b'Sorel Etrog: CrusaderSorel Etrog (19332014) is one of the most honoured and decorated Canadian artists. His artistic practice began at the Institute of Painting and Sculpture in Tel Aviv 1953-55, and then joined an artists co-operative at Ein Hod founded by Marcel Janco. In 1958, he received a scholarship to attend the Brooklyn Museum Art Institute in New York. Etrog represented Canada at the 1966 Venice Biennale and had received many important commissions including EXPO 67, Sunlife Centre Toronto, and Olympic Park Seoul Korea. Known primarily for his bronze works, Etrog also made a few marble sculptures. Crusader is part of his links period from 1963-1971. In a radio interview at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, Etrog explains that the link appeared to me some time ago as a closing device and as a culminating point, particularly at the top. I have always been concerned with duality in my workto lines coming togetherto the life of two forms interacting, like human beingsa duality of life. Crusader was created while Etrog was living in Florence, Italy between 1965 -1967. The work is also connected to his war memorials, such as Survivors are not Heroes (1967), which referenced Etrogs turbulent childhood as a Romanian Jew who lived under the presence of the Nazis and then Soviet Russia until his family was able to flee to Israel in 1950.'