Moï Ver Moshé Raviv-Vorobeichic. Montages of Modernity 2019
Moshé Raviv-Vorobeichic. Montages of Modernity
On 13th December 2019, an important unique exhibition was opened at the National Gallery in Vilna. For the first time ever the exhibits included, among others, 90-100 year-old photographs (courtesy of the Raviv family), as a tribute to Moshe Vorobeichic Raviv (also known as Moi-Ver), who was born in 1904 in the precinct of Vilna, and was an artist and famous photographer who specialized in photomontage.
Vorobeichic studied the arts and architecture in Vilna, continuing his studies at Bauhaus in Germany and at the School of Photography in Paris, and immigrating to Eretz Israel in 1934. He was one of the founders of the Artists’ Colony in Safed.
His first photograph album “A Jewish Street in Vilna” which was published initially in 1931, has now been republished in a new edition, courtesy of the family, and his photographs are exhibited in Bet Vilna in Tel Aviv and in synagogues in Vilna.
In this album, Raviv made his name by combining techniques of montage and photomontage with a mix of light and shadow and by taking the pictures at a low angle. These unique photographs portray the lives of the Jews in Vilna between the two world wars and offer a selection that includes, among others, Jewish architecture, Jewish trade, Jewish imagery in the synagogue hall, the “Klois”, the room where the Vilna Gaon studied Torah. Some of the photographs in this album are first editions and are considered inalienable assets characterizing Jewish life in Vilna between the two wars, and are published in different locations.
At the opening of the exhibition, the curator, Dr. Nissan Perez, who also curated the photography department at the Israel Museum, said that the photographic dream of Moi-Ver was to produce radical pictures by combining a modern painting with contemporary and unconventional use of the camera. This offers a perfect example of the modernist movement of the early 20th century reflecting the social, cultural and artistic changes that were taking place at the time.
The exhibition was organized and funded by the Lithuanian Institute for Literature and Folklore together with the Lithuanian Ministry of Culture, the Lithuanian Embassy in Israel and the Israeli Embassy in Lithuania, and the event was sponsored by the Lithuanian TV news corporation. Apart from Yossi (the son) and Joyce Raviv, honored guests at the impressive opening event included Mindaugas Kvietkauskas - Lithuanian Minister of Culture, Arūnas Gelūnas - Director of the Museum of the Arts, Yossi Levy - Israeli Ambassador in Lithuania, Sigutė Chlebinskaitė the Graphic Designer, as well as representatives of the Association of Jews from Vilna and Vicinity in Israel.
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