal organizations, such as terrorist organizations, are...
. Kosher Nostra, shown in 2004-2005 at the Jewish Museum, Vienna, featured more than 160 realistic oil portraits, with most of personalities shown both an face and from profile. Each "mug shot
Mug shot
A mug shot, mugshot or booking photograph, is a photographic portrait taken after one is arrested. The purpose of the mug shot is to allow law enforcement to have a photographic record of the arrested individual to allow for identification by victims and investigators. Most mug shots are two-part,...
" was accompanied with a short biography, resulting in two books with over 1000 pages. After Vienna the exhibition was shown in other museums and galleries, getting significant media attention worldwide.
2004–present
In 2004 Oz Almog presented his art installation Colors of War. Camouflage was shown in The Imperial Furniture Collection Museum in Vienna (Hofmobiliendepot, Moebel Museum, Wien), exhibiting the original furniture of Austo-Hungarian Emperors, re-furbished with the military camouflage fabrics. A Warrior Cult was on view at the Jewish Museum featuring the mosaic of shoulder sleeve insignias oil paintings.2007/08 a number of international artists joined Almog in Judaica Kid’s Box project, taking up the challenge of presenting Jewish tradition, concepts, symbolism, thought and teachings in a form accessible to children. The colorful and entertaining presentation was designed to provide young and “adult” children with the means to understand the significance of the Hebrew alphabet. Judaica Kid’s Box was running for more than two years in the Jewish Museum, Vienna. At the same time Oz presented an exhibition entitled GODDEVILAETHEAR - Oz Almog + Wilhelm Reich: A Journey to Hell ("GOTTTEUFELAETHER - Oz Almog + Wilhelm Reich: Ausfluss der Hölle"). Like Wilhelm Reich has a fanatical and often esoterically inspired following, so here we have Oz’s artistic interpretation of the complex plane of Wilhelm Reich
Wilhelm Reich
Wilhelm Reich was an Austrian-American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, known as one of the most radical figures in the history of psychiatry...
’s concepts in conjunction with a dark, phantasmagorical underworld of Jewish Hell (Gehinom).
In 2010 Oz Almog showed in Jewish Museum, Vienna, the exhibition Walls of Sound – Jewish Worlds of Music featuring Jewish music and Jewish musicians.
Published works
- Oz Almog, Gerhard Milchram: E.M. Lilien: Jugendstil - Erotik - Zionismus (Vienna; Braunschweig: Juedisches Museum Wien ; Braunschweigischen Landesmuseums, 1998) ISBN 3-85476-017-5
- Oz Almog, Felicitas Heimann-Jelinek: Bamot* - über die Erstellung, Zerschlagung und Restaurierung von Hoehenheiligtümern: Israel 1948-1998 (Vienna, Juedisches Museum Wien, 1998) ISBN 3-901-398-08-2
- Oz Almog: Him too..??: Oz Almog's concise index Judaeorum - a chronicle of a cultural obsession (Jewish Museum Vienna, Beth Hatefutsoth, Tel Aviv, etc., 1999) ISBN 3-901398-14-7
- Oz Almog: him too...?? Concise Index Judeaorum, A Chronicle of a Cultural Obsession (Vienna, Jewish Museum Vienna, 2000) ISBN 3-901398-28-7
- Oz Almog: Ma Gam Hu...?? (Tel Aviv, The Nahum Goldmann Museum of Jewish Diaspora, 2000) ISBN 3-901398-15-5
- Oz Almog: Wiener an Face, Portraits von Karrieren (Vienna, Eigenverlag der Museen der Stadt Wien, 2000), Open Library ID OL24331008M
- Oz Almog: Dem Morgenrot Entgegen, Helden der Sowjetunion (Vienna, Jewish Museum Vienna, 2002) ISBN 3-901398-22-8
- Oz Almog: der auch...?? Oz Almogs bunter Index Judaeorum, Chronik einer kulturellen Obsession (Vienna, Jewish Museum Vienna, 2003) ISBN 3-901398-27-9
- Oz Almog: Anche Lui..., Cronica de una ossessione culturale (Vienna, Jüdisches Museum Wien, 2000)
- Oz Almog: зар и он...?? Оз Алмогов шаролики индекс јудеорум (Beograd, Muzej grada Beograda, 2006) ISBN 86-90619-38-8
- Oz Almog: der auch...?? Oz Almogs bunter Index Judaeorum, Chronik einer kulturellen Obsession (Rendsburg, Stiftung Schleswig-Holsteinische Landmuseen, 2009)
- Oz Almog: Kosher Nostra, Jüdishe Gangster in Amerika 1890-1980 (Vienna, Jewish Museum Vienna, 2003) ISBN 3-901398-33-3
- Oz Almog: Kosher Nostra, Tod in Amerika 1890-1980 (Vienna, Jewish Museum Vienna,2003) ISBN 3-901398-34-1
- Oz Almog: Aleph Bet Judaica Kids Box, Judentum - Grundbegriffe von Aleph bis Taw (Vienna, Jewish Museum Vienna, 2007) with additional 10 booklets, ISBN 987-3-901398-46-9
- Oz Almog: WALLS OF SOUND, Jewish Worlds of Music / Jüdische Musikerwelten (Vienna, Jewish Museum Vienna, 2010) ISBN 978-3-901398-55-1
- Oz Almog: Block Brut - Transvestitismus und tödliche Unglücksfälle bei autoerotischer Betätigung (Vienna, ISR, 1994) ISBN 3-901697-03-9