Pinchas Litvinovsky
Art à la Litvinovsky
Dr. Gideon Ofrat
When Litvinovsky came to settle in Israel, he achieved renown principally for his drawings. He drew portraits initially, then drawings of figures, single or in groups. Over the decades, he accumulated thousands of drawings, mostly in charcoal, almost all representing humans (and animals): Jews, Arabs, secular or religious, women, children, camels, donkeys, cows.
He was graced with phenomenal gifts as draftsman. In all of his sundry periods, in all of his sundry styles, the quality of his line was the one unchanging element in all the variables. “He has a demon's hands.” Alain Bosquet would write of him in time. That line of his - affirming, brisk, decisive and aesthetic (oh no, Litvinovsky never tired of “the aesthetic”; it may have been his sole deviation from the Tolstoy’s path of “What is art?”) - would in turn become his inspiration, stirring energies of color.
Later in life, it became his habit each night to haul out some old drawing from his crammed boxes, and rework the drawing composition in a play of free hues, in a different medium and format. “Makes no difference which drawing”, Litvinovsky would explain, playing down the importance of the content represented.
The drawing's theme would become mere pretext, a rationale for something else, impromptu, no longer committed to the folklorist subject that must certainly have exercised its fascination upon the artist in the twenties.
“For me, the hand works better than the head.” he said, in a tone of modernist reservations vis-à-vis literary content in a painting. “Ideas are invariably harmful, in everything.” he went on (a declaration much overblown in relation to his own personal position). As substitute for the culture of ideas, he extolled the culture of love. “Art is love”, he was in the habit of quoting his revered Tolstoy, and love is a sensual act: “The main thing is construction of the quadrates, the emphasis, the nuances, and the color.” It was a rapid and direct process.
He took pride in a drawing completed in twenty minutes. That direct sensuality guarantees - so he believed - the other content, the “love,” the humanity, traits which would surface of their own accord, as quality of a process enfolded in one's experience of life and personality.
Man-drawing-paint-process-man - there we have his intuitive formula. “Like a dog after the first tasting. That first taste of paint drew me on further... paint is like food in the belly. The main thing is the paint.” And what looked impromptu, free and haphazard, is in effect urge and necessity: “You have to know exactly where to set the paint, and what you leave blank,” he explained, a man in his nineties, with one eye letting him down (“I only see with one eye, but it’s the eye of a thief…”).
Let us emphasize again: a painting's internal content is not necessarily the content as narrated in images.
Art à la Litvinovsky
Gideon Ofrat
There is no advance knowledge of the content pursued; it comes into being through the authenticity of the artist, who resorts to the stimulation arising from the figurative form so as to spur the abstract color. It is a spontaneous process whose culmination is unknown but whose foundation is solid and not fortuitous, invariably rooted in acquaintance with art and a basic painting skill: a process occurring in every painting and throughout the entire painting process. Hence Litvinovsky's faith in his most recent painting, hence the incessant quest, hence the sense of wonder renewed repeatedly: “Now look at that, today I did a painting, in spite of deciding not to paint. I'm astonished by the outcome. How did I accomplish it? That's the way it ought to be.”
Litvinovsky did indeed possess a rare blend of primitivism and enlightened rationalism. In 1965, George Wladmar defined him as a painter simultaneously refined and barbaric, erudite and infantile. “His images are the lexicon of hieroglyphic art,” he wrote, setting the Jerusalem painter alongside “art bruit” to represent him as poet blending “gay science” (in Nietzsche's term) with Gauguin's self-imposed ignorance.
Increasingly, Litvinovsky shook off his commitment to the original content, increasingly surrendering to the variation per se. All his sensitivity, all his sensuality, his entire life all became an instrument expressing an exclusive independence and spawning its content in painting. The man he sought was expressed in a manner that originates from man (his paintings include no more than a handful of landscapes) and culminates in man, its essence being communication of feelings, as Tolstoy put it.
While keenly aware of artistic developments in the West (his library was always updated) he knew that only by concentrating to the utmost on his own independence would he succeed in employing his originality to the full. Thus, as far-reaching Romanticist, he willingly detached himself from his everyday environment - social and artistic - to remain alone with himself, in the company of his paints, his canvasses, his papers - and music. Night after night, between 2 and 5, after physical preparation by exercise and bathing, like some monk in an artistic order, alone in his Neon lights and the sound of a concert, he would haul out some old drawings - and paint. By morning, he had the results. Each morning brought its harvest of paintings. The piles grew progressively higher. Obsessive painting. “Even when I'm in the bath, I think of my next painting.” From one painting to the next, there was greater clarity, greater self-awareness, growing consciousness of the essence that enfolds everything, simpler, denser, swifter. “To do as little as possible, the way a child does, painting in a single swoop”. If Litvinovsky resembled an artistic monk, he may have been pursuing painting as an act of insight.
Art à la Litvinovsky
Dr. Gideon Ofrat
When Litvinovsky came to settle in Israel, he achieved renown principally for his drawings. He drew portraits initially, then drawings of figures, single or in groups. Over the decades, he accumulated thousands of drawings, mostly in charcoal, almost all representing humans (and animals): Jews, Arabs, secular or religious, women, children, camels, donkeys, cows.
He was graced with phenomenal gifts as draftsman. In all of his sundry periods, in all of his sundry styles, the quality of his line was the one unchanging element in all the variables. “He has a demon's hands.” Alain Bosquet would write of him in time. That line of his - affirming, brisk, decisive and aesthetic (oh no, Litvinovsky never tired of “the aesthetic”; it may have been his sole deviation from the Tolstoy’s path of “What is art?”) - would in turn become his inspiration, stirring energies of color.
Later in life, it became his habit each night to haul out some old drawing from his crammed boxes, and rework the drawing composition in a play of free hues, in a different medium and format. “Makes no difference which drawing”, Litvinovsky would explain, playing down the importance of the content represented.
The drawing's theme would become mere pretext, a rationale for something else, impromptu, no longer committed to the folklorist subject that must certainly have exercised its fascination upon the artist in the twenties.
“For me, the hand works better than the head.” he said, in a tone of modernist reservations vis-à-vis literary content in a painting. “Ideas are invariably harmful, in everything.” he went on (a declaration much overblown in relation to his own personal position). As substitute for the culture of ideas, he extolled the culture of love. “Art is love”, he was in the habit of quoting his revered Tolstoy, and love is a sensual act: “The main thing is construction of the quadrates, the emphasis, the nuances, and the color.” It was a rapid and direct process.
He took pride in a drawing completed in twenty minutes. That direct sensuality guarantees - so he believed - the other content, the “love,” the humanity, traits which would surface of their own accord, as quality of a process enfolded in one's experience of life and personality.
Man-drawing-paint-process-man - there we have his intuitive formula. “Like a dog after the first tasting. That first taste of paint drew me on further... paint is like food in the belly. The main thing is the paint.” And what looked impromptu, free and haphazard, is in effect urge and necessity: “You have to know exactly where to set the paint, and what you leave blank,” he explained, a man in his nineties, with one eye letting him down (“I only see with one eye, but it’s the eye of a thief…”).
Let us emphasize again: a painting's internal content is not necessarily the content as narrated in images.
There is no advance knowledge of the content pursued; it comes into being through the authenticity of the artist, who resorts to the stimulation arising from the figurative form so as to spur the abstract color. It is a spontaneous process whose culmination is unknown but whose foundation is solid and not fortuitous, invariably rooted in acquaintance with art and a basic painting skill: a process occurring in every painting and throughout the entire painting process. Hence Litvinovsky's faith in his most recent painting, hence the incessant quest, hence the sense of wonder renewed repeatedly: “Now look at that, today I did a painting, in spite of deciding not to paint. I'm astonished by the outcome. How did I accomplish it? That's the way it ought to be.”
Litvinovsky did indeed possess a rare blend of primitivism and enlightened rationalism. In 1980, George Wladmar defined him as a painter simultaneously refined and barbaric, erudite and infantile. “His images are the lexicon of hieroglyphic art,” he wrote, setting the Jerusalem painter alongside “art bruit” to represent him as poet blending “gay science” (in Nietzsche's term) with Gauguin's self-imposed ignorance.
Increasingly, Litvinovsky shook off his commitment to the original content, increasingly surrendering to the variation per se. All his sensitivity, all his sensuality, his entire life all became an instrument expressing an exclusive independence and spawning its content in painting. The man he sought was expressed in a manner that originates from man (his paintings include no more than a handful of landscapes) and culminates in man, its essence being communication of feelings, as Tolstoy put it.
While keenly aware of artistic developments in the West (his library was always updated) he knew that only by concentrating to the utmost on his own independence would he succeed in employing his originality to the full. Thus, as far-reaching Romanticist, he willingly detached himself from his everyday environment - social and artistic - to remain alone with himself, in the company of his paints, his canvasses, his papers - and music. Night after night, between 2 and 5, after physical preparation by exercise and bathing, like some monk in an artistic order, alone in his Neon lights and the sound of a concert, he would haul out some old drawings - and paint. By morning, he had the results. Each morning brought its harvest of paintings. The piles grew progressively higher. Obsessive painting. “Even when I'm in the bath, I think of my next painting.” From one painting to the next, there was greater clarity, greater self-awareness, growing consciousness of the essence that enfolds everything, simpler, denser, swifter. “To do as little as possible, the way a child does, painting in a single swoop”. If Litvinovsky resembled an artistic monk, he may have been pursuing painting as an act of insight.
Artists of the Tower of David - 1925
The group of artists of the Tower of David in a photograph by Avraham Soskin.
From left to right: Yosef Zaritsky, Aryeh Lubin, Yona Tselyuk, Reuven Rubin, Ziona Tager, Pinchas Litvinovsky (standing, second from right), Yitzhak Katz, Baruch Agdaty and Yitzhak Hazin.
Prizes
The Israel Prize is given by the State of Israel in a wide variety of fields. The awarding is held every year at the end of Independence Day in Jerusalem in a state ceremony
The Worthy Citizen of Jerusalem prize is an honorary recognition granted by the Mayor of Jerusalem. It is awarded to select veteran residents of Jerusalem who have dedicated their lives to public service for the benefit of the city
Worthy Citizen of Jerusalem Award
Dizengoff Prize for the art of painting and sculpture is an award given by the Tel Aviv Municipality every year. The award is named after the first mayor of Tel Aviv, Meir Dizengoff
At the age of 15, Litvinovsky won a scholarship to study art at a school in Odessa. After a short stay in Israel, he returned to Russia to continue his studies at the Petrograd Academy
Art Scholarship
Odessa Academy of Art, Russia
1912
Biography
1894-1923
Pinchas Litvinovsky was born in 1894 in a small Ukrainian town. As was the custom of those days, he was sent to the "cheder" to study Torah, but even at that early age his passion for painting was evident, and he often drew his teachers and friends. At the age of 15, he received a scholarship to study art at an art school in Odessa. In 1912, as part of an exhibition held there, Prof. Shatz met him and was impressed by a self-portrait painted by the young Litvinovsky at his request in one night. Prof. Shatz invited Litvinovsky to come to study at the "Bezalel" Art School in Jerusalem. Litvinovsky accepted the invitation but it did not work out and after a short stay in Israel he returned to Russia and continued his studies at the Petrograd Academy. His studies were a lasting success, and a French art critic who saw his paintings excitedly declared: "He is no longer a student, he is a real master." The road was open before him, but the revolution in Russia and the memory of the blue sky of the Land of Israel took their toll, and so in 1919 he and his wife Lisa boarded the ship "Ruslan" (“Mayflower” of the Land of Israel) on their way to Israel and Jerusalem.
In Jerusalem he huddled with his family members in a modest apartment, but his home was open to the bohemia of those days and to every casual wanderer. The economic hardship did not cloud the lively parties with his friends and did not interrupt his non-stop, constantly renewing work.
1924-1960
In 1924 he participated in the "Hebrew Artists Association" exhibition held at the "Tower of David". In 1925-1926 he again participated in the "Tower of David" exhibitions and was praised in the "Davar Hayom" (daily newspaper). In 1926 he designed and painted a set for the play "The Dibbuk" directed by Gnessin. As follows, he continued to participate in most of the exhibitions of the twenties and thirties.
Despite all the groups that started forming at that time, he never tried to influence anyone to paint like him and he never joined a group of artists with any ideology. Although he was influenced by some great artists, sometimes even opposing influences, he always remained true to himself, an individualist who determined for himself the values of art and the ways of realizing them; Always with extreme intensity and honesty and sometimes also with a slight irony.
In 1944, a magnificent and large-scale solo exhibition was held for him at the Tel Aviv Museum; Following the exhibition, Dr. Gamzu wrote in "Haaretz": "We dare to think that Litvinovsky is the best colorist among Israeli painters". Gamzu also spoke of the "Litvinovsky school”, characterized by an acute sense of color and an intense temperament."
His next retrospective solo exhibition was held at the Helena Rubinstein Pavilion in 1960 and included 250 works. Following it, the painter Ardon wrote about "the renewal and the walking towards the Primordial of Litvinovsky". A.D. Friedman wrote in "Devar" (newspaper): "He does not belong to any school, he is a school in himself".
1961-1980
From then on, he deliberately avoided exhibitions (with the exception of the "Root of Life" series of paintings that took place at the "Arta" gallery in Jerusalem in 1978 - stormy paintings that express his pursuit of the roots of life and creation). He considered art as a supreme value, therefore he refused to make commercial use of it ("this is prostitution" - he used to say). When someone fell in love with one of his pictures, he simply gave it to him as a gift. This is how he distributed pictures to all his friends and acquaintances from all classes of people, and there were many of them. However, it was impossible to make a living without selling, and since he never engaged in anything except painting, he designated portrait painting as his livelihood. His penetrating vision, his mastery of drawing and his sense of color use, made him an excellent portrait painter. He painted Israeli VIPs like Bialik, Tschernihovsky, Dizengoff, Gnessin, Maskin, Rovina, Berel Katznelson, Ben Gurion, Golda and world figures like US President Kennedy, the Persian Chah and many others. In 1941, Dr. Karl Schwartz wrote: "Litvinovsky's portraits are among the most excellent achievements, the richest in character, and the most prevalent in the art of portraiture."
1981-1985
Despite the reputation he gained in Israel and abroad, he remained loyal to his path and to Jerusalem. He was not dazzled by his successes and continued to work persistently, tirelessly, and with incredible productivity. Even the title "Dear of Jerusalem" and the "Israel Prize" awarded to him did not change his growing tendency to withdraw. Gideon Ofrat writes: "He stayed away from the gossip, from the casual, from the petty, from being interviewed, did not come to his shows, did not sit in cafes," and with that "he does not tire of returning to the same drawing again and again, searching beyond place and time, wanting to feel the simple and direct truth – the purposeless one".
A mystical sense accompanied him all his life and in his final years, a sense of destiny was added to it. Although he usually avoided giving names to his pictures, he named a whole series of paintings "New Year's Eve". He passed away on the eve of the Jewish New Year eve (Rosh Hashanah) 1985, at the age of 92.
Litvinovsky House
The Pinchas Litvinovsky House: History and the Collection's Relocation
The house of the painter Pinchas Litvinovsky, located at 10 Kaf-Tet Benovember Street in Jerusalem, was built in the early 20th century. During the British Mandate period, the second floor of the house was home to the assistant to the British High Commissioner. In May 1948, with the end of the Mandate and the establishment of the State of Israel, the house was abandoned by its residents.
Litvinovsky, a celebrated painter who faced financial difficulties, was granted permission to reside on the second floor of the house thanks to his acquaintance with Moshe Dayan, then the Jerusalem Front Commander. Litvinovsky renovated and expanded the apartment, where he lived until his passing in 1985.
According to the law, the house belonged to the State of Israel and was initially managed by the Custodian of Absentee Property. Later, it was transferred to ״Amidar״ housing company and eventually to the ownership of the Jerusalem Municipality. Litvinovsky was classified as a protected tenant under the Tenants’ Protection Law.
After his passing, the Jerusalem Municipality requested that the house be vacated. His family, facing the challenge of removing approximately 6,000 paintings stored in the apartment, expressed their wish to preserve the collection and transform the house into a public museum dedicated to Litvinovsky’s art. However, financial constraints hindered the realization of this vision. Several appeals to the municipality for assistance went unanswered.
Over the years, following many public advocacy efforts, the Jerusalem Municipality allowed the collection to remain in the house for an extended period. At one stage, the collection was consolidated into a single room within the apartment to enable the municipality to utilize the remaining space. Despite this effort, no agreement was reached to establish the house as a public site, and the family was forced to evacuate the room and therefore to significantly reduce the collection's size.
In early 2024, during a final relocation process, 132 remaining paintings were distributed to the public, marking the conclusion of the connection between Litvinovsky’s legacy and the house at 10 Kaf-Tet Benovember Street.
The Litvinovsky family expresses its gratitude to the Jerusalem Municipality for allowing the collection to remain in the house for many years after the artist's passing. However, the family believes that if the Jerusalem Municipality would have let the family leave the paintings in the single room where they were, the destruction of most of the estate wouldn’t have happened.
Family Album
During the time that Litvinovsky was in Petrograd, he met Lisa and soon married her. Lisa at that time was studying medicine and intended to become a doctor. The couple had to leave Russia in a hurry before she could take the final exams so when they arrived to Israel, she worked as a nurse at the Mount Scopus hospital. Lisa passed away prematurely at the age of 45. The couple had two daughters, Chloe and Dafna.
Litvinovsky never remarried and remained very close to his daughters all his life.
Litvinovsky Association
The Litvinovsky Association, a non-profit organization, was established in 1987 following the passing of the artist. The association was founded by his two daughters, Dr. Chloe Tal and Daphna Litvinovsky Slutzker, with the vision of making his works accessible to the public and transforming his art into a cultural asset.
The Association's goal is to expose Litvinovsky’s extensive body of work, much of which is lesser-known, and share it with the public, allowing people to admire, enjoy, and learn from it. Among the Association's achievements are the publication of the prestigious Litvinovsky Album in 1998 and the current website, both serving as significant tools in preserving and commemorating his legacy.
Activities of the Association
The Litvinovsky Association promotes a variety of unique activities:
• Artwork Donations and Loans: Long-term, free-of-charge loans of Litvinovsky’s paintings to public institutions such as museums, galleries, hospitals, educational, and care facilities, enabling public access to his works.
• Free Usage Permissions: Providing permissions for the use of Litvinovsky’s artworks for non-commercial purposes, mainly for books and exhibitions.
• Authenticity Certificates: Issuing certificates of authenticity to owners of Litvinovsky’s artworks, subject to the association’s verification of their origins.
• Professional Support: Offering information, access to documents, and active participation by association representatives in collaboration with journalists, writers, and broadcasters covering Litvinovsky’s works.
Future Initiatives
In the coming years, the Association aims to establish an annual photography and painting competition in honor of Pinchas Litvinovsky. The winner will receive a substantial monetary prize to encourage artistic creation and excellence.