Moi Ver, alias Moshe Vorobeichik/Moshe Raviv (1904–1995)
What could be called The Tel Aviv Suitcase that surfaced recently happened to be a trove and a historic discovery. Nearly after a quarter century the negatives of Moi Ver have just been discovered by his son and grand daughter while putting order in the archives. A mysterious and dusty suitcase revealed an assortment of cookie boxes containing thousands of negatives of the artist including the photographs from Ci-Contre and Paris books as well as the frames from Vilnius, Poland and his work in Palestine.
This unexpected discovery will shed new light onto the artist’s oeuvre, especially since the boxes contain unpublished images that were not included in his known publications. All the negatives are organized in small groups and identified and captioned in Moi Ver’s hand.
The task of cleaning, scanning and cataloguing of the negatives will begin soon.
Cookie boxes labeled by the artist and containing negatives from Ci-Contre and Paris as discovered in the mysterious suitcase.
One of the most intriguing and innovative photographers of the pre-war period in Europe, Moi Ver graduated from the Bauhaus in Dessau. He studied under Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, Joseph Albers and especially László Moholy-Nagy, who deeply influenced him. As a result he created outstanding avant-garde photographs and montages that were published in a number of books and exhibitions. He is best known for his three books from 1931: Ein Ghetto im Osten-Wilna (The Ghetto Lane in Vilna, published also in Hebrew), Paris, and Ci-Contre – 110 Photos de Moï Ver.
Moi Ver’s Student Card at the Bauhaus, Dessau
After he moved to Palestine and changed his name to the Hebrew Moshe Raviv (משה רביב) he disappeared for a long time from the international attention. There he continued making photo montages and worked among others as a graphic designer and then as painter in Safed. It is only recently that his whereabouts were rediscovered.
The archive of Moi Ver consists of a large number of vintage photographs, original collages and material related to the photographer’s professional activity including late prints of his well-known images as well as other unpublished material.
In addition there are a significant number of posters, collages and paintings from his second artistic career in pre-state Israel.
Moi Ver’s family have entrusted me with the exclusive rights to represent the estate and archive.