Private View: Pinchas Litvinovsky, A Retrospective

Ein Sof Gallery is pleased to present a retrosepctive exhibition of Pinchas Litvinovsky’s paintings. 

Litvinovsky (1894-1985) was born to a religious family in Ukraine. At the age of 18, he began studying at the Odessa Art school, where he met Boris Schatz. Schatz invited him to study at his school, Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, so the young Litvinovsky immigrated to Israel and studied at Schatz’s Bezalel for one year. In 1912, Litvinovsky rebelled and quit the institution (together with Reuven Rubin), over a fundamental disagreement over the institution’s conception of art, style, contents, and teaching methods.

After leaving the school, he traveled to Russia and studied at The Russian Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg. In 1919, after World War I, he immigrated with his wife to Israel on board of the “Ruslan” ship. Among the immigrants were the architect Zeev Rechter, the dancer Baruch Agadati, the poets Yonatan Ratosh and Rachel (Bluwstein), the collector Jacob Fermann, the artists Yitzhak Frenkel, Moshe Ziffer, and Joseph Constant, and many other Zionist intellectuals and practitioners.

Upon his immigration to Israel, Litvinovsky settled in Jerusalem, integrating into Israel’s art and culture life. He exhibited at the Ohel Theater and the Tower of David. He was also a part of the Egged group (the Palestine Artists Association). In the 1930’s he traveled to Paris, where he encountered the art of Matisse, Picasso and artists of the Jewish School of Paris. Litvinovsky was a strikingly physical and athletic type, an amateur boxer, a long-distance runner.

Under his brush the world became one of color and form. Women, men, children and animals were transferred into bright splashes of color and surprising, energetic forms. Litvinovsky’s images were drawn from his inner world with no attempt to depict a realistic environment or any defined space. His figures were formal and flat motives painted as concepts across a neutral, abstract background. Litvinovsky made a dramatic use of modernist styles, especially Cubism as reflected in the Russian painting of the 1920’s along with usage of bright colors, reminiscent of Matisse.

The Ein Sof Jewish Art Gallery is dedicated to exhibiting contemporary art by Jewish artists and celebrating Jewish culture, identity and history. The gallery is a project of Chabad Islington, which celebrates creative and expressive Judaism.