Yitzhak Danziger
Encyclopedia
Biography
Danziger was born in Berlin in 1916 to a Zionist family. His father was a surgeon and served in the German Army during World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
.
The family immigrated to then Mandate Palestine in 1923 and settled in Jerusalem. Danizger studied art at the Slade School of Fine Art
Slade School of Fine Art
The Slade School of Fine Art is a world-renownedart school in London, United Kingdom, and a department of University College London...
1934–37. He was influenced by his visits to the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
, the Anthropological Museum and the art from Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...
, Assyria
Assyria
Assyria was a Semitic Akkadian kingdom, extant as a nation state from the mid–23rd century BC to 608 BC centred on the Upper Tigris river, in northern Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times through history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur...
, Babylon
Babylon
Babylon was an Akkadian city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad...
, Persia, India and Oceania
Oceania
Oceania is a region centered on the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean. Conceptions of what constitutes Oceania range from the coral atolls and volcanic islands of the South Pacific to the entire insular region between Asia and the Americas, including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago...
and Africa. These would later on play an important role in his sculptures. He returned to Palestine and set up a studio at Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
in 1937.
In 1958, he was elected member of the Public Council for Culture and the Arts. In 1968 he was appointed Associate Professor in the Faculty of Architecture at the Technion Institute, Haifa
Haifa
Haifa is the largest city in northern Israel, and the third-largest city in the country, with a population of over 268,000. Another 300,000 people live in towns directly adjacent to the city including the cities of the Krayot, as well as, Tirat Carmel, Daliyat al-Karmel and Nesher...
. 1971 Is appointed artistic adviser to the Negev University Campus. 1972 Appointed member of the Board of Higher Education of the Ministry of Education and Culture. 1977 killed in a road accident near Ramla
Ramla
Ramla , is a city in central Israel. The city is predominantly Jewish with a significant Arab minority. Ramla was founded circa 705–715 AD by the Umayyad Caliph Suleiman ibn Abed al-Malik after the Arab conquest of the region...
, on his way to Jerusalem In the late 1960s, saw the work of the artist as serving as the agent for "assuring the perpetuation of that fragile link between man and the place dearest to him" ("Makom", Mordechai Omer). This approach obligates the artist to deal- beyond his creativity in the plastic arts- with organizing interdisciplinary systems: ecology, geography, anthropology, and archaeology. Danziger saw importance in the identification of man with the magic cycle of Creation. The integration of modernism and mythology characterize Danziger's work, which in turn influenced others. In the art of Ygael Tumarkin, Micha Ullman, and younger artists, there is a leaning towards Danziger's work, in contrast to other approaches to nature by artists of the 1970s, such as Christo or Heiser.
Danizger created his statue "Nimrod" in 1938–1939. The statue is 90 centimeters high and made of Red Nubian Sandstone
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
imported from Petra
Petra
Petra is a historical and archaeological city in the Jordanian governorate of Ma'an that is famous for its rock cut architecture and water conduits system. Established sometime around the 6th century BC as the capital city of the Nabataeans, it is a symbol of Jordan as well as its most visited...
in Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
. It depicts Nimrod
Nimrod
Nimrod means "Hunter"; was a Biblical Mesopotamian king mentioned in the Table of Nations; an eponym for the city of Nimrud.Nimrod can also refer to any of the following:*Nimród Antal, a director...
as a naked hunter, uncircumcised
Circumcision
Male circumcision is the surgical removal of some or all of the foreskin from the penis. The word "circumcision" comes from Latin and ....
, carrying a bow and with a hawk on his shoulder. The style shows the influence of Ancient Egyptian statues.
The unveiling of the statue caused a scandal. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem ; ; abbreviated HUJI) is Israel's second-oldest university, after the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. The Hebrew University has three campuses in Jerusalem and one in Rehovot. The world's largest Jewish studies library is located on its Edmond J...
which had commissioned Danziger's statue was not happy with the result and religious circles made strong protests.
Within a few years, however, the statue was universally acclaimed as a major masterpiece of Israeli art, and has noticeably influenced and inspired the work of later sculptors, painters, writers and poets up to the present.
The Nimrod Statue was also taken up as the emblem of a cultural-political movement known as "The Cannanites" which advocated the shrugging off of the Jewish religious tradition, cutting off relations with Diaspora Jews and their culture, and adopt in its place a "Hebrew Identity" based on ancient Semitic heroic myths – such as Nimrod's. Though never gaining mass support, the movement had a considerable influence on Israeli intellectuals in the 1940s and early 1950s.
Education
- 1923–25 Private school for progressive education, run by Deborah Calin
- 1925 Bezalel Academy of Art and DesignBezalel Academy of Art and DesignBezalel Academy of Art and Design is Israel's national school of art, founded in 1906 by Boris Schatz. It is named for the Biblical figure Bezalel, son of Uri , who was appointed by Moses to oversee the design and construction of the Tabernacle ....
, remedial lessons under the private tutelage of Zohara Schatz - 1926–29 Gymnasia RehaviaGymnasia RehaviaGymnasia Rehavia is a high school in the Rehavia neighborhood in Jerusalem, Israel.-History:Gymnasia Rehavia was the country’s second modern high school, after Gymnasia Herzliya in Tel Aviv. The school was first established in Jerusalem's Bukharan Quarter in 1909. The building on Keren Kayemet...
in the Bokharian quarter (as the Hebrew Gymnasium) and later in RehaviaRehaviaRehavia is an upscale Jerusalem neighborhood located between the city center and Talbiya.-History:Rehavia was established on a large plot of land purchased in 1921 from the Greek Orthodox Church by the Palestine Land Development Company . The area was known at the time as Ginzaria, a native... - 1930–32 Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium, bible and history
- 1932–33 Hebrew Reali SchoolHebrew Reali SchoolThe Hebrew Reali School of Haifa , located in Haifa, Israel, is one of the country's oldest private schools.-History:...
, Haifa - 1933–34 Ottershaw College, SurreySurreySurrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
outside London - 1934–37 Sculpture with sculptor Gerrard, Slade School of Fine Arts, University of LondonUniversity of London-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...
- 1951–52 Garden landscaping, School of the Architecture Association (A.A.), London
Awards
- 1946, the Dizengoff PrizeDizengoff PrizeThe Dizengoff Prize for Painting and Sculpture is awarded annually by the Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality since 1937.The following is a table of Dizengoff Prize laureates in their respective art form:...
for Sculpture. - 1958 Milo Club Award, Kiryat Ono Monument Prize, Tel Aviv
- 1968, the Israel PrizeIsrael PrizeThe Israel Prize is an award handed out by the State of Israel and is largely regarded as the state's highest honor. It is presented annually, on Israeli Independence Day, in a state ceremony in Jerusalem, in the presence of the President, the Prime Minister, the Knesset chairperson, and the...
, in sculpture. - 1969, Sandberg Prize, in sculpture, Israel Museum of Jerusalem
- In 2005, he was voted the 193rd-greatest Israeli of all time, in a poll by the Israeli news website YnetYnetYnet is the most popular Israeli news and general content website. It is owned by the same conglomerate that operates Yediot Ahronot, the country's secondleading daily newspaper...
to determine whom the general public considered the 200 Greatest Israelis.
Outdoor and Public Art
- 1957 The Shlomo Ben Joseph Monument, Rosh Pina
- 1958 Stone wall with symbols from the period of the Judean Kings at the entrance to the Hebrew University, Givat Ram Campus, Jerusalem
- 1962 "For the Fallen", welded iron 2.6 m. hight, Yad Lebanim Memorial, Holon
- 1967 Monumental Portrait of Ze'ev Jabotinsky, The Jabotinsky Institute, Tel Aviv-Yaffo
- 1969 "Memorial for the Pioneers of the Illegal Immigration", entrance to the Maritime Museum, Haifa
- 1971 "The Rehabilitation of the Nesher Quarry" project, Haifa
- 1975 "Serpentine", landscape sculpture in white, commissioned by the Tel Aviv Foundation for Literature and the Arts, Yarkon Park, Tel Aviv
External links
- Itzhak Danziger from the collections of the Israel MuseumIsrael MuseumThe Israel Museum, Jerusalem was founded in 1965 as Israel's national museum. It is situated on a hill in the Givat Ram neighborhood of Jerusalem, near the Bible Lands Museum, the Knesset, the Israeli Supreme Court, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem....
- Itzhak Danziger from the Israeli artist list of the Information Center for Israeli ArtInformation Center for Israeli ArtThe Information Center for Israeli Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the Israeli Art in Israel. More than 12,000 artists files are housed in the Center in the Israel Museum, Jerusalem....
at the Israel MuseumIsrael MuseumThe Israel Museum, Jerusalem was founded in 1965 as Israel's national museum. It is situated on a hill in the Givat Ram neighborhood of Jerusalem, near the Bible Lands Museum, the Knesset, the Israeli Supreme Court, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.... - Itzhak Danziger Europeana – Search results
- Yitzhak Danziger , Akalaton, Yarkon Park, Tel-Aviv