He sendeth the springs into the valleys, which run among the hills.
They give drink to every beast of the field:
the wild asses quench their thirst.
By them shall the fowls of the heaven have their habitation, which sing among the branches.
(Psalm 104:10-12, KJV)
This beautifully minimalist illustration from the Psalms is the work of Benn, a Holocaust survivor whom we honor this week, when Jews around the world mark Rosh Hashanah, the beginning of the New Year and the High Holy Days. Born as Bencjon Rabinowicz in what is now Poland, Benn assumed his monosyllabic name when he settled in Paris in 1929 to study art. He became linked to "The School of Paris," a loose grouping of mostly foreign artists, representing a variety of avant-garde movements from Cubism to Surrealism. French Art patrons sheltered the Jewish artist from the Nazis during World War II. He produced over 60 works in hiding, inspired by his childhood studies of the Hebrew Scriptures, reconfigured multiple times in the post war years. Bird imagery figures prominently in Benn's work from depictions of the dove released from Noah's Ark to fluttering wings with Kabbalistic lettering, represeting the Ineffable in scriptural passages where God is invoked. A Benn profile can be found in the Sacred Artists section. (John Kohan)