Ben-Zion (1897-1987) American, Judaica Sterling Silver Sculpture on Marble Base. Depicts a Bar Mitzvah scene with a young boy reading from the Torah scroll. Label on the front reads "Ben-Zion Israel." Stamped "925" on the back of the sculpture. 

Size: 3 1/8 x 2 7/8 x 4 7/8 in. 

Ben-Zion, also known as Ben-Zion Weinman, was born on July 8th, 1897 in Starokostiantyniv, Russian Empire (present-day Ukraine). In 1909 the family moved to Galicia, and after first studying to be a rabbi he shifted to focus on art, traveling to Vienna to study but rejected by the Academy of Fine Arts due to his Jewish heritage. He immigrated to the United States after the death of his father in 1920, where he wrote poetry and began to teach Hebrew lessons while teaching himself to paint, finally committing himself fully to art in the early 1930s after he began teaching lessons at Cooper Union. He became a member of “The Ten” group of expressionist artists, gaining renown alongside Mark Rothko and others up through the 1960s as he began to shift towards sculpture. He died on January 23rd, 1987 in New York City, and his works are held in numerous public and private collections including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

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