Dov Feigin was born in Ukraine in 1907 to a tailor. At an early age, he showed artistic promise and took drawing lessons. He immigrated to Israel in 1927 and joined Kibbutz Afikim.
In the thirties, he studied at the National School of Decorative Arts in Paris. Upon his return to Israel in 1937, he joined the Painters and Sculptors Association and displayed his works in numerous exhibitions around the country.
At the beginning of his career, Feigin’s art was very figurative and influenced by the Impressionist movement.
In the mid-40s, his works became abstract and minimalist. Upon joining the New Horizons group, Feigin developed an abstract sculpture style based on geometric shapes. However, many of his works still carried images of nature; animals, birds and human figures.
The abstract characters in many of his sculptures are suggestive of sculptures from the ancient East (‘Animal’ in Tefen, ‘Animal’ at the Tel-Aviv Museum, ‘Composition’ at the Palmachim Air Force Base, etc.). They show the relationship he had in his youth with the Canaanite movement at Danziger’s studio.
Feigin won several major awards (the Dizengoff Prize in 1942 and in 1948, the Sandberg Prize in 1985, and more). He represented Israel at the Venice Biennale (1948 and 1962), participated in important group exhibitions and displayed numerous sculptures in public spaces in Israel.
Dov Feigin died in the year 2000.
Although Dov Feigin in the 40s was considered part of the French sculpture trend, which opposed Danziger’s Canaanite group, the sandstone sculpture in the park somewhat revisits Eastern pre-classical heritage, in the spirit of Canaanite ideas.
The sculpture consists of two massive limestone blocks, placed on one another to create an image of a totem or archaic idol. At the center of the stones, there are rough, coarse chiseled vertical lines ending in a circle similar to a human head. On each side, Feigin designed bumps that look like abstract human hands.
Although it is completely abstract, one cannot help but feel that the sculptor wanted to provoke the spectator with a sense of transcendence, maybe even with reverence to an ancient god.
This association exists also in Feigin’s later sculptures, which despite their geometric abstract style also held symbolic meaning.
