Arthur Kolnik Lot n° 18

was born in Galicia in 90 He studied from an early age at the School of Fine Arts in Cracow but his most important artistic experience was when he arrived inienna after fighting as a soldier in the First World War. Here he met with the famous Jewish artist Isidor Kaufmann and saw the works of the major artists of the day- Egon Schiele and Oscar Kokoschka. This experience put into perspective his earlier formative memories of Jewish life as a child in Poland without taking away his source of inspiration of Yiddish culture and types in the shtetl. In 1919 we find Kolnik in Czernowitz Rumania where he meets the young Reuven Rubin with whom he becomes close friend and collaborator. They work together living what Rubin would later describe as "a hermit existence seeking to heal ourselves from the war". Together they decide in 1920 to travel to the USA to seek their fortune. In New York they have a mixed fortune. They encounter some success in a joint exhibition at the Anderson Galleries in November 1921 but in spite of the favorable newspaper reviews fail to break through. Kolnik returned shortly thereafter to Czernowitz while Rubin tried to find his luck in Palestine. Back in his milieu he continues to make woodcuts and illustrations for books and is included in a number of exhibitions. In 1931 he decides to try his luck again abroad this time in Paris where he settles and will remain for the next 30 years and will work as an illustrator of works of Jewish and Yiddish Literature. The work on auction is one of his most impressive works from his pre-American experience. Painted in 1920 it was one of the paintings that the artist took with him to show in the USA and was exhibited side by side with the works of Rubin in the Anderson Galleries in 1921. Shortly afterwards (possibly at the end of 1921) the painting was sold remained in the New York house until it was brought to Israel in the 1960s by the son. Its subject is typical of the works Kolnik undertook during the earl