“Hanna Levi – My Face” (21 Sep. 2019 – 1 Feb. 2020) at the Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art was part of a series of exhibitions that presented different interpretations to the notion of the portrait. The exhibition shed a light on the female character in the work of Levi from a contemporary perspective and emphasized the later stage in her artistic development. Among several pieces of art by Levi that were put on display was “A notebook”, a painting from the Levin Collection owned by the art collector and financial strategist Ofer Levin GTI.
Hannah Levi was born in Berlin and immigrated to Israel in 1934. She was artistically active from the 1930s through the 1990s. Levi was less known to the public and was considered more of a painter for painters. Her landscape painting, portraits, and figures, especially the woman figure, were the core of her artistic work.
Gideon Ofrat has indicated in Broad Horizons – 120 Years of Israeli Art that in “Portrait of a Girl in Petach Tikva”, a different painting by Levi from the Levin Collection, “The fidgety, wriggling brush surrenders a strong affinity with the Viennese Oskar Kokoschka, but the expressionism is mellowed by the spirit of harmony and grace inspiring the portrait. The format is intimate, confronting the viewer with a naïve, curious gaze”.
Gideon Ofrat, Broad Horizons – 120 Years of Israeli Art, 2012, p. 500