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Hermann Struck (Chaim
Aaron ben David, 1876-1944) was born into a prosperous Orthodox family
in Berlin and originally planned to pursue a rabbinical career. When
his extraordinary artistic talents became manifest, he enrolled at the
Berlin Academy of Art and, in 1900, continue his education with the
renowned Dutch Jewish painter Josef Israels in Holland. Israels’
close friend was Max Liebermann, who became a mentor and close friend
of Struck as well. At Liebermann’s suggestion, Struck joined the
Berlin Secession in 1906, an association of contemporary artists
cofounded in 1898 by Liebermann, who also served as its first
president. The Secession represented modern artists opposed to the
academic style promoted by the conservative art establishment of the
time. Among its members were Max Beckmann, Lovis Corinth, Käthe
Kollwitz, and Max Slevogt.
Struck became known
for his portraits of prominent Europeans as well as for landscapes
encountered during his numerous travels. An early Zionist, Struck was
among the founders of the Mizrachi movement in Germany, an
organization that considered the Torah the focal point of Zionism.
After his first trip to Palestine in 1903, Struck created a likeness
of Theodor Herzl that became the signature piece of the Zionist
movement. Struck was among the first German Zionists to move to
Palestine in1923, settling in Haifa. He subsequently
joined the faculty of the
Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem, where he taught a new generation of
Israeli artists the art of printmaking.
During the
First World War, Struck served on the Eastern front as the liaison
officer of the German army with the Jewish communities of Lithuania
and Belorussia, a task for which he was uniquely qualified as an
Orthodox Jew and a member of the Mizrachi movement which had
its origins in Eastern Europe. During his military service he
documented the East European shtetl life in hundreds of
lithographs and etchings that introduced assimilated Western Jews to
the lifestyle of their Eastern coreligionists.
Throughout his life, Hermann
Struck not only gained international renown as an artist, but also
excelled as a teacher: his book, The Art of Etching, published
in 1908, became a standard work in its field. Struck taught etching to
Marc Chagall, Lesser Ury, and Jacob Steinhardt, among others.
This exhibit
presents Struck’s work in the context of the emerging modern art
movements in Germany and Palestine. On display will also be works by
Max Liebermann, Josef Israels, Lesser Ury and Jacob Steinhardt. A rare
collection of oil paintings and watercolors depicting Palestine in the
1920s and 1930s will also be shown along with photos, letters and
publications by and about this modern master whose influence on 20th
century art is only now beginning to be recognized.
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