| Nachum Gutman | |
|---|---|
Nachum Gutman in Vienna, 1920 |
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| Born | October 5, 1898 Teleneşti , Bessarabia |
| Died | November 28, 1980 (aged 82) |
| Nationality | Israeli, Jewish |
| Field | Painting |
| Training | Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design |
| Awards | Dizengoff Prize, Lamdan Prize, Israel Prize |
Nachum Gutman (alternate romanization: Nahum Gutman; Hebrew: נחום גוטמן: born October 5, 1898, died November 28, 1980) was a Russian-born Israeli painter, sculptor, and author.
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Gutman was born in Teleneşti, Bessarabia (Moldova), then a part of the Russian Empire. He was the fourth child of Alter and Rivka Gutman. His father was a Hebrew writer and educator who wrote under the pen name S. Ben Zion. In 1903, the family moved to Odessa, and two years later, to Ottoman Palestine.
Gutman helped pioneer a distinctively Israeli style, moving away from the European influences of his teachers. He worked in many different media: oils, watercolours, gouache and pen and ink.
His sculptures and brightly colored mosaics can be seen in public places around Tel Aviv. Indoor murals depicting the history of Tel Aviv can be seen in the western wing of the Shalom Tower and the Chief Rabbinate building. A mosaic fountain with scenes from Jewish history stands at the corner of Bialik Street, opposite the old Tel Aviv municipality building.[1]
Returning to Israel in 1927, after a long sojourn in Europe, Gutman undertook the illustration of C.N. Bialik's writings until the poet's death in 1937. His Illustrations of Bialik's "Legends" were the peak of this project, and his style- monumental, sculptural, primitive, influenced by Assyrian sculpture and Persian miniature- perfectly suited Bialik's biblical themes. Gutman was one of the major formulators of Eretz Israel art-starkly simple, earthy and powerful, aggressively asserting its sense of place. The booklet of protest illustrations by Gutman, published immediately after the 1929 riots, was the first manifestation of the dashing of the Eretz Israel myth of Arab-Jewish integration. Gutman, as one of the formulators of the idealization of the Arab in art, was the first to respond to the new identity crisis facing the Eretz Israel Jew. He was to return to the depiction of the East in his later work.
Gutman's artistic style was eclectic, ranging from figurative to abstract. Gutman was also a well-known writer and illustrator of children's books.
Gutman received many art and literary prizes:[2]
The Nachum Gutman Museum, showcasing the artist's work, was established in the Neve Tzedek neighborhood of Tel Aviv.[5]
In 2005, he was voted the 110th-greatest Israeli of all time, in a poll by the Israeli news website Ynet to determine whom the general public considered the 200 Greatest Israelis.[6]