You Must Choose Life – That is Art: Pinchas Litvinovsky

Several months ago I went to see the exhibition "You Must Choose Life - That is Art", at Beit Avi Chai in Jerusalem. The exhibition showcased the work of one of Israel's most influential artists, Pinchas Litvinovsky.

Pinchas Litvinovsky was born in 1894 to a religious family of Jewish merchants in the city of Novogeorgievsk (then the Russian Empire, now Ukraine). At the age of 18 he began studying at the Academy of Art in Odessa, where he met Boris Schatz, the founder of the Bezalel School of Art in Jerusalem. Schatz invited the youngster to attend Bezalel, and also offered him a scholarship. Litvinovsky moved to the Land of Israel, but shortly after returned to Russia where he studied at the Academy of Art in Petrograd (now Saint Petersburg). In 1917 he married Lisa, née Torgovsky; the couple had two daughters. He returned to pre-state Palestine with his wife in 1919 on board the famous ship "S.S. Ruslan". He first settled in Tiberias, then in the late 1930s he joined an artists' colony that was established in Motza Ilit, integrating into Israel's art and culture life, designing stage sets for the Habima theatre in Tel Aviv and the Ohel Theatre. In 1924 he participated in the "Hebrew Artists Association" exhibition held at the Tower of David. In the early 1950s he settled in the Katamon neighbourhood of Jerusalem.

The transition from Eastern Europe to the scorching sun of the Middle East caused for a stylistic, thematic and colour change in Litvinovsky's work. He portrayed the daily life he saw in the Galilee and the Judean Mountains: Arabs in keffiyehs, Hasidim in shtreimels, Yemenis with sidelocks, women in veils and women in snoods, as well as local farm animals such as donkeys and camels. Litvinovsky returned to these figures throughout his life.

From the 1930s onwards, Litvinovsky travelled for long periods to Europe and the United States, where he encountered the works of Georges Rouault, Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, and the painters of the School of Paris. Over the years his artistic style underwent transformations under their influence, from Constructivism and Russian Impressionism at the beginning of his career, through modernist and expressive trends, to formal and colourful abstractions in the later period of his life. For his achievements, Litvinovsky was awarded the Israel Prize for Painting in 1980.

Litvinovsky was not part of any artistic group, rarely exhibited his works and never dated or named them. He became known for his portraits of famous people from Israel and around the world but, apart from portraiture, he usually avoided selling his pieces.  After his death, the painter's estate numbered over 6,000 works, held in his Katamon studio, a house previously used by the British Deputy High Commissioner and given to Litvinovsky by Moshe Dayan. However, the estate encountered various hardships over the years, which culminated in the painter's grandson reducing the thousands of works to only a few hundred due to the pressing need to vacate Litvinovsky's residence. The exhibition at Beit Avi Chai aimed to highlight the best of the remaining pieces of Litvinovsky's work.

Litvinovsky did not sell his paintings as a matter of principle but, since he still had to support himself and his family, he chose to do so by painting commissioned portraits, which established him in the eyes of the Israeli public as the national portrait painter. When an institution or the State of Israel wanted to present a public, state, or international figure with a gift, they obtained photographs of the recipient and gave them to Litvinovsky. He would then use these photographs to paint the requested portrait. 

Among the hundreds of portraits that Litvinovsky painted over his lifetime, he painted USA presidents Harry Truman and John Kennedy, and the Israeli presidents Chaim Weizmann, Yitzhak Ben Zvi and Zalman Shazar. Other portraits included those of Chaim Nahman Bialik, Meir Dizengoff, Levi Eshkol and Golda Meir. The dozens dedicated to David Ben-Gurion, the first Prime Minister of the State of Israel, stand out. A selection were included in the exhibition, above, with Litvinovsky not only demonstrating the different faces of the "old man", as Ben-Gurion was called, but first and foremost his own ability as a painter and his development from the realistic, academic artistic style towards colourful abstraction. 

Although born into a religious family of Jewish merchants, Litvinovsky abandoned the pious life of his youth but maintained a complex relationship with Jewish traditions. From the end of the 1950s, he began to incorporate quotes from Jewish texts into his paintings. He painted the words "You Must Choose Life", which were chosen for the title of the exhibition. The phrase comes from the book of Deuteronomy and relate to the signing of the covenant between G-d and the People of Israel:

"I call the heaven and earth as witnesses! Before you I have placed life and death, the blessing and the curse. You must choose life so that you and your descendants will survive" (Deuteronomy 30:13-19).

Towards the end of his life, Litvinovsky created an exceptional series of portraits of rabbis, most of them inspired by photographs and drawings he found in books, below. Unlike the official portraits, above, which he created on commission and based on precise sketches, the portraits of rabbis were created as part of an artistic study and a spiritual quest.

Litvinovsky used to paint at night while listening to music, so it is not surprising that the theme of music appears in many of his works. "The Violinist" series that he painted in the 1950s shows various versions of a violinist and a violin, the musical instrument perhaps most associated with Jewish identity and culture.

In the last decades of his life, Litvinovsky returned to images that he painted in the past. As a mature artist, he added far more of his own artistic approach and many of these works were painted on thin paper in a childlike style, with simple colorful lines that convey innocence and simplicity.

The very last room in the exhibition featured an interactive stand which offered visitors the opportunity to create their own Litvinovsky-style portrait using AI. A camera captured my portrait then, within seconds, I received four digital versions of myself, each rendered in a different Litvinovsky-inspired style. I chose my favourite version, above, and it was sent to my email. In a nod to the tragic fate of many of Litvinovsky's original works, the other images were erased entirely!

Pinchas Litvinovsky died on 15th September 1985, in Jerusalem. He was 91. Many of the pieces on display in the exhibition were seeing the light of day for the first time in 40 years.

* This post has been shared on Mosaic Monday, The Good. The Random. The Fun. and Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday).

Hetty

Hetty celebrated her 18th birthday in October. Her mum sent me a photo of her and asked if I could use it. She particularly wanted Hetty to appear just as she was in the picture, drinking from a cup. She also requested that I include a saxophone, a pair of AirPods, and a poetry book around Hetty's portrait.

I carefully recreated the photo of Hetty, adding the saxophone, AirPods, and poetry book just as her mum requested. I was especially pleased with how the saxophone turned out.

I hope Hetty loved the final piece.

* This post has been shared on Happiness is Homemade, Sundays on Silverado, Mosaic Monday and Busy Monday.

It's them!

A good friend asked me to make a joint 80th birthday card for her parents, who were both celebrating their birthdays in November. She also requested that the card be extra large.

She told me that her parents are devoted fans of Coronation Street (affectionately known as Corrie), the long-running British soap opera that first aired in 1960. Set on a cobbled street in the fictional town of Weatherfield - based on Salford in Greater Manchester - it follows the everyday lives of working-class characters. It seems my friend's parents never miss an episode!

She also mentioned that they drink plenty of tea, often sharing a croissant. After checking the details, I learned that the croissant had to be a plain one, and the tea should be served in a cup and saucer - the traditional and proper English way to drink tea! Finally, she asked me to include a big 80 on the card.

My friend sent me a photo of her parents. She told me that her dad’s personal "uniform" is a blue polo shirt with light trousers, and that he always wears a plain black kippa (skullcap). Her mum, on the other hand, loves to wear red.
I decided to show her parents sitting together at a small café table, enjoying tea and a croissant. I added a big gold 80 in the background, along with the Coronation Street sign.
They were all thrilled with the card!

"It's them!" my friend wrote when she collected the card. "You are so talented! I knew that already, of course - but wow! The tea, the croissant, all of it. Wow!"

After their birthday party, she wrote to me again:

"I gave them your card at the party and they, and all their friends, were absolutely wowed! They all loved it! It made it really special."

* This post has been shared on Saturday Sparks, Sundays on Silverado,  Happiness is Homemade, Mosaic Monday, Busy Monday, Tuesday Turn About and Wonderful Wednesday Blog Hop.

Ori and Doron

Ori is Israeli but currently lives in New York. His sister, an art student who also works as a flight attendant for El Al, was planning to visit him on his birthday, so their mum ordered a card for her to bring along. Mum told me that Ori loves coffee and that he sends them coffee photos all the time! He works for Apple Inc. and of course lives in The Big Apple. She also asked me to include the Empire State Building, and told me that he favours Omega luxury watches too. 

I showed bespectacled Ori standing in front of the Empire State Building, the eighth-tallest building in New York City. He is holding a cup of coffee and wearing one of his favourite watches. I then added a little graphic of an apple with the words "The Big Apple" on it. The "shine" on the apple is the Apple Inc. logo.

Doron was turning 30 and was going to celebrate his birthday in Rome! His mother-in-law asked me to create a large card with a Rome theme. She also wanted a big 30 somewhere on the card.

The card was simple but a lot of fun to make. I cut out a large number 30 and decorated the card with the Italian tricolour - green, white, and red. Then I added a slice of pizza (of course!), a glass of wine, a gladiator's helmet, and an image of the Colosseum, the huge amphitheatre built nearly two thousand years ago as a gift to the Roman people and originally used for gladiator games, dramas, and - yes - public executions! To finish it off, I cut out tiny pieces of pasta, a classic symbol of Roman hospitality.

* This post has been shared on Saturday Sparks Link Party, Happiness is Homemade, Mosaic Monday, Busy Monday, The Good. The Random. The Fun., Tuesday Turn About and Wonderful Wednesday Blog Hop.