{"product_id":"french-jewish-post-holocaust-abstract-painting-manner-of-hundertwasser-art-brut","title":"French Jewish Post Holocaust Abstract Painting Manner of Hundertwasser Art Brut","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e H: 18.0, W: 15.0 IN\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJichak Pressburger, Painter. b. 1933, Bratislava, Czechoslovakia. A concentration camp survivior. Came to Israel aboard the ship, \"The Exodus\". 1964 Went to Paris.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn 1979 Returned as new immigrant. Education Tel Aviv University, B.A. in art, with Marcel Janco and Isidor Ascheim at Avni art school. Beaux Arts, Paris with Professor Coutaud. Itzchak Pressburger Stays in Paris from 1963 – 1979, Resident of the “Cité des Arts” 1969-1972. Lives and works in Jerusalem since 1979.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOne-Man Exhibitions 1963\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGallery Dugit, Tel-Aviv 1968\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCultural Center Enkhuizen, Netherlands 1968\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGallery Zunini, Paris (chosen by the art critic of « Opus : Jean-Jacques Lévèque) 1970\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGallery Zunini, Paris 1973\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGallery Maitre Albert, Paris. Cultural Center Verfeil sur Seye, France 1974\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGallery Maitre Albert, Paris 1976\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGallery Mundo, Barcelone 1980\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eArtists’ House, Jerusalem 1981\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGallery Alain Gerard, Paris\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGroup Exhibitions 1966\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRathaus Charlottenburg, Berlin. (The first show of Israeli painters in Germany\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eArtists Center of Silvarouvres, Nantes, Ffance\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eXXXth Salon of Finances at “l’Hotel des Monnaies”, Paris 1969\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMaison de Culture, Le Havre, France 1968\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGallery Zunini, Paris (chosen by the art critic of « Opus : Jean-Jacques Lévèque)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSalon « Grands et Jeunes d’Aujourd’hui », Paris\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMuseum of Fine Arts, Nantes, France\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCultural Center Vitry, France\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGallery Il Giorno, Milan\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCité des Arts, Paris 1972\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSalon “Grands et Jeunes d’Aujourd’hui”, Paris\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSalon de Mai, Paris 1973\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eStädtische Galerie, Siegen, Germany 1974\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJewish Cultural Center, Paris\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePublicis, Paris 1975\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRéalitiés Nouvelles, Paris 1976\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSalon de Mai, Paris 1977\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Perspectives Israeliennes”, Grand Palais, Paris 1981\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSalon Alain Gerard, Paris 1984\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eArtists’ House, Jerusalem\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePublication 1990\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHaggadah Yom Kippour (Hebrew\/French) Abraham Bliah (private edition), Paris\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAcquisitions 1968\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe City of Paris 1972\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe State of France\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Yitzchak Pressburger artist was born in Bratislava – known for centuries by its German name of Pressburg – but the outbreak of World War II found him and his family in Prague. His father realized they had to escape from the Nazi occupiers and tried to get the family across the border into Hungary. However, they were caught near the crossing point, arrested and incarcerated overnight at the nearby railway station. The Czechs put them on a train to Hungary early the next morning. That was their first miracle in their quest for survival. They survived with relative ease until late 1943, when the father was taken away to a forced labor camp. He subsequently died in a death march. Things became even more precarious in early 1944, when the Holocaust made its full-blown presence felt in Hungary. “It wasn’t the Germans, it was the Hungarian Nazis who did the dirty work,” Pressburger points out. The family lived in so-called “safe houses” that were protected by Switzerland, Finland and Sweden. The havens were dismantled in late 1944, and the Pressburgers moved into one of the two Jewish ghettos in Budapest. The Nazis had found two houses with Jews, including the one where we had been, and took them all out and shot them next to the Danube. Today there is a monument by the river [called Shoes on the Danube Bank]. We should have been with the Jews who were killed by the river,” he says. After the war, Pressburger and his siblings were farmed out to various orphanages run by the Jewish Agency, and things took a decidedly better turn. “We finally had food to eat,” he recalls. “After a while we were put on trains that were protected by the Jewish Brigade [of the British Army], and we were sent to Austria, and then to Germany.” “My uncle was a famous artist, and I learned a lot from him,” he says. While in Germany, Pressburger also took some lessons with a local artist. His mother managed to get him and two of his siblings berths on the Exodus, which set sail from Marseilles for Palestine in July 1947. Pressburger was 13 at the time and clearly recalls the aborted attempt to get to the Promised Land.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“It was so crowded on the boat. This was a ship that was made to ply rivers in the United States, with a few hundred people on board, and we had over 4,500 passengers crammed in.” As we know, the British prevented the Exodus from docking in Palestine, and the passengers were shipped – in three far more seaworthy vessels – back to France. After the French government refused to cooperate with the British, Pressburger and the others found themselves back in Germany. The teenager eventually made it here in 1948, just one month before the Declaration of Independence. After a short furlough in Tel Aviv, during the first lull in the fighting in the War of Independence, he moved to Kibbutz Kfar Ruppin, where he worked in the cowshed. All the while he continued feverishly drawing and honing his artistic skills, which he says came in handy when he joined the IDF. After completing his military service, which included a spell as one of the founding members of the Flotilla 13 naval commando unit, he worked in Sdom for a while at the Dead Sea Works before starting his formal arts training in earnest. I was in the first group of students at the Avni Institute [in Tel Aviv],” he says. “There was quite a famous bunch of students and teachers like Moshe Mokadi and Isidore Ascheim and Aaron Giladi.” In such illustrious company, one might have thought Pressburger was set to unleash his burgeoning talents on art connoisseurs across the globe, but it was a while before that happened. Pressburger arrived in the French capital in 1964 and spent close to 15 years there, with a short interlude in Germany, before returning to Israel. His time in Paris was a professionally rewarding period of his life, and he also found love. “[Avni Institute teacher] Yochanan Simon gave me the name and address of a French-Israeli family in Paris, but when I got to the house, a young woman opened the door and told me the family was on vacation in Israel,” he explains. Despite missing his expected hosts’ welcome, he and the German-born young lady who greeted him soon fell for each other, and romance quickly led to wedding bells. By all accounts, Pressburger did well in Europe. He secured a rare three-year berth at Cité Internationale des Arts, where artists are normally provided with accommodation and studio space for between two months and a year. He was also accepted to the prestigious Beaux Arts academy of fine arts, mounted solo exhibitions, and took part in group shows all over Europe. One of these last was a group exhibition at Rathaus Charlottenburg in Berlin in 1966 – the first exhibition of Israeli artists in Germany after the Holocaust. When he arrived in Berlin, the lineup for the Israeli show was already signed and sealed, but somehow his work came to the attention of the German culture minister, who arranged for him to join. The Pressburgers’ year-long sojourn came to an abrupt end following an encounter he had one day while walking through the crowded Berlin streets. He duly resumed his studies at Beaux Arts and gradually developed an intriguing approach to abstract painting. He has moved on significantly since then. His work bears similarities with the work of Maryan and with Friedensreich Hundertwasser.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51628253544746,"sku":"a_13297462S1","price":2200.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0996\/4021\/3802\/files\/mobilejpegupload_8BCCA76D73754EF68B5C23722A67B282_master_c5c8c2ad-e38c-44dd-acbd-528c6e032e70.jpg?v=1780507633","url":"https:\/\/lionsgallery.com\/products\/french-jewish-post-holocaust-abstract-painting-manner-of-hundertwasser-art-brut","provider":"Lions Gallery","version":"1.0","type":"link"}