Sioma Baram 1919-1980. Title: BIRDS Medium: Oil on canvas Size: 56 x 46 + frame. Provenance: - Collection Kupfer of jewish art. Adcquired at Ader, 29/04/2009 lot 317. Sioma Baram (Hebrew: סיומה ברעם) (Chișinău, 1919 - Formentera, July 26, 1980), born Sioma Boberman,[1] was an Israeli painter based with his wife, also painter Bella Brizel, in island of Formentera. He worked as an art critic in prestigious magazines in Paris, London, Tokyo and Tel-Aviv. Biography Born in Bessarabia, the son of Jewish parents, he immigrated to Palestine in 1939. He studied painting at the Avni Institute of Art and Design with Aharon Avni and sculpture with Moshe Sternschuss. There he met Bella Brizel, whom he married. During the 1950s, they both lived in Paris and studied fresco painting at the École du Louvre. He participated in several military campaigns in North Africa with the British army during the Second World War and also fought for the independence of Israel.[2] Later, in 1952, he moved with his wife to the island of Formentera and they lived there, with sporadic trips to Paris, until they died. They inspired the French author Jacques Peuchmaurd to write the novel Le Soleil de Palicorna, in whose film they starred.[ Baram became famous for the Bethlehem series of paintings about Jerusalem and the Jewish people. In this case he approached surrealism, although the previous work had been more influenced by cubism. He also made prints and abstract art. He exhibited his art individually and collectively in galleries in London, Paris, Tokyo, Lausanne, Tokyo, Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem itself. He died in 1980 in Formentera. He had a Jewish burial in the Pitiüses, the first in the territory in 500 years. Later, his coffin was transported to Israel and buried on the Mount of Olives. After the death of the artist and his wife, the Bella & Sioma Baram art gallery was founded in Sant Francesc de Formentera in 1988. Artists such as Marc Tara, Cornelis le Mair and Antoni Taulé exhibited there. In addition, a fund to encourage creativity for young artists was established in his name.