Jesekiel David Kirszenbaum (1900–1954) was a Polish painter forced to leave his native town in Poland in order to both flee persecution as a Jew and develop his art.

Life

Kirszenbaum was born in Poland in the village of Staszów, district of

Sandomierz Sandomierz (pronounced: ; la, Sandomiria) is a historic town in south-eastern Poland with 23,863 inhabitants (as of 2017), situated on the Vistula River in the Sandomierz Basin. It has been part of Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship (Holy Cross Prov ...

, in 1900. He was the youngest son of a rabbinical scholar. He began drawing and painting at the age of twelve. At that time he produced primarily shop signboards and portraits of people he admired. He immigrated to Germany in 1920. In 1923, he began his studies at the

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 20 ...

Weimar Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...

, where he studied under

Paul Klee Paul Klee (; 18 December 1879 – 29 June 1940) was a Swiss-born German artist. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented ...

and

Wassily Kandinsky Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (; rus, Василий Васильевич Кандинский, Vasiliy Vasilyevich Kandinskiy, vɐˈsʲilʲɪj vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ kɐnʲˈdʲinskʲɪj; – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter a ...

. He moved to

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

in 1925, working as an illustrator and cartoonist for a number of Berlin newspapers under the pseudonym "Duvdivani". During this period, he participated in many local avant-garde exhibitions, including those sponsored by the

Der Sturm ''Der Sturm'' () was a German avant-garde art and literary magazine founded by Herwarth Walden, covering Expressionism, Cubism, Dada and Surrealism, among other artistic movements. It was published between 1910 and 1932. History and profile ' ...

gallery. In 1933, he fled Germany and arrived with his wife Helma in Paris. Although they arrived as refugees, the next period in the artist's life was marked by great personal and artistic growth. Here he discovered the painting techniques of

French Impressionism Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

and Expressionism as espoused by many local Jewish artists in the so-called "

School of Paris The School of Paris (french: École de Paris) refers to the French and émigré artists who worked in Paris in the first half of the 20th century. The School of Paris was not a single art movement or institution, but refers to the importance ...

." Although influenced heavily by this exposure, Kirszenbaum developed his own very personal mode of expression, instilling something of the mysticism and loss that marked his personal journey as he fled Nazi Germany. Rampant in his work are elements reflective of the

beliefs A belief is an attitude that something is the case, or that some proposition is true. In epistemology, philosophers use the term "belief" to refer to attitudes about the world which can be either true or false. To believe something is to take i ...

from his childhood as well as his native

folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging ...

. The

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

put an end to all his dreams. During the

German occupation German-occupied Europe refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly occupied and civil-occupied (including puppet governments) by the military forces and the government of Nazi Germany at various times between 1939 an ...

his studio was ransacked and more than 600 paintings and drawings were looted - nearly all his life's work. He was imprisoned in various work camps in Southern France, including the Camp du Vernet concentration camp. His wife was arrested, deported, and killed by Germans along with all the members of his family in Poland; none survived the German SS concentration camps. After the war he returned to painting, thanks to the help of Alix de Rothschild. During these years of recovery, he lived in France before eventually embarking on an extended journey to

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

and

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria t ...

. During his lifetime, Kirszenbaum exhibited his paintings in Weimar and Berlin in Germany; Utrecht and Amsterdam in the Netherlands; Limoges, Lyon, and Paris in France; and

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for ' Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the Ga ...

and

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a ...

in Brazil. Kirszenbaum died from cancer in Paris, France, aged 54.

His work

Though the

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russia, whic ...

an sources of his inspiration are often obvious, his style was always that of a disciple of Western European Art and of the schools that had undergone the influence of

. In addition, he had absorbed the influence of

German Expressionism German Expressionism () consisted of several related creative movements in Germany before the First World War that reached a peak in Berlin during the 1920s. These developments were part of a larger Expressionist movement in north and central ...

. His work – especially after the war – was haunted by elegiac recollection of things past. He was able to reconstruct the scenes of his childhood, bringing back to life the villages where he had lived. In his paintings, Kirszenbaum was also able to resurrect the prophets of the Old Testament. His trips to Brazil and Morocco gave his art a new lease on life, allowing him to rediscover something of the original sources of his inspiration. He recaptured the

mysticism Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute, but may refer to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or spiritual meaning. It may also refer to the attainment of insight in ...

of the vanished Eastern European Jewry, transforming the grotesque figures of

Carnival and its riotous joy into festivities he had known in his childhood. The influence of this period affected all his work, which in the future evoked less pessimism and melancholy. Kirszenbaum participated in the Jewish Renaissance, an avant-garde folkloric-based art movement that started in Russia and spread to Poland. Other notable Jewish artists in the Jewish Renaissance were Marc Chagall, J. Riback,

El Lissitzky Lazar Markovich Lissitzky (russian: link=no, Ла́зарь Ма́ркович Лиси́цкий, ; – 30 December 1941), better known as El Lissitzky (russian: link=no, Эль Лиси́цкий; yi, על ליסיצקי), was a Russian artist ...

, B. Anderson, and J. Budko. Kirszenbaum's works are spread in museums around the world. Public holders include the '' Collection Nationale Française'' in France, the Netherlands, Poland, and Israel. His work is also in

private collection A private collection is a privately owned collection of works (usually artworks) or valuable items. In a museum or art gallery context, the term signifies that a certain work is not owned by that institution, but is on loan from an individu ...

s in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, UK, Brazil, US, and Israel. Because of the loss of most of his pre-war works, Kirszenbaum's extant works are rarely offered at auctions.

References

Aronson, C., Scènes et visages de Montparnasse. Paris: National Press, 1963, pp. 425–429. De Litzin, E., La Peinture actuelle en France. Helsinki: Sanoma Oy, 1947. Diament, N and Igra, C. Goldberg, J.D. Kirszenbaum (1900-1954): The Lost Generation —A Journey from Staszow to Paris via Weimar, Berlin and Rio de Janeiro, Somogy-Editions d'Art, Paris, 2013. Digne, J., Artistes d’Europe, Montparnasse Déporté. Paris: Musée du Montparnasse, 2005, pp. 66, 187–189. Fenster, H., Nos artistes martyrs. Paris, 1951. Goudz, I., “Herwarth Walden und die jüdischen Künstler der Avantgarde,” in Der Sturm-Zentrum der Avantgarde, Band II: Aufsatze. Exh. cat., Von der Heydt-Museum, Wuppertal, Germany, 2012: 515–540. Hagen, F., J.D. Kirszenbaum. Paris: Galerie Karl Flinker, 1961. Hendriks, B.S., Ronald Lindgreen 1916-1999-Kunst om te Bevrijden en te Bezielen. Exh. cat., Pulchri Studio Den Haag, 2009. Igra, C. Goldberg, “The Restoration of Loss: J.D. Kirszenbaum’s exploration of personal displacement,” Ars Judaica 14 (2014): 69–92. Keller, R., The Jews: A Treasury of Art and Literature. New York: Hugh Lavter, 1992, p. 318. Kirszenbaum, J.D., “Childhood and Youth in Staszów.” Original Yiddish was translated into Hebrew by M. Chalamish and appeared in the Hebrew journal Al Ha-Mishmar on September 2–9, 1955; reprinted in Sefer Staszów (The Staszów Book), ed. Elhanan Ehrlich, published by the Organization of Staszowites in Israel, Achdut: Tel Aviv, 1962. Translated from Hebrew into English by Dr. Leonard Levin with the assistance of Dr. Dobrochna Dyrcz-Freeman. Linsler, J., “Jesekiel David Kirszenbaum entre aspiration révolutionnaire et mémoire du Shtetl, ” in L’irréparable. Itinéraire d’artistes et d’amateurs d’art juifs réfugies du” Troisieme Reich” en France, 1933–1945, Koordinierungsstelle Magdeburg, 2013. Nieszawer, N., Peintres Juifs à Paris, 1905–1939. Paris. Ed. Denoël, 2000, pp. 66, 179–180. Roth, C., Jewish Art. Israel: Masada Press, 1971, pp. 251–252. Regenbogen, L., Dictionary of Jewish painters. Bucarest: Ed.Tehnica, 2004, pp. 237–238. Silver, K.D. and Golan, R., The Circle of Montparnasse: Jewish Artists in Paris 1905–1945. Exh. cat., The Jewish Museum, Universe Books, New York, 1985. Waldemar, G., “The School of Paris,” in C. Roth, Jewish Art, McGraw Hill, 1961, pp. 639–718. Wierzbicka, A., École de Paris. Warsaw: History Museum Lodz, 2004, pp. 94. Wigodek, G., Everyman Judaica. Jerusalem: Keter publications, 1975, p. 1054.

External links

J.D. Kirszenbaum website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kirszenbaum, Jesekiel David 1900 births 1954 deaths 20th-century Polish painters 20th-century Polish male artists Jewish caricaturists Bauhaus alumni Jewish painters Jewish School of Paris People from Sandomierz Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to France 20th-century Polish Jews Polish male painters

Life

His work

References

Further reading

External links