At Istituto di Cultura Germanica - via de’ Marchi 4
18.30
Caricatures by Jecheskiel David Kirszenbaum
To mark the close of the exhibition, the Museo Ebraico di Bologna is organising a special finissage event in collaboration with the Istituto di Cultura Germanica and Alliance Française, with a talk by Eleonora Frattarolo, Accademia di Belle Arti di Bologna
Art and politics: a few considerations
(Exhibition from 28 September to 13 November 2022)
J. D. Kirszenbaum (1900-1954), a Polish painter and caricaturist, the son of a rabbi and raised in a shtetl, lived in Germany from 1920 to 1933: an emblematic example of an ostracised and forgotten artist, representing a generation of intellectuals forced to leave Eastern Europe because of an increasingly hostile environment.
Kirszenbaum studied at the Weimar Bauhaus in the mid-twenties with Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky and Lyonel Feininger
and was often compared to Marc Chagall in terms of artistic quality. In 1926, he integrated into the independent left-wing
art scene in Berlin, where he made a living with caricatures for satirical magazines. His caricatures captured the
Zeitgeist of the Weimar Republic by portraying unscrupulous merchants, corruption in politics and sports, the
role of women and even growing anti-Semitism.
In 1933, Kirszenbaum together with his wife Helma Helene fled from the Nazis and took refuge in Paris where he became a member
of the "École de Paris". Later, both interned in different camps, Kirszenbaum managed to escape, while his wife
died in Auschwitz. Around six hundred works by Kirszenbaum were destroyed by the Nazis during the occupation of
France. His work was only able to be saved from oblivion thanks to his great-nephew Nathan Diament, who has worked
to restore the artist's legacy.