Guided Exhibition Tour - "You Must Choose life – That is Art: Pinchas Litvinovsky"

Come join our English tour to discover Israel’s most celebrated forgotten artist.

Friday | December 12 | 10am – Guided exhibition tour in English

Artist Pinchas Litvinovsky was born 1894 in the city of Novogeorgievsk (then the Russian Empire, now Ukraine). By 1912, the talented young man enters the Academy of Art in Russia. That same year, he meets the legendary Boris Schatz, who invites the young artist to study in Jerusalem at the Bezalel Academy of Art that he founded. Though Litvinovsky accepts and moves to Jerusalem, he quickly becomes disappointed in Bezalel’s approach and returns to study at the Academy of Art in Petrograd (now Saint Petersburg).

By 1919, due to pogroms and rampant antisemitism, Litvinovsky returns to Eretz Israel on the famous ship ‘S.S. Ruslan’. The artist finally settles in Jerusalem, but travels to Europe and studies the works of Georges Rouault, Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró and the painters of the School of Paris. In Israel Israel, Litvinovsky becomes well-known for his unique artistic style and the portraits that he paints of famous Israeli and international political and cultural personalities.

Though his solo exhibitions in Israel brings him fame and many admirers, earning him the Israel Prize in 1980, Litvinovsky spends the last years of his life in solitude, secluded at home and painting energetically. For decades, and especially since his death at 92 years old in 1985, much of his vast art collection, initially numbering in the thousands and then only approximately 600 that survived, lay in obscurity.

Don’t miss the chance to rediscover Litvinovsky’s elusive genius. The exhibition at Beit Avi Chai reveals to the public a selection of the best surviving works— and an incredible legacy.

The Beit Avi Chai Gallery | 44 King George Street, Jerusalem

15 NIS per person | Limited Space | Free parking for ticket holders

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