Moshe Saidi has a broad art education from Israel and overseas: in the 50’s he studied with the artist Michael Karre (1887 – 1964) sculpting in stone, and studying at night school at the “Avni Institute” with Yehezkiel Streichman, Moshe Mokedi (painting) and Dov Feigin (sculpture).
At the beginning of the 60’s he studied at the art school Saint Martins in London (1961) and the Royal College of Art (1961) working as an assistant and student of Henry Moore (1898 – 1986). Years after in 1990 he studied in the art history department at Tel Aviv University completing his theoretical studies alongside being an active artist.
In 1965 Saidi was one of the founders who established the factory “Ceramics Kfar Menachem”. Saidi together with Avigdor Cohen (1920 – 2018) designed the first series of pots for the factory that specialized mainly in functional and decorative ceramics. After this Moshe Saidi established the “Architectural Ceramic Department” which he led for almost 40 years. While it functioned Moshe Saidi made about 140 ceramic wall murals around the country in public spaces.
Most of the murals he designed, and some he made for other designers or artists (such as the mural designed by Shraga Weill in the Great Synagogue in Tel Aviv). The “Architectural Ceramic Department” was successful and Saidi in 1973 received a prize for his ceramic designs from the Department of Trade and Industry headed by Haim Bar-Lev. At the height of its production Saidi employed 12 workers who helped make the elements of the relief as well as transporting and installing the work on site.
Moshe Saidi made monumental relief murals. The subjects of his murals included Jewish symbols and quotes from the scriptures as well as designs inspired by nature with abstract forms and changing geometry. His murals are made with unglazed clay, usually brown, in dialogue with local brown clay even though he did not use local clay.
Saidi’s murals are made from unique tiles, created according to a model (usually also from ceramic). Saidis development was pioneering for several reasons. Firstly – he was smart enough to expand the factory production to include architectural ceramics, making it a unique local ceramic factory compared to other factories that were active in those years. He followed Nehemia Azzaz (1923 – 2008) who established the “Ceramic Art Department” in the Harsa factory in Beer Sheva. Both these artists had the vision to make special series (Azzaz made artistic decorative ceramics, Saidi made architectural ceramics) in parallel in the factory utilizing the industrial knowledge of the factory. Secondly – the monumental scale of the ceramic murals he made, and the number of projects made the factory of Saidi an exceptional producer of ceramic murals in Israel. Thirdly, the work methods he developed to make relief tiles are sophisticated, based on ancient traditions, that were updated to suit the method of building used in the second half of the previous century.
Moshe Saidi worked with many architects (including Shmuel Masetchkin, Zeev Rechter, Arie El Hanani, Hilik Arad, Israel Lotan and more), installing ceramic wall murals on kibbutzim, in cities and development towns. His mark is present in the public space even today and he is a source of inspiration for young ceramic designers as well as architects.
