Natan Spigel (also: Nathan, Szpigiel/Spiegel/Szpigel) (1892–1942) was a Jewish painter born in
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
.
[http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/lodz/noted.htm, Shtetlinks, Noted Citizens of Lodz, Szpigiel (SPIEGEL), Natan (1900-1943), Retrieved February 1, 2011.] Spigel was a key member of the influential
Expressionist
Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...
group
Yung-yidish Yung-yidish, also spelled Jung Idysz, was the first Jewish avant-garde artistic and literary group in Poland, active in Łódź in 1918–1921. The members exhibited in Poland and abroad and published an eponymous journal, as well as other literary ...
.
[ He exhibited his works throughout Europe until his internment in ]Radomsko
Radomsko is a city in southern Poland with 44,700 inhabitants (2021). It is situated on the Radomka river in the Łódź Voivodeship (since 1999), having previously been in Piotrków Trybunalski Voivodeship (1975–1998). It is the county seat ...
ghetto
A ghetto, often called ''the'' ghetto, is a part of a city in which members of a minority group live, especially as a result of political, social, legal, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished t ...
in 1939. Natan was murdered in Treblinka
Treblinka () was an extermination camp, built and operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II. It was in a forest north-east of Warsaw, south of the village of Treblinka in what is now the Masovian Voivodeship. The camp ...
in 1942, and only about 20 of his works survived the Shoah-Holocaust.
Life and artistic career
Natan Spigel was born into an Orthodox Jewish
Orthodox Judaism is the collective term for the traditionalist and theologically conservative branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as revealed by God to Moses on M ...
family in Łódź
Łódź, also rendered in English as Lodz, is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located approximately south-west of Warsaw. The city's coat of arms is an example of canti ...
, now in Poland, in 1892. ( see autobiographic letter to Prof.Otto Schneid ). The remnants of his family are now based in London. He studied art as a young man and then in 1910 traveled to Rome on sponsorship, where he continued his studies with Henryk Glicenstein
Enrico Glicenstein (24 May 1870 – 30 December 1942) was a Polish-born sculptor who lived in Italy and the United States.
Life
Glicenstein was born in Turek, Poland in 1870 and named Enoch Hendryk Glicenstein. His father was a teacher who also w ...
. His first major success, in Paris, was the invitation to show in the 1924 Salon d'Automne
The Salon d'Automne (; en, Autumn Salon), or Société du Salon d'automne, is an art exhibition held annually in Paris, France. Since 2011, it is held on the Champs-Élysées, between the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais, in mid-October. The ...
, although his first public exhibition was in Lodz in 1921. He was invited to exhibit in London at the Ben Uri Gallery
The Ben Uri Gallery & Museum is a registered museum and charity based at 108a Boundary Road, off Abbey Road in St John's Wood, London, England. It features the work and lives of émigré artists in London, and describes itself as "The Art Museum ...
in 1930 and also, at a joint exhibition with Jacob Epstein
Sir Jacob Epstein (10 November 1880 – 21 August 1959) was an American-British sculptor who helped pioneer modern sculpture. He was born in the United States, and moved to Europe in 1902, becoming a British subject in 1911.
He often produc ...
. In Poland Natan Spigel was regularly exhibiting his work, with shows in Lodz, Cracow and Warsaw (1921, 1928 & 1937).
Spigel considered himself a Jewish painter, and his painting reflected this focus, depicting scenes of Jewish life in Poland, as well as portraits and still-life, in both watercolours and oils. A particularly distinctive feature of some of his watercolours was his use of varnish to give age and contrast. Spigel was a key member of the Expressionist
Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...
group Jung Idysz.[ He was also a member of ‘Start’, a group of mainly Jewish, Lodz artists, who exhibited across Poland throughout the 1920s and '30s. By the 1930s, his work was in collections in Poland, London, and Israel.
Shortly after the ]German invasion of Poland
The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week afte ...
, in 1939, Natan Spigel, together with his family, was interned in the Radomsko
Radomsko is a city in southern Poland with 44,700 inhabitants (2021). It is situated on the Radomka river in the Łódź Voivodeship (since 1999), having previously been in Piotrków Trybunalski Voivodeship (1975–1998). It is the county seat ...
ghetto
A ghetto, often called ''the'' ghetto, is a part of a city in which members of a minority group live, especially as a result of political, social, legal, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished t ...
. He continued to paint during this time. He was murdered in the Treblinka extermination camp in 1942.
Today Natan Spigel’s work can be seen in public collections in Tel Aviv, London, Lublin
Lublin is the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the center of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin is the largest Polish city east of t ...
, and Ein Harod
Ein Harod ( he, עֵין חֲרוֹד) was a kibbutz in northern Israel near Mount Gilboa. Founded in 1921, it became the center of Mandatory Palestine's kibbutz movement, hosting the headquarters of the largest kibbutz organisation, HaKibbutz H ...
. Only about 20 of his paintings are definitely known to have survived.
References
External links
Spigel's work in Central Jewish Library
see : natanspigel.com
see: https://archive.org/details/ottoschneidpapers
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spigel, Natan
1942 deaths
Polish painters of Jewish descent
1890s births
Polish people who died in Treblinka extermination camp
Nazi-era ghetto inmates
Artists from Łódź
Polish Jews who died in the Holocaust