Itshak Holtz

Shopping for Sukkot, Itshak Holtz           

Autumn Glory, Itshak Holtz

Some cultures, some nations, some nationalities are rife with art. The Dutch, the French, the Italians, and of course, Americans have a long, rich, illustrious tradition in the fine arts. The Hebrew culture is not one of these, especially in the area of painting. That's not to say there is no art associated with Israel, the Jewish faith, or the Hebrew culture, it's just that it's not at all what you'd call "front and center." The arts, insofar as Hebrew culture is concerned, tend to center around literature and music rather than visual images, architecture, or sculpture (which, for religious reasons, is virtually non-existent). Other Semitic cultures in the Middle-East are quite similar to Judaism in this respect, their art being more decorative than illustrative in a narrative sense. Moreover this is most notably true as it applies to the conservative Orthodox sects, such as the Hasidic Jews.

 

Torah Study, Itshak Holtz

Itshak Holtz, Self-portrait, 1975

With that in mind, take a look at the work of Itshak Holtz, a member of the American Orthodox Jewish religion. He was born in 1925 in Poland, near Warsaw, one of four children, the son of a hat maker. In 1935, prior to WW II, the family left Poland and moved to Jerusalem. As a young boy in Israel (before there even was an Israel in the modern sense) young Itshak loved to draw. His enthusiasm for art apparently having come from his Polish ancestry. In 1945, he began his formal study of art at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem, mostly commercial art. Once on his own, his true interest in painting caused him to move to New York where he studied at the Art Students League and later to the National Academy of Design. It was not an easy life. Not only did he struggle financially, but at the time, he spoke only Polish, Yiddish, and Hebrew.

 

Evening Street Scene, 1961, Itzhak Holtz

Keeping up with the News,
Itshak Holtz.

One of his instructors at the National Academy, Robert Philipp, helped Holtz make friends, learn English, and obtain portrait commissions. Though such work helped pay the bills, Itshak Holtz was Jewish through and through. His painting style might be thoroughly American leaning toward genre, but it was Jewish genre and more and more, Jewish Orthodox genre painting that formed the broad basis of his work. He married, started a family, and took up residence in the Washington Heights area of Manhattan. He painted local color, with the emphasis very much on the "color" part of that area and that type of art. His street scenes are a vital and seldom seen glimpse into the Jewish Orthodox street life and lifestyle. He works in oils as well as watercolor and several different drawing media. His work routinely sells in the five-figure range.

 

Jerusalem Shul, Itshak Holtz

Deep in Thought, Itshak Holtz

Holtz and his wife also maintain a home in Jerusalem where he often returns to his Jewish roots to paint vibrant street scenes far removed from those of New York City. In more recent years, many of his faces and figures have not been portraits but simple figural studies as seen in his Keeping up with the News (above, right), or of aging Jewish religious figures such as his Deep in Thought (right). Most of these works and his Jerusalem street scenes are in watercolor, though his Jerusalem Wedding (bottom) from 2010 sparkles with the rich vibrancy only oils can evoke in his work. Still painting as he approaches ninety years of age, Itshak Holtz can easily be deemed the preeminent Jewish Orthodox painter today, if for no other reason than the fact there are so few of them.

 

Jerusalem Wedding, 2010, Itshak Holtz