Buky Schwartz
Born in Jerusalem and originally trained as a sculptor in Israel, Schwartz moved to London in 1959, where he played an important role in the hotbed of new sculptural directions at St. Martin’s School of Art during the 1960s. In 1971 Schwartz moved to New York, where he continued to reside part of each year.
During the 1960s and 1970s Schwartz’s inventive use of sculptural materials, such as mirrors and wooden timbers, involved an interplay between illusory appearances and the actual, physical presence, weight, and structure of his work. This playful interaction between sculptural appearance and physical reality quickly became a central aspect in much of his video installation work as he added that modern medium to his vocabulary in the late 1970s.
Schwartz’s videoconstructions have been essentially of two types: objects, sculptural presences that incorporate video monitors and around which the viewer moves; and environments, which are akin to architectural interiors in that the viewer is surrounded by forms and colors, including closed-circuit video imagery.
Acclaimed in three worlds — Europe, Israel, and the United States — Schwartz’s work has been included in the Venice Biennale (1966), the Whitney Biennial (1981), the Carnegie International (1982), and Documenta (1987) in Kassel.
Schwartz’s work is of interest not simply for itself, but for its place in modern art as well.
Archive
In 2019 the artist’s family donated his archival collection — some 2,000 items — to the Israel Museum, Jerusalem. The Buky Schwartz Archive is held there at the Information Center for Israeli Art, and is open to researchers.
Buky Schwartz Archive at the Israel Museum
Selected collections
Whitney Museum of American Art · Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum · Smithsonian American Art Museum · ZKM Karlsruhe · Carnegie Museum of Art · Hara Museum, Tokyo
Prizes and grants
- — “Combining Art with Architecture” Prize, Tel Aviv Foundation
- — “Combining Art with Architecture” Prize, Tel Aviv Foundation
- — Pollock-Krasner Grant for videosculpture, New York City
- — Guggenheim Grant for Publication
- — Annual International Prize for videosculpture, L’immagine Elettronica, Ferrara, Italy
- — Sculpture Grant, National Endowment for the Arts
- — Guggenheim Fellowship
- — Mid Atlantic States Art Consortium Residency, Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh, PA
- — Video Art Award, NYSCA
- — CAPS Fellowship
- — Nuremberg Urban Symposium Purchase Award
- — Dizengoff Prize, Tel Aviv Museum
- — Sainsbury Award, London
- — Deutscher Kritikerpreis, Berlin
- — House and Garden Prize, London
- — Sainsbury Award, London
Public sculpture and commissions
- — Collapsing House, Sheba Medical Center, Israel — donated 2022 · Steel
- — Internet Messenger, Petach Tikva, Israel · Painted steel
- — Between Earth and Sky, Kiriat Ono, Israel · Steel and mirrors
- — The Giving Tree, Lavon Park, Holon, Israel · Painted steel and mirrors
- — Leonardo, Ramat Poleg, Netanya, Israel · Steel
- — Hebrew 2000, The Technological Park, Malcha, Jerusalem · Steel and stainless steel — 20–25 sculptures
- — Zig-Zag, Park West, Raanana, Israel · Steel, landscape sculpture
- — Capital, Isracard Building, Tel Aviv · Glass and raw steel, 9m
- — Pinball Machine, Isracard Building, Tel Aviv · Steel, stainless steel, fiberglass and mirrors, 15m
- — Foresthill ’97, Umedalen Skulptur ’97, Umeå, Sweden · PVC poles and concrete
- — Shikun (Housing Project), Holon, Israel · Raw steel
- — Obelisk, Interim Title, Tel Aviv, Israel · Raw steel and concrete, 9m
- — Target II, Lobby of Channel 2, Israeli TV, Jerusalem · Video installation
- — Facing Oneself, Collection of Lutz Teutloff, Brock University, St. Catherines, Canada · Raw steel
- — Facing Another, Collection of Lutz Teutloff, Brock University, St. Catherines, Canada · Raw steel
- — Facing Eternity, Collection of Lutz Teutloff, Brock University, St. Catherines, Canada · Raw steel
- — Video Community / Apertures to Iraq, Beth Hatefutsoth, Tel Aviv · Video installation
- — Sculpting the Spectator, Lodz, Poland · Raw steel and a mirror — six locations
- — A Window on the Boulevard, Zion House, Tel Aviv · Painted steel and chair
- — Summit of Fear, Netanya South highway, Israel · Painted steel
- — Plato’s Cave II, Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT · Steel and video
- — Metropolis 1990, Tel Aviv University, Israel · Steel
- — Dead Sea Sculpture, Ein Bokek, Israel · Painted steel
- — Insideout, American Jewish Museum, Philadelphia · Vermont marble — memorial for Jonathan Netanyahu
- — Sneh, Jewish Museum, New York · Painted plywood
- — Waves, Singapore · Cast aluminum
- — Aqueduct, Jerusalem, Israel · Steel and tree trunks
- — Insideout, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ · Granite
- — Untitled, Reno, Nevada · Painted steel and mirrors
- — Untitled, Bank Leumi Trust, New York · Painted wood
- — Untitled, Fairfax, Virginia · Painted steel and mirrors
- — Untitled, Washington, DC · Painted aluminum and mirrors
- — Untitled, University of Chicago · Aluminum diamond plate
- — El Al Protective Walls Art Project, Greece, France, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Austria, Holland, USA · Steel and mirrors
- — Hope, West Hartford, Connecticut · Stainless steel
- — Untitled, Sterling Heights, Michigan · Painted steel
- — Spiral, Dallas, Texas · Painted steel
- — Waves, El Al Terminal, JFK Airport · Stainless steel
- — Cube Column, Israel Discount Bank, New York · Stainless steel
- — Unexpected 1, Nuremberg, Germany · Cor-ten steel
- — Spiral, New York, near Pratt Institute · Painted steel
- — Five (Cube Column), Kiriat Eliezer, Haifa, Israel · Painted fiberglass
- — Malkat Ha’Ambatia (The Shampoo Queen), The Cameri Theater, Tel Aviv · Stage design
- — 0°–180°, Israel Museum Sculpture Garden, Jerusalem · Painted steel
- — Untitled, El Al Israel Airlines, Zurich · Cast aluminum
- — Untitled, El Al Israel Airlines, Johannesburg · Stainless steel
- — Pillar of Heroism, Yad Vashem, Jerusalem · Stainless steel and concrete
- — Choshen, The Knesset, Jerusalem · Bronze
- — Untitled, Hilton Hotel, Tel Aviv · Brass tubing and light bulbs
- — Altars and Waterways, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel · Concrete and basalt
The Estate
The Estate of Artist Buky Schwartz strives to raise public awareness of Buky Schwartz’s art legacy. The Estate actively works to support museum and gallery exhibits, private and public collections, education, research, and historic restoration and preservation.