RIFKAH GOLDBERG
"My Jerusalem"
Oil Paintings

Rifkah (Rita) Goldberg,  born in London,  England,  in 1950,  came to live in Jerusalem in 1975.  A member of the Israel Association of Visual Arts,  she has been painting for over 35 years.   She studied painting in Cambridge and Jerusalem (with Eli Niago,  Michael Kovner at the Bezalel Academy of Design and Art,  and the Russian artist Simion Rozenshtein,  who now lives in Jerusalem).

A Ph.D. biochemist (Cambridge University),  she also works as an academic writer and editor.  Rifkah Goldberg's other major field of creative interest is poetry.   Her poems have been published in Israel,  the United States and England.

Rifkah Goldberg's paintings focus on unusual aspects of Jerusalem.  They provide a personal record of the history of the city as she lives through it - neighbourhoods,   people and their everyday lives inside and outside their homes.  Her work is basically figurative and painted on location.

One of her main themes is "JERUSALEM CITYSCAPES".  Her early work shows "Washing Scenes and Markets".   "Jerusalem Yards" presents the hodgepodge of temporarily or permanently discarded objects and furniture,  reflecting their owners' life stories.    Another series,"Jerusalem Soulscapes",   describes familiar reconstruction sites in the city,  during which the old is taken down to make way for the new,  and includes such neighbourhoods as Mamilla,   the Old Shaare Zedek Hospital site,  the Bucharim,   Nahalat Shiva and Other Neighbourhoods.   A recent group of paintings focuses on "Jerusalem Chairs",  often broken and weathered,  thrown outside into incongruous settings.

Expressive "JERUSALEM INTERIORS",  looking out onto unique views,   include paintings done "Inside Peoples' Homes" and an older series of "Jerusalem Synagogues".

Over the years,  she has also worked on "JERUSALEM FIGURES" in various formats.   An early set of paintings shows typical "Back Views of Jerusalem Figures" going about their daily activities unaware.   Another series are large paintings of a "Little Black Man" confronting the vastness of the new neighbourhoods,  using a novel surface-flattening technique.  Her current paintings of groups of old people "At the Beit Frankforter Center for the Aged" in the Baka neighbourhood of Jerusalem combine many aspects of her previous work: interiors, partial Jerusalem views and Jerusalem characters, each carrying a unique story.

SELECTED PAINTINGS and GALLERY provide a more comprehensive overview of Rifkah Goldberg's work.


EXHIBITIONS

To Home Page / Contact Information / Poetry