Miriam Naaman was a painter and a sculptor, an artist and visionary.
She was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1926 and immigrated with her family to Palestine in 1934. There she grew up, a Zionist, immersed in the momentus happenings of the 1930s and 40s. She joined the Palmach and Hagannah and participated in the fight for Israel’s Independence. After the birth of Israel, she began her studies in Sociology at the Hebrew University.
In 1954 she emigrated to the United States with her American husband, Lawrence Nyman, and her five month old daughter, Tamar. After the birth of a second daughter, Ruth, she quickly threw herself into art, beginning with haunting and evocative sculptures, and moving to joyous experiments in color. She studied at the Arts Students League in New York, held several exhibitions, and also earned a master’s degree in library science from the Pratt Institute.
Her next move, in 1973, was a return to Tel Aviv, Israel, where she founded the Picture Collection at Beit Ariella, donating the caricatures collected by her father, Shimone Shpiegel. She worked as a librarian, and continued to produce paintings, sculptures, rugs, and ecologic constructions – sculptures combining plastic, recycled materials, color and motion.
She is listed in the Clara Database of Women Artistists, as well as the Israel Museum list of artists.
In 2008 she moved to Rhode Island to live with her daughter, Tamar. Since 2009 she resided at St. Elizabeth’s home in Rhode Island and died in August 2012.