Käthe Ephraim Marcus (also Kathe Ephraim-Marcus, Kaethe; née Ephraim; b. 1892,

Wrocław Wrocław (; german: Breslau, or . ; Silesian German: ''Brassel'') is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the River Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, rou ...

– d. 1970,

Ramat Gan Ramat Gan ( he, רָמַת גַּן or , ) is a city in the Tel Aviv District of Israel, located east of the municipality of Tel Aviv and part of the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. It is home to one of the world's major diamond exchanges, and many ...

) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

i painter and sculptor.

Education

Marcus studied at art schools in

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...

and Wrocław (then Breslau) between 1911 and 1912. In 1913, she studied with

Lovis Corinth Lovis Corinth (21 July 1858 – 17 July 1925) was a German artist and writer whose mature work as a painter and printmaker realized a synthesis of impressionism and expressionism. Corinth studied in Paris and Munich, joined the Berlin Se ...

and

Max Beckmann Max Carl Friedrich Beckmann (February 12, 1884 – December 27, 1950) was a German painter, draftsman, printmaker, sculptor, and writer. Although he is classified as an Expressionist artist, he rejected both the term and the movement. In the 1920 ...

Biography

Her husband Dr. Joseph Marcus (1886-1961) was a senior government official in Breslau and Zionist organizer. The couple likely met through the hiking group and youth movement "Blau Weiss" in Breslau. They married in 1917. In 1934, she and Joseph emigrated to Palestine after spending 1933 in England. She died in 1970 in Ramat Gan, Israel.

Career

She met

Käthe Kollwitz Käthe Kollwitz ( born as Schmidt; 8 July 1867 – 22 April 1945) was a German artist who worked with painting, printmaking (including etching, lithography and woodcuts) and sculpture. Her most famous art cycles, including ''The Weavers'' and ''T ...

in 1920 in Berlin and was influenced by her expressionist figuration. She spent 1925 in Paris at the Académie de la Grande Chaumiere and in the studio of

André Lhote André Lhote (5 July 1885 – 24 January 1962) was a French Cubist painter of figure subjects, portraits, landscapes and still life. He was also active and influential as a teacher and writer on art. Early life and education Lhote was born ...

. In 1932, an Austrian-Jewish journal printed an article that described her as most famous for her work for children's books, in which she represented the struggle for a child to understand the world in balanced compositions and harmonies of color. Marcus was evicted from her studio in Jerusalem in 1947 by the British; much of her early work was destroyed. In 1948, she was evacuated to Ramat Gan. Marcus was the subject of many solo exhibitions and retrospectives during the 1960s to the 1980s. Her art also appeared in large group exhibitions that defined Israeli art in major museums in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Marcus's paintings have become part of the canon of Israeli art, and, in particular, of Israeli feminist art. Her art is characterized, in the words of one reviewer, "an atmosphere of melancholy, loneliness and alienation. She often painted subjects of mothers and children, bewildered and lonely women in hostile environments, new immigrants and transit camps." In 1961, she published a book titled ''Out of My Life.''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ephraim-Marcus, Käthe 20th-century Israeli painters Jewish painters Jewish women painters Jewish sculptors Israeli women artists Israeli women painters Israeli women sculptors German women artists 1892 births 1970 deaths Artists from Wrocław German women painters Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to Mandatory Palestine 20th-century German women