Ya’akov Boussidan

Ya’akov Boussidan

Ya’akov Boussidan was born in Port Said, Egypt, a melting-pot of cultures and languages. When he was ten, he immigrated with his parents to Israel and was educated in Youth Aliyah, an immigrant youth framework at Kibbutz Givat-Chayim. His artistic talent was discovered by Prof. Reuven Feuerstein z”l, the former chief psychologist of Youth Aliyah and winner of the Israel Prize for Education.
Boussidan’s artistic training in Israel began under the guidance of Prof. Joseph Schwartzmann of the Germanic school and a distinguished student of Kathe Kolwitz. Boussidan studied sculpture and ceramics with Rudi Lehmann and Hedwig Grossman and received important exposure to the modern and abstract streams from Shlomo Vitkin. With the encouragement of Prof. Willem Sandberg (former head of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, and one of the founders of the Israel Museum), the twenty-seven-year-old Boussidan won the Rothschild Foundation Scholarship. This enabled him to continue his academic studies at Goldsmith College in London, where he graduated with distinction for his abstract version of Song of Songs. This print also won an award at the Biennale for Prints in Monte Carlo.
Among Ya’akov’s recent installations overseas, is the monumental work “Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem” commissioned by the Ahavath Torah Synagogue in Englewood, New Jersey in 2011 (13’1/2″x29’75”). In Israel, he was commissioned to create a sculpture for a public thoroughfare in Tsur Hadassah in 2013 named “My Dove in the Cleft of the Rock” (6’x6′). Ya’akov Boussidan is also the winner of the Israel Museum Jesselson Prize and “Jerusalem – Names in Praise” was launched at a special event at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem in 2006 and at the British Parliament in London in 2007.
Boussidan’s award-winning work has been acquired by The Victoria and Albert Museum in London, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, The Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.