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11 Facts About Lea Nikel

1.

Lea Nikel was born in Zhitomir, Ukraine, on December 6,1918.

2.

Lea Nikel had one sister, Sara, who was born in 1926.

3.

Lea Nikel began studying with painter Chaim Gliksberg in Tel Aviv in 1935, later studying with Yechezkel Streichman and Avigdor Stematsky.

4.

From 1961 to 1977, Nikel lived in Greenwich Village, Rome and New York, before returning to Israel in 1977.

5.

Lea Nikel was married to Sam Leiman and had one daughter, Ziva Hanan.

6.

Lea Nikel held her first solo exhibition in 1954 at the Chemerinsky Art Gallery in Tel Aviv and her first solo show in Paris at Galerie Colette Allendy in 1957.

7.

Lea Nikel took part in numerous international group exhibitions, including the Venice Biennale in 1964.

8.

Lea Nikel continued to paint until just a few days before her death on September 10,2005.

9.

Lea Nikel's style was a form of expressionistic abstraction sometimes called lyrical abstraction.

10.

Lea Nikel painted with a brusque, generous touch and favored high-keyed colors.

11.

Lea Nikel was known for buoyant compositions consisting of rough-edged blocks of color and scribbly, calligraphic lines that together conveyed a sense of imaginative excitement and urgent sensuousness.