DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.41588#0069
Jerzy Malinowski
Warsaw
l HE JUNG IDYSZ (YOUNG YIDDISH) GROUP
AND JEWISH MODERN ART IN POLAND 1918-1923*
The traditions os the modern Jewish artistic environment in Poland and Central - Eastern Europe
date back to the second half os the 19th century and are linked with the names of Maurycy Gottlib
and Marek Antokolski.
At the turn os the 19 century artists of Jewish descent in Poland (despite a partial distinctness in the
themes os their works) were intimately connecte'd with Polish artistic lise. Nonetheless, they
maintained close social lise ties. Not until just besore World War I was it possible to organize in
Warsaw the sirst ’’Exhibitions os Jewish Artists”. The exhibition held in 1913 in the so-called
Luxembourg Gallery (a passage next to Senatorska Street), presented works by Stanislawa
Centnerszwer, Abraham Eisenberg and Maurycy Minkowski.
A sather attempt at creating a separate milieu os Jewish artists in Poland was made during the war.
The exhibition organized in Warsaw in 1916 was ossicially a charity event sor the ’’Society of
Orphanages sor Children of the Mosaic Persuasion” and it presented pictures by Henryk Gotlib
(dt'but), Stanislaw Heyman (posthumously), Samuel Hirszenberg, Abraham Neuman, Leopold
Pilichowski, and Maurycy Trfbacz and sculptures by Abraham E.senberg, Henryk Glicenstein,
Henryk Kuna, and Abntham Ostrzega.
At the beginning os the twentieth century, the considerable growth os the Jewish artistic milieu
(also abroad) gave rise to questions concerning the specisicity and stylistic character os national art.
Discussions on this topic were conducted particularly by young Jewish artists who worked in Paris
besore World War I, including Osip Zadkine, Natan Altman, and .Iosis Tchaikov (Czajkow), Iccchak
Lichtenstein, Leo Kenig, and Marek Szwarc who published the periodical Machmadim. Already at
that time attention was turned to the works os Marc Chagall in whose case inspiration by the new
French art (vah Gogh, cubism, and Delaunay) waa conn ected with a sascination for the. visual
aspects os Chassidic solklore and Jewish folk art.
In the course os the sirst world war these controversies, and some os the artists themselves, moved
67
Warsaw
l HE JUNG IDYSZ (YOUNG YIDDISH) GROUP
AND JEWISH MODERN ART IN POLAND 1918-1923*
The traditions os the modern Jewish artistic environment in Poland and Central - Eastern Europe
date back to the second half os the 19th century and are linked with the names of Maurycy Gottlib
and Marek Antokolski.
At the turn os the 19 century artists of Jewish descent in Poland (despite a partial distinctness in the
themes os their works) were intimately connecte'd with Polish artistic lise. Nonetheless, they
maintained close social lise ties. Not until just besore World War I was it possible to organize in
Warsaw the sirst ’’Exhibitions os Jewish Artists”. The exhibition held in 1913 in the so-called
Luxembourg Gallery (a passage next to Senatorska Street), presented works by Stanislawa
Centnerszwer, Abraham Eisenberg and Maurycy Minkowski.
A sather attempt at creating a separate milieu os Jewish artists in Poland was made during the war.
The exhibition organized in Warsaw in 1916 was ossicially a charity event sor the ’’Society of
Orphanages sor Children of the Mosaic Persuasion” and it presented pictures by Henryk Gotlib
(dt'but), Stanislaw Heyman (posthumously), Samuel Hirszenberg, Abraham Neuman, Leopold
Pilichowski, and Maurycy Trfbacz and sculptures by Abraham E.senberg, Henryk Glicenstein,
Henryk Kuna, and Abntham Ostrzega.
At the beginning os the twentieth century, the considerable growth os the Jewish artistic milieu
(also abroad) gave rise to questions concerning the specisicity and stylistic character os national art.
Discussions on this topic were conducted particularly by young Jewish artists who worked in Paris
besore World War I, including Osip Zadkine, Natan Altman, and .Iosis Tchaikov (Czajkow), Iccchak
Lichtenstein, Leo Kenig, and Marek Szwarc who published the periodical Machmadim. Already at
that time attention was turned to the works os Marc Chagall in whose case inspiration by the new
French art (vah Gogh, cubism, and Delaunay) waa conn ected with a sascination for the. visual
aspects os Chassidic solklore and Jewish folk art.
In the course os the sirst world war these controversies, and some os the artists themselves, moved
67