This article was first published in French Judaism «L'arche» (Ark), and then released in a separate brochure published by Jacques Shapiro (owner of the gallery Safir, which now presents an exhibition of Vladimir Kara and Seeds Agroskin. It is what I handed this brochure). I put a few abridged translation.
Jewish artists in Paris between 1906 and 1945.
Francine Shapiro
1945: Geneva Georg Kars committed suicide, in New York, died in exile Bell, his wife and inspiration of Marc Chagall, Zvi Levenshtadt left Siberia in which he hid from Nazi persecution, and spent several years in Germany, where he taught drawings by children who had been released from Dachau, he moved to Tel Aviv, Paris artists of Jewish origin mourn the dead: Boris Schatzman (Bioris Chatzmann) disappeared without a trace, Henry Epstein (Henri Epstein), Adolphe Feder (Adolphe Feder), Samuel Granovsky (Samuel Granowski) , Ephraim Mandelbaum (Ephraïm Mandelbaum), Joachim Weingart (Joachim Weingart), Leon Vayssberg (Léon Weussberg) were deported to death camps ...
Despite the fact that the survivors were able to return to "normal" life, World War II ended - or at least radically changed the conditions - unusually for meaningful participation, whose history dates back to the earliest years of the twentieth century, Jewish artists in French cultural and artistic life.
Several remarkable exhibition organized in recent years were devoted to the leaders of this group of artists - Modigliani in the Luxembourg Palace, Chagall at the Grand Palace (Grand Palais). We found it interesting to highlight also the life and work of those who are members of this remarkable cohort, but did not receive prominence vysheimenovannyh artists. Not being able to speak in detail about the fate of each of more than one hundred and fifty artists, we decided to dedicate this story to general problems.
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France, the host country
Art lovers who are interested in the activity of Jewish artists in France, inevitably asks himself questions:
What caused this sudden and massive immigration of Jewish artists?
How do you explain their flourishing of art and a great success, at least some of them?
Why do most of these artists did not survive the end of this period?
Answering the first question we should mention the extraordinary prestige of Paris and France, the country of human rights and cultural capital of Europe between 1870 and 1939. /... /
Painters, sculptors, collectors come to Paris from around the world. The number of Jewish artists among them is particularly high - they attract not only the cultural aspect, but also civil liberties to which they have access in France, unlike the countries of Central and Eastern Europe /... /.
Predecessors of Jewish artists in France
There is another important factor, which, in our view, historians udelyayali insufficient attention: the existence of the French tradition of Jewish art, which dates back to the Second Empire. Works most of the Jewish artists of that era did not go beyond the academic - for example, Henry Caro Delvay (Henri Caro-Delvaille), son-in-Chief Rabbi of the city Bayonne, or Orientalism - Edouard Moyse (Edouard Moyse), Lucien Levy-Dyurmer (Lucien Lévy- Dhurmer); some of them out of the studio Daumier, as Alsatian Alphonse Levi (Alphonse Lévy), or influenced by Corot, as Edouard Brandon (Edouard Brandon). Many of these artists of the XIX century continued its activities throughout the first half of the twentieth century, or part thereof. Brandon died in 1897, Levy - in 1918, Caro Delvay - in 1926, Jules Adler (Jules Adler) lived until 1952!
At the same time, at the end of the XIX century, the other Jewish artists were more receptive to contemporary art, as if they were already talking to extraordinary prosperity, which characterizes the beginning of the next century: Camille Pissarro, along with Renoir and Monet, is one of the leading representatives of impressionism; Bergson Jeanne (Jeanne Bergson), the daughter of the philosopher, was a pupil and follower of Bourdelle; particularly important Meyer de Haan (Meyer de Haan), a Jew from Holland, and Mogens Ballin (Mogens Ballin), a Jew from Denmark, who joined Gauguin at his Ponte -Avensky period, about 1890. They became the first artist-Jews who obtained success through his work in France, where was established a significant part of their works.
The massive influx of the twentieth century
In the early twentieth century the mass arrival of Jewish artists in France and their contribution to French culture is as if separate waves, formed interpenetrating strata.
Is it possible to speak of a specifically French art with such an influx of foreign artists? Of course, among them were not only Jews: examples of Catalan and Catholic, Picasso, the Orthodox Greek Demetrios Galanis (Demetrios Galanis), Russian Orthodox Maria Vasilyeva, a Polish Catholic, Vladimir Terlikovskogo (Wkadimir de Terlikowski), Coptic Sabbah, Georges (Georges Sabbagh), Japanese and Shinto, has applied to Catholicism, Leonard Fujita ... well show that Paris attracted to him absolutely everyone. However, a group of Jewish artists were easily identifiable and relatively homogeneous - the overwhelming majority (with the exception of the great Modigliani and the Artists of Jewish Tunisian origin who worked in the style of Orientalism - Bismyuta Maurice (Maurice Bismuth) and Moses Levy (Moses Lévy)), these artists were from Central and Eastern Europe, united by a common language Yiddish culture.
Marc Chagall (despite the fact that according to him, he predpochitael speak in Russian) and Borvin Frenkel, Michael Kikoin, Chaim Soutine, Isaac Dobrinsky - all of them fluent in Yiddish. It is natural that, once in Paris, they immediately tied up getting to know each other, settled in the same neighborhoods, went to some cafe ... School of Paris and its member artists of the Jews - because this day and nightlife cafes of Montparnasse - «Le Dôme »,« La Coupole »,« La Rotonde », in which these young poor people who passionately loved art, collected over a cup of coffee.
Beehive
Arrived the first encountered "newcomers" in their poor rooms in hotels or in his studio in group workshops, sama-known of which was a beehive.
It should be noted quite a unique character Hive, this hothouse, in which vzrosliy incredible number of major artists. Designed and created his ultra-academic French sculptor Alfred Boucher (Alfred Boucher), conceived and commissioned by a semi, poluselskoy environment for the Gare Montparnasse, from the waste of the World Exhibition in 1900 was built a huge, almost cylindrical building housing shops with residential rooms, group studios, a theater ... He has dedicated this building workshops which were rented for very modest rents for young artists, and he imagined that the work of these artists will not be less academic than his works. Soon, however, worked "oral phone", and all the frequenters of cafes of Montparnasse learned of his brainchild. In the Hive surged skinny young people with a hungry kind - Chagall, Pinkhus Flint, a little later - and Kikoin Soutine, Modigliani, like starving Italian prince. And we must admit: Alfred Boucher was quite tolerant and generous, to take them ...
Very quickly - in less than ten years - Hive has become the most active centers of creativity. Jewish artists represented in the hive absolute majority. Gradually artists captured and surrounding streets. With very few exceptions artists who settled in Montmartre (Jacob Balgley, who arrived from Brest-Litovsk, Osip Lipchitz, who moved from Grodno), the bulk of immigrants were arranged in Montparnasse.
New blood in the Parisian art
Creativity some artists Hive, strongly oriented to the present, can not be overemphasized. It is considering the early work of Marc Chagall, Guillaume Apollinaire opened a "surreal", soon became the surrealism. Contacts that these artists have retained their compatriots, established in Berlin and Munich, have allowed Paris to take part in the German expressionist experiment: prior to his arrival in Paris Georg Kars and Jules Pasen visited Munich. Another example - Ludwig Meidner (Ludwig Meidner), artist, virtually unknown in France, but famous in Germany. He came to Paris and enrolled at the Julian Academy, where he met future stars of the horizon of French art.
The First World War did not particularly change the situation: some foreign artists had to leave: Pasen went to Cuba and then in the U.S., where he later received citizenship; Chagall lingered in Minsk and Moscow because of the war first and then the Russian Revolution, he returned Kramschik Poland, Willie Ayzenshitts - Vienna ... But the war took place at the front, but in Paris, life went on as before, except a few bombs fell, several dead comrades ... Painters and Sculptors worked galleries exhibiting them, the marshal sold. Immediately after the war, Paris has become even more active, the era of "crazy years", he never so attracted to a young Jewish artists from Central and Eastern Europe.
Judaism and the Art of Fine Art: conflict or symbiosis?
There is a theory that the arrival of Jewish artists in Paris, where he still dominated figurative art relates to their protest against the ban on the image of Judaism and even with their rejection of Jewish tradition and the kind of Judaism.
Two questions arise: first, what were the relations of Jewish artists from the School of Paris, the ban on the image, and secondly, what was their real connection to Judaism and Zionism.
First, it should be noted that the ban on the image of Judaism has always followed not too strictly. Despite the fact that the biblical text unconditionally prohibits depict living creatures, from the same biblical texts that in the temple of Solomon was attended by images of humans and animals. Even when the ban was followed, he relates more to the sculpture - the Hebrew word "pessel" means, and the idol, and sculpture. As for the two-dimensional, pictorial images, from the Dura frescoes and mosaics Evroposa Beth Alpha, images of living beings in it are numerous and are present even in the most orthodox Judaism environment.
This tradition has been preserved since the Middle Ages until the present day in the Easter images "haggadot", in marriage contracts ("ketubot") and scrolls of Esther. Do not forget about the frescoes on the tree in the synagogues in Central Europe - so, Chagall was very proud of the fact that among his ancestors was a painter synagogue. Thus, in Judaism from the very beginning there was - even though she was very modest - the tradition of the image. In Vitebsk, Chagall was a teenager while he studied for a local artist and a Jew Yehudi Peng.
After moving to Paris, not all young Jewish artists broke with Judaism. Proof that the link with their religion did not disappear - the creation in 1937 in Paris, the Association of Jewish artists, which were initiated and Vayssberg Aronzon, and who later became president of Frankel. This Association shall consist of no less than two hundred members.
Sozranyalis and family relations: as we saw in 1914, Chagall returned to Russia, in 1929, Dobrinsky sent his wife to give birth to their relatives in Lithuania; Kramschik, Alice Halitska (wife Marcoussis) and Levenshtadt returned to Poland ...
Despite the inevitable jealousy and personal rivalry, Jewish artists are closely interacted with each other and in solidarity - alike in their common struggle for recognition of his art, which protects and gallerist and publisher Zborovsky Kivelevichem. Certainly, Jewish artists have promoted not only the gallery owners and publishers of Jewish - for example, the first exhibition Silbert Benn (Benn Silbert) organized Paul Guillaume. Nevertheless, the persistence with which the work is protected Zborowski revolyuschionnogo at the time of the artist Modigliani, especially when you consider that he exposed himself, and Anchura (Antcher) and was associated with Vayssbergom very revealing.
As Kivelevicha, he got the idea, while an entirely new, to be published in its "Publishers triangle» (Editions du Triangle) book artists of small size at very reasonable prices. Wide dissemination of these publications bkssporno contributed by famous artists, among whom were many Jews - some were famous, as Kars, Pasen or sculptor Ingelbaum, others much less known. And we return to the publisher's connection with Judaism and artists, recognizing that along with the French edition of these publications has been released and circulation of Yiddish, which means that while in Paris there was a clientele for this kind of publication.
Another proof of the strong connection between these artists with religion is that in an era when travel demand is much more time and effort, many of them traveled to the land of their ancestors in Palestine, long before the creation of Israel: Feder went there in 1925, and returned with his illustrations for two books on Jerusalem and a large series of drawings, watercolors and gouaches, between 1921 and 1924. Anchura studied at the Bezalel School and worked on a kibbutz; Balgley around the same time, visited Jerusalem and returned with wonderful portraits of young women, Chagall went to the Holy Land for the first time in 1931; in 1926 Pasen decided to settle there and proceeded to Cairo, but later returned to France, went there and Mandelbatsm, and Mane-Katz ...
This relationship with Judaism in some was so strong that a very considerable part of their work is based on the rich Central and Eastern European Jewish tradition of the image. The most famous artists of this trend are, without doubt, Chagall and Mane-Katz, but also of lesser-known Borvina Frankel and Jacques Shapiro absolutely adorable. In his illustrations of the Book of Esther or surprising novel Ludwig Levison "The Last Days of Shylock" Arthur Schick (Arthur Szyk) is directly adjacent to the tradition of miniature XVIII century. Yes, and George Carse, who both became famous for his female nude, is the author of remarkable sketches of "Moses Rescued from the waters."
I must say that not all showed so much affection to their roots. Some of them have completely renounced Judaism, and some even converted to Christianity, such as Max Jacob, a French Jew from Brittany, a poet and a painter friend of Picasso and many others - his treatment did not prevent the Nazis to send him a concentration camp in Drancy. One could also mention some of the deliberately ambiguous work of Chagall, in which the suffering Christ became a symbol of the persecuted Jewish people.
Successive waves of immigration
After 1919, in a supportive atmosphere of the war, the influx of new immigrants virtually without interruption. They found a refuge either in the Hive, or near it, and formed a group on their origin and their artistic tastes. Aberdeen Alfred (Alfred Aberfam), Sigmund Menkes (Sigmund Menkès), Joachim Weingart and Vayssberg Leon, a native of Galicia, organized the group of four, and exhibited together. According to the stories wife Dobrinka, he became friendly with Boris Shattsmanom (Boris Chatzmann). Generally, Dobrinsky was a friend and, sometimes, good genius, almost all, as evidenced by a series of portraits made by him with other artists, and portraits of the Dobrinka painted by artists who served his models, rapid sketches, made in the cafes or shops - they Dobrinsky left us a vivid images, sometimes humorous or a little ironic, my friends: bulging eyes, conflict-free and benign Kikoin, sad face of Modigliani - all this can be viewed at the Museum of Art and History of Judaism ...
Immigration movement intensified after 1933 from Jewish artists who had previously wavered between Berlin and Paris, the choice was no more. The hegemony of the Nazis not only closed to the many Jewish artists of immigrant doors in Germany, but also forced those who settled there, to leave the country. Many of them, such as the young artist Jean Aral (Jane Ayrel) found refuge in France, not suspecting that this would be a temporary shelter. More insightful, David Schneider (David Schneider) moved to Tel Aviv as soon as he was able to leave Munich.
Conditions for the existence of artists, especially foreign ones, in France became increasingly difficult. After the collapse of 1929, the country's economic crisis began to reign. U.S. customers appear less often, the gallery closed, many French collectors stopped buying art. The adverse economic climate contributed to increased xenophobia and antisemitism.
The horrors of war and the Shoah
Slices after the surrender of the Nazis started in France and the organized extermination of the Jews. For the Jewish artists who failed to flee the country, fallen on hard days. At first in Paris and the occupied zone, and then in the free, they were persecuted, and many of them, despite the assistance of those around them non-Jewish origin, died in the camps. Kikoin been spared in the vicinity of Toulouse, but Vayssberga arrested ... Between one third and half hudodzhnikov-Jews living in Paris, died from the hands of the Nazis and their French accomplices.
Can we talk about the Jewish specificity with regard to the Paris School?
Can we say that Jewish artists have brought to the world art is something of your own? In 2001, a remarkable exhibition at the Paris Museum of Modern Art devoted to the Paris School, posed this question with respect to all artists, foreigners, both Jews and Gentiles. The number of Jews among the School of Paris is really impressive. And such creators as Soutine, Modigliani, Chagall, they led sobyuoy brilliant cohort, in which neighbors Kiesling, Hayden, and Flint, Kikoin and Balgley, Eppstein, Feder and Otto Froyndlih, Leopold Gottlieb, Alice Halitska, Indenbaum, Kars, Lipchitz, Man- Katz, Marcoussis, Mondsee, Mel Mutter, Shana Orloff, Marek Schwarz, Eugène Zak ... But this show was limited only by artists who moved to France before the First World War!
The number and fame of these artists can convince investigators that they had a great impact on French artistic activities in the twentieth century.
But what is common between the iridescent pearl images of women Pasena and sublimated expressionism, "as Jean Miller described the style of Flint? How to draw a parallel between the geometry Eppstein, haggard faces of characters Feder and colorful dances Mane-Katz? And how to separate their individual temperament of the total artistic culture?
When Vayssberg in the last years of his life, already being under house arrest, followed by followed by deportation, he wrote his wonderful clowns with bright and energetic written by individuals, whether you want to see in these small paintings of a moderate expression of expressionism, which is characteristic for the Jewish School of Paris artists, or reminiscence Ruo, through which the artist expresses and the choice of subject, and his interpretation of the insanity and absurdity of their situation and hope, despite all that this situation will somehow turn out all right?
To summarize, the contribution of artists to Jews in the French art is undeniable - it shows how the number of such artists, and the quality of their work. But just as undeniable is that, because of the huge difference in their temperaments and their creative research can not be grouped under the sign of Judaism in any formal school, no ubedniv their heritage.
Of course, some products can be traced proximity, such as in the works Naidich, Volovik and Dobrinka, in certain works of Shapiro and Soutine, the work of members of the Group of Four ": artists brings a common origin, common culture, but talk about a single school, which implies general style, not predstavlyaetsyaya possible. It is also worth mentioning the fact that some of these artists - Balgley, Vayssberg - within just a few years to try themselves in completely different styles - and it is this openness to all experiments and was one of the hallmarks of the artistic environment of Paris between the wars.
The term "Paris School" was coined by Andre Varna in 1925 to refer to all the artists who participated in the artistic process of this era. He does not try to neutralize the differences in background, looking for and methods of each. Therefore, to reduce the "School of Paris" for its unauthorized Jewish representatives. However, this does not prevent us from speaking about the importance of the contribution of its Jewish component in the artistic trends, popular in Paris between 1906 and 1945.
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Jewish artists in Paris between 1906 and 1945.
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