Avi Schwartz, Backgammon at the market

Artist: Avi Schwartz (Israeli, born 1938)
Title: Backgammon at the Market (שש-בש בשוק)
Technique: Original oil on plywood board
Dimensions: 55x65 cm
Status: Signed by the artist. Housed in a vintage gold-toned gallery frame with an inner fabric linen liner.
 
 
About the Artwork:
This powerful original oil painting stands as an authentic and evocative portrayal of everyday Israeli street life. The composition captures an intimate group of working-class men gathered around a makeshift table in a bustling local market, deeply absorbed in a traditional game of backgammon (Shesh-Besh). Schwartz masterfully brings the classic scene to life using thick, expressive impasto brushstrokes and a rich, earthy color palette dominated by warm ochres, deep blues, and structural charcoal outlines. The atmospheric contrast between the focused figures and the loose, layered background beautifully isolates the intense camaraderie and quiet nostalgia inherent to these local urban encounters.
 
About the Artist:
Avi Schwartz (b. 1938) is a highly prominent Israeli figurative painter celebrated for his exceptional ability to document the soul and authentic fabric of Israeli society. Over a career spanning decades, Schwartz has dedicated his practice to capturing the characters, bustling marketplaces, coastal ports, and changing landscapes of Tel Aviv, Jaffa, and Jerusalem. Heavily influenced by the European realist tradition, his deeply humanistic paintings serve as valuable visual chronicles of early and mid-century local culture, earning him widespread recognition among institutional and private collectors across Israel and internationally.