Les animaux plus qu'humain (1961) Printmaking by Mané Katz

Born in Ukraine into a religious family, Emmanuel Leyzerovich Katz (known as Mané-Katz), began his studies at the School of Fine Arts in Kiev, continued them in Vilnius, before arriving in Paris in 1913. At the Paris School of Fine Arts, he studied in the studio of Fernand Cormon, painter of history and monumental decorations. There he met other artists of his generation who had come like him from the Russian Empire, such as Michel Kikoïne and Chaïm Soutine. But in 1914, the declaration of War forced him to return to Ukraine. After the October Revolution, he was appointed professor in Kharkov. He returned to Paris in 1921 and obtained French nationality in 1927. He exhibited regularly in Paris, notably at the Percier gallery. The 1920s and 1930s were marked by numerous trips, particularly to Palestine. During the Occupation, he fled to New York and returned to Paris in 1945. He then divided his time between France and Israel, where a museum was dedicated to him.
Mané's painting -Katz is expressionist in style. It transcribes the trajectory of the artist, through the numerous portraits and landscapes that populate his works. But it is undoubtedly in the description of Jewish life that the painter excels: religious ceremonies, times of study or celebrations.
©mahj

L' Mané-Katz art seeks to keep the culture of the Torah alive. His career within the School of Paris and in the Montparnasse group was more orthodox than that of Chagall, for example. Mané-Katz established himself as the great painter of the diaspora. Witness to the dispersion of the people of Israel, of Judeo-Slavic folklore, of Yiddish literature, Mané-Katz in his exile, attested to his fidelity to his original tradition.

He was the painter of rabbis, ghettos, and the Righteous, that of dispersion, true witness and poet of his people. He brought with him to the West this world of Talmudists, itinerant musicians following processions, brides and grooms, prophets, artisans. Even if he did not want to be just a Jewish painter and dedicated works to flowers and the landscapes of Paris, Vendée and Brittany, he remained an interpreter of the Jewish communities of Europe. central and eastern.  He made his first trip to Palestine in 1928.  Despite numerous stays in Israel, he was unable to integrate into this new world and never painted the new reality of a combative and proud Israel. In his paintings painted in Israel we always find his imagery of the landscapes of Ukraine and the old rabbis buried in his memory.

The city of Haifa in Israel has dedicated a museum to him on Yefe Nof Street : Mané-Katz had given his paintings and his personal collection of Jewish ethnography to the city. The mayor, Abba Hushi, offered him a place to work on Mount Carmel four years before his death; what will become the Mané-Katz Museum. 

©wikipedia

• Nationality: FRANCE
• Date of birth : 1894
• Artistic domains: Works by professional artists, Represented by a Gallery,
• Groups: Professional Artist Contemporary French Artists Artists presented by a gallery