Thomas GLEB
January 2, 2019Jules GORDON
January 2, 2019Georges GOLDKORN
SZYDLOWICE (POLAND) 1907 – PARIS 1961
Georges Goldkorn grew up in a Hassidic family and followed religious studies in a Yeshiva until the age of fifteen. He then left Talmudic school and enrolled in high school. After graduating high school, he followed the advice of the Expressionist painter Henryk Gottlieb and joined the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, despite his parents’ opposition. In 1927, Goldkorn enrolled in the Royal Academy inBrussels. A year later, he took classes taught by Isidore Opsomer and Rik Wooters at the Higher Institute for Fine Arts in Antwerp. In 1940, the invasion of Belgium caused him to move to France.
During World War II, he enlisted in the Polish army and was interned in the Gurs internment camp. Goldkorn escaped and joined the Resistance in Lyon. After the war, he settled in Paris, acquiring French nationality in 1947. He was a figurative painter until 1955. In 1956, Golkorn produced eighteen etchings and nine wood engravings for Images de Sefarad, a book on the history of Spanish Judaism, prefaced by Jean Cassou and Cecil Roth, and published by Caracteres. Goldkorn illustrated Philon d’Alexandrie (Philo of Alexandria), published by Marcel Bruker in 1962.
Stories of Jewish Artists of the School of Paris 1905-1939
FRENCH-ENGLISH
Capitale des arts, le Paris des années 1905-1939 attire les artistes du monde entier. De cette période de foisonnement, un terme est resté, celui d'Ecole de Paris, qui recouvre une grande diversité d'expression artistique. Dans ce brassage dont Montparnasse est le creuset, un groupe se distingue : celui des artistes juifs venus de Russie, de Pologne et d'Europe centrale. Si leurs styles sont variés, un destin commun les rassemble : ils fuient l'antisémitisme de leur pays d'origine. Certains ont connu la célébrité dès les années 1920, tels Soutine, Lipchitz ou Chagall. D'autres n'ont pas eu le temps ou la chance d'y accéder. Près de la moitié a péri dans les camps de concentration nazis.
From 1905 to 1939, Paris attracted artists from all over the globe as the capital of the art world. This period of artistic proliferation became known as the School of Paris, and includes a great diversity of artistic expression. Within the teeming art world centred on Montparnasse, one group set itself apart: Jewish artists from Russia, Poland, and Central Europe. Although their styles were diverse, they shared the common fate of fleeing anti-Semitic persecutions in their home countries. Some became famous in the 1920s, such as Soutine, Lipchitz, and Chagall, while others did not have the time or the luck to gain renown. Nearly half of these artists died in Nazi concentration camps.