Hanna Shvily (née Zaitschek) was born in Jerusalem in 1936 She lives and works in Jerusalem

Graduated from the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in the graphic design department
Specialized at the Jerusalem Print Workshop
Engages in painting, drawing and teaching

Shvily’s works focus on the painting and drawing of local landscapes, natural as well as urban, mainly in Jerusalem and its surroundings, and sometimes in political context. The works range from abstract to figurative painting/drawing, combining the observation of the surroundings with an introspective gaze. 

As a versatile and curious artist, Shvily draws inspiration from diverse sources, as different one from the other as the drawings of Albrecht Dürer, the cave paintings of Altamira, and American abstract expressionism. This diversity has led to constant changes in Shvily’s body of work as she kept on searching for the exact line or patch. 

Shvily uses various techniques: drawing with pencil, graphite pencil, charcoal, ink; painting in oil, watercolor, acrylic, industrial paint, pastel; collage; print, engraving, and more.

Shvily began her practice of art when she was in elementary school in the late 1940s, copying Albrecht Dürer’s drawings from reproductions she found at home. Impressed by her work, her father, Dr. David Zaitschek, who was a scientist at the Hebrew University and later the head of the Department of Botany, invited her to illustrate his scientific articles with embellished drawings of local plants. The highly accurate, refined drawings gained attention in the Israeli scientific community. Various institutions, such as the Dagon Israel Silos in Haifa, commissioned the young artist to work for them.

During her studies at the Bezalel Academy in the 1950s, Shvily expanded her scope of work from drawing in pencil to drawing in charcoal and graphite, and began to paint in larger formats also in oil and watercolor. Like other painters of the Israeli melting pot generation, Shvily’s subjects focused on local landscape, in particular the Jerusalem hills and woods. Her work was influenced by prominent Israeli painters of the period, among them Anna Ticho and Leopold Krakauer.

Her exposure to abstract painting both locally (when she became familiar with the works of Yehezkel Streichman and Ori Reisman) and internationally (when she first visited Europe and the USA during the 1960s and the 1970s), led Shvily to gradually move from figurative to abstract painting. She painted mainly in shades of black and white, as well as brown, in formats that kept growing bigger. Rough brushstrokes replaced the precise lines to create a different type of landscape, more disheveled and stormy. With a swing, Shvily ravaged the innocent Zionist landscapes, drew borders to divide them, and set forests on fire. At the same time, she continued to experiment with new techniques such as abstract collage and print, using a broader color palette. In the 1980s and 1990s, the main influence on her work was prehistoric cave paintings alongside abstract American art.

Aging and caring for her ailing husband in the early years of this century brought gloom to Shvily’s life and cast a shadow on her art. In a technique unique to her, she covered, erased and engraved in a bed of ash-like graphic powder on paper. During this period, the influence of German artists such as Anselm Kiefer and Gerhard Richter is evident in the works.

The current chapter in Shvily’s work is, perhaps unexpectedly, colorful and optimistic – abstract painting, usually in colored chalk, on chrome paper, in small formats.

Solo exhibitions:

1978 – Gallery at the Jerusalem Theater
1979 – Artists’ House, Jerusalem
1981 – Ben-Uri Gallery, London
1983 – Ella Gallery, Jerusalem

Group exhibitions:

1985 – Jerusalem Artists at the Grand Palais, Paris (catalogue)
1990 – “Trees”, Artists’ House, Jerusalem
1994 – European Biennale, Istanbul
1995 – “Art on an Assembly Line”, The Isaac Kaplan Old Yishuv Court (yard) Museum, Jerusalem (catalogue)
1996 – “Art on an Assembly Line”, Yad Labanim Museum, Petah Tikva
2001 – “Drawing in Israel Today” – The First Israel Drawing Biennial, Artists’ House, Jerusalem
2004 – “Traces II” – The Second Israel Drawing Biennial, Artists’ House, Jerusalem
2007 – Traces III” – The Third Israel Drawing Biennale”, Artists’ House, Jerusalem

Hanna Shvily is the daughter of Dr. David Zaitschek and Aliza née Blonsky, the sister of Edna Mor, the widow of Michael Shvily, and the mother of Efrat and Benni.