Aviva Uri

Aviva Uri (Hebrew: אביבה אורי; March 12, 1922 in Safed, Israel - September 1, 1989 in Tel Aviv) was an Israeli painter.

Aviva Uri studied dance with Gertrude Kraus. In 1941, she married Moshe Levin, with whom she had a daughter, Rachel. In 1943, she studied painting with Moshe Castel, continuing with David Hendler in 1944. She married Hendler in 1963. She cultivated an unusual appearance, wearing white face makeup and dark eye-shadow, and oversized black clothing. She deliberately falsified her age, claiming she was born in 1927. She died in Tel Aviv in 1989.

Uri's expressive drawings focused on line and composition. Her abstract drawings link her to the "New Horizons" group, but suggest an alternative to the abstract art being created in the country: instead of oils, she created drawings on paper; instead of the professional mixing of colors, she used no coloration; instead of Paris, she was influenced by Japan and China, or other individualists (Hans Hartung). Uri's free line influenced younger artists, such as Raffi Lavie.

• Dizengoff Prize for Painting and Sculpture, Tel Aviv, 1953
• Dizengoff Prize, Tel Aviv Museum, 1956
• Sandberg Prize for Israeli Art, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 1976
• Prize of the Lea Porat Council of Culture and Art, 1985
• America-Israel Cultural Foundation, 1986
• Histadrut Prize, 1989
• Gutman Prize, 1989