Israel is a country known for its turbulent history and regional politics, being involved in numerous conflicts with its Arab neighbors in the Middle East. But not many critics look at the art and culture that comes out from Israel, where different schools and styles have emerged in spite of (or as a reaction to) the challenges its people face. One such style was New Horizons, a short-lived movement that brought the avant-garde to the region.

The State of Israel was founded in 1948, resulting in a massive wave of immigration of Jews from all over the world. However, the 1950s also saw the start of several attacks by Palestinians who were relocated as a result of the United Nations' decision to recognize Israel as legitimate. The Suez Canal crisis begun by Egypt continued to plague the young nation and relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors would culminate in the Six Day War in 1967, when a preemptive military strike by Israel resulted in an expansion of territory and its current boundaries.

It was in such a desolate time that the New Horizons art movement occurred. Known in Hebrew as "Ofakim Hadashim," this style was born out of a group of eight artists who set up an exhibition at the Habima National Theater in Tel Aviv in December 1942. However, this group did not formally usher in New Horizons until 1948, when the State of Israel was established.

They drew inspiration from French abstract art like Expressionism and Cubism. Rather than claim an ethnic or religious principle in their work, these artists were committed to a universal standard of human brotherhood and imagination, leading to a more secular view of Israeli art. Such ideals drew criticism from other Israeli artists like Avraham Ofek, who championed the school of Social Realism and believed that New Horizons was more focused on Europe (from where many Jews in Israel had emigrated following World War II) than on providing a genuine school of Israeli art.

An iconic example of the artwork produced by New Horizons is Ein Hod, painted by Yechezkel Streichman in 1956. Streichman and his son had visited this communal settlement, which had been claimed for Israel in 1948 and turned into an artists' colony by Dada artist Marcel Janco in 1953. Under Streichman's perspective, the village of Ein Hod was heavily stylized, a collage of blue lines, the outlines of olive trees, and rough approximations of buildings. The deep blue suggests not only the clear skies over Ein Hod, but the Mediterranean Sea within view of the town. This abstract landscape is one of the first that Streichman ever produced, representing not only his departure from traditional painting styles, but his place in a larger movement toward abstract art in Israel itself.

By 1959, however, New Horizons was beginning to lose its clout in Israeli culture. Its final exhibition took place in 1963. Following the Yom Kippur War in 1973, art in Israel had become much more realistic and political in its nature. Nevertheless, this European-inspired school was able to bring abstract art to the Holy Land and pave the way for future artists to blend their interpretations of the personal and the political.

Image by Center for Jewish History, NYC on Flickr