Chaim Goldberg

Goldberg. circa 1995. He could still hear the sounds of his village, the picturesque Kazimierz Dolny in SE Poland by the Vistula river.

Chaim Goldberg (; March 20, 1917 – June 26, 2004) was a Polish-Israeli-American artist, painter, sculptor, and engraver. He is known for being a chronicler of Jewish life in the eastern European Polish villages (or shtetlekh) like the one in his native Kazimierz Dolny in south-eastern Poland. He witnessed the colorful life and began to draw what he saw. The recurring art colony atmosphere became the highpoint of his self-actualization dreams, as he envisioned himself becoming an artist like those who visited the village. He yearned to experience life as they did for himself and later undertook the mission of being a leading painter of Holocaust-era art, which to the artist was seen as an obligation and art with a sense of profound mission.

Following World War II he emigrated to Israel and in 1967 to the United States. He and his family became US citizens in 1973. He died in Boca Raton, Florida, in 2004.

Early life Goldberg was born in a wooden clapboard house built by his father, a village cobbler. The house stood on Błotna Street as it was called at the time, due to the fact that the creek would overflow and the road turned to a muddy area. As a young boy of 6 he gravitated to creating little figurines carved from stones which he gave away to his friends. Later he took up drawing and painting with basic shoemaker paints that he found at his father's workbench. He was the ninth child and the first boy after eight girls. He grew up in a religious home in Kazimierz Dolny. He would observe and draw the beggars and klezmers who frequented his home as guests. His father would encourage their stays by letting it be known that the humble Goldberg home was open for those who could not pay for their night stay at any of the inns. They were surely welcome there. These characters became Goldberg's early models.

Art with an Emotivism-based focus or perspective has appeared in the works of such artists as Willem de Kooning, Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, Maryan Maryan (a Holocaust survivor), and numerous others who had their own pains to express as well. Even Pablo Picasso, in some of his work, could be considered to have contributed to this wave. In Francis Bacon's work and a few others, the artists expressed their pains, while their works were mislabeled as Neo-Expressive, a polite or ‘PC’ correct way of saying “a gay artist.” If one takes the time to comprehend the narrative in these paintings accurately and leaves much to the viewer's subjective interpretation, the emotive content becomes empowered. However, the paintings may not contain clearly defined statements that would label them as works of an Emotivist type.

Using this new modern way of expression, he was able to channel his pains stemming from the acts of extermination beyond his earlier preoccupation with making an art memorial to his village characters. Now, he channeled numerous references that took shape as descending monsters, nightmares, and dreams of loss, feeling as if a descending monster bird ripped his head out of his body and flew off with it. In some of his other works, a violin is stolen while the artist sleeps under a tree.

His oil paintings and pastels surge beyond the original drawings, and in 1975, he began painting a series of oil paintings expressing the different masks humans assume, or "wear" throughout various interactions, and at various times and wear to conceal their true intentions and feeling, deceptively clinging to a game of gaining their agenda. We see numerous acrylic and oil paintings on wood panels whose narrative is intertwined and a puzzle to uncover. Goldberg's masks and street violence paintings reveal a mind that Could leap from his mission to respond to modernity and its various convoluted aspects.

In 1973 he created a series of mask pen-and-inks depicting a monster regime, (Communism) that wore deceptive masks. Clearly, there is a modern narrative in his creations that demands further study and analysis by art historians.

Other works in this group are Crazy Drivers and The Modern City.

In his Pipelines oil painting, the artist imagines a tube-like channel, like a pipeline that zips the population in and out of the city. This painting and many others in this group were conceived and painted in the early 70s; over fifty years before Elon Musk and his Boring Company.

Creating Dance and Abstract as "cleansing forces" from Painting the Depressing Holocaust Goldberg was a modernist artist who created a memorial to the life of the shtetl. He also created other themes. He experimented with this as a "cleansing," as he called it, starting in Israel as early as 1964. He also returned to the world of abstract expressionism and concurrently created sculptures and engravings. He carved out of wood, and chiseled them out of white and pink marble. His sculptures are in a vast range of materials.

Major Early Exhibitions In 1971, barely 4 years since his arrival from Israel, the Catholic college in Queens, New York, St. John's University, hosted an exhibit at their DeAndries Exhibit Hall. Goldberg's major canvas, The Shtetl, which he painted in 1962, was selected by the director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Mr. Thomas Hoving, an attending guest at the opening, to be included in the MET's 20th Century Permanent Art Collection – A major achievement and recognition for a foreign-born artist who was not a citizen at the time.

In 1973, still not an American citizen, Goldberg was invited to exhibit his engravings, drawings, watercolors and oil paintings at the Smithsonian Institution's Hall of Graphic Arts, recognizing his exceptional engraving talents and the works he created in the short time period of five years since landing on the American shores. Goldberg and his family were finally made American citizens.

In 1997, Goldberg's work went on exhibit at the Rosen Museum of Art, Boca Raton, (on the campus of the JCC).

Recent Major Exhibitions In 2013 the Nadwishlanski Museum in Kazimierz Dolny, Poland, celebrated its Jubilee and the opening of a major museum building with a One Man Show of their own town's now-famous artist – Goldberg. The exhibit opened on December 9, 2013, and closed on August 30, 2014.

In 2016 – The artist's Shtetl Life work was exhibited at 'Museum, I Remember' in Krakow, Poland, from March 20 to July 26, 2016.

In 2016 – The third leg of exhibits in Poland, the exhibit now titled, I Remember the Shtetl opened at the Krakow Palace of Art on September 15 and closed on November 20, 2016.

Final Years In 1987, while working on the modernist themes above, Goldberg returned to painting his beloved Kazimierz Dolny and the Jewish life in the village. This time his paintings were less lyrical and surreal, and instead were more 'story-telling' and documentary. After completing some fifty large canvases in 1997, at the age of 80, he was diagnosed with a disabling illness. He died on June 26, 2004, in Boca Raton, Florida, aged 87.

Exhibitions 1931 – "Polish Landscapes," Group Show, Kazimierz-Dolny, Poland 1934 – Studio Show, Kazmierz-Dolny, Poland 1936 – National Group Show, Warsaw, Poland 1937 – National Group Show, Warsaw, Poland (the artist, his future wife and her family were refugees in Siberia) 1946 – "Poland After World War II" solo show, Shtczechin, Poland 1947 – National Group Show, Warsaw, Poland 1949 – National Group Show, Warsaw, Poland 1950 – National Group Show, Warsaw, Poland 1951 – National Group Show, Warsaw, Poland 1952 – National Group Show, Warsaw, Poland 1965 – One Man Show, Pioneer House, Giv'atayim, Israel 1966 – Retrospective Show, Museum Yad Labanim, Petach Tikvah, Israel (attended by Mrs. Golda Meir – Prime Minister; and Kadish Luz – Speaker of the House (Knesset) 1967 – One Man Show, LYS Gallery, New York 1968 – One Man Show, Theodor Hertzl Institute, New York City, New York 1968 – One Man Show, Mixed Media Art Center, Syracuse, New York 1969 – One Man Show, Paul Kessler Art Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts 1970 – One Man Show, Paul Kessler Art Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts 1971 – Large Retrospective Exhibit at the DeAndries Gallery, St' John's University, Queens, New York 1972 – One Man Show, Mixed Media, Lincoln Mall Art Center, Miami, Florida 1972 – Group Show, Mixed Media, American Congress, Washington, D.C. 1973 – One Man Show, "Chaim Goldberg's Shtetl" (drawings, watercolors, sculptures, oil paintings and line engravings) Smithsonian Institution, Hall of Graphic Arts, Washington, D. C. 1973 – Group Exhibit, "Jewish Motifs and Culture of the 20th Century," Klingspor Museum, Offenbach, Germany 1974 – One Man Show, The Avila Art Center, Jewish Synagogue, Caracas, Venezuela 1977 – Group Show with the Texas Society of Sculptors, Houston Public Library, Main Branch, Houston, Texas 1979 – One Man Show, Museum of Printing History, Houston, Texas 1982 – Group Exhibit, "Art of the Twentieth Century – A Revelation," Congregation Beth Israel, Houston, Texas 1985 – Group Exhibit, "Twenty-Sixth Invitational," Longview Museum of Art, Longview, Texas 1994 – Group Exhibit, "Shtetl Life," the Nathan and Faye Hurvitz Collection, the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, Berkeley, California Goldberg's "Marketplace", a hand-colored litho was on the cover of the exhibit catalog. 1997 – One Man Exhibit, "Chaim Goldberg at 80," Nathan B. Rosen Museum, Adolph & Rose Levis Jewish Community Center, Boca Raton, Florida 1997 – One Man Exhibit, "Remembering the Shtetl – 75 Years of the Art of Chaim Goldberg," Texas Union Art gallery, University of Texas at Austin 2002 – One Man Exhibit, "Oil Paintings of the Shtetl," Shir Art Gallery, Southfield, Michigan 2003 – One Man Exhibit, "Landscapes and Observations," Shir Art Gallery, Southfield, Michigan 2004 – One Man Exhibit, "Engravings and Lithos," Shir Art Gallery, Southfield, Michigan 2009 – Group Exhibition, "Jewish Interwar Painters of Kazimierz Dolny," Poland, Rapperswil Castle by Lake Zurich, Switzerland 2009 – One Man Exhibit "Remembering the Shtetl," JRM Artists' Space, National Bottle Museum, Ballston Spa, New York 2013 – One Man Show of over 160 drawings, watercolors, and oil paintings from 1946 to 2000, "Chaim Goldberg Returns to Kazimierz Dolny," from 9 December 2013 to 31 August 2014 Muzeum Nadwiślański, Kazimierz Dolny, Poland 2015 – One Man Show of drawings and paintings KAMIENICA CELEJOWSKA / 11 grudnia 2015 – 3 kwietnia 2016 Muzeum Nadwiślański, Kazimierz Dolny, Poland 2016 – One Man Show of 75 drawings, watercolors, and paintings Museum, I Remember, Kraków, Poland / May 8 – July 28 2016 – One Man Show "I Remember The Shtetl" of 100 themed oil paintings, watercolors, drawings, plus 30 of his graphics; works in such mediums as engravings, etchings, and wood engravings, at the Palace of Art in Kraków, September 15 – October 9

Collections

Metropolitan Museum of Art, 20th Century Permanent Art Collection, New York City, New York Museum of Modern Art, New York City, New York Beit HaNassi, Jerusalem, Israel Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, Israel Jerusalem Municipality, Jerusalem, Israel Museum Yad Labanim, Petach Tikvah, Israel Musée du Petit Palais, Geneva, Switzerland National Museum, Warsaw, Poland Jewish Museum, Warsaw, Poland Klingspor Museum, Offenbach, Germany National Gallery of Art, Lessing Rosenwald Collection Washington, D.C. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Smithsonian Institution, American Art Museum and Renwick Gallery Collection, Washington, D.C. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Lowe Art Museum, Miami, Florida Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut Sylvia Plotkin Judaica Museum, Phoenix, Arizona Public Library Art Collection, San Francisco, California New York Public Library, New York City, New York Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut Springfield Museum of Art, Springfield, Massachusetts Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Houston, Texas Houston Public Library, Houston, Texas Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership, Chicago, Illinois Judah L. Magnes Museum, Berkeley, California Skirball Museum, Los Angeles, California Yeshiva University Museum, New York City, New York YIVO, New York City, New York Jewish Theological Seminary, Cincinnati, Ohio Derfner Judaica Museum, in the Jacob Reingold Pavilion, Riverdale, NY POLIN, Warsaw, Poland Muzeum Nadwiślański, Kazimierz Dolny, Poland Warsaw Ghetto Museum, Warsaw, Poland

List of Kazimierz-Dolny artists The artists who frequented the Kazimierz-Dolny Art Colony were many, some of the Jewish artists were: Maurycy (Mosze) Applebaum (1886–1931) Eugeniusz Act (1899–1974) Jozef Badower (1910–1941) Henryk (Henoch) Barcinski (1896–1939) Adolph Behrman (1876–1942) Henryk Berlewi (1894–1967) Salomon (Szulim) Bialogorski (1900–1942) Arnold Blaufuks (1894–1943) Sasza (Szaje) Blonder (1909–1949) Icchak Wincenty Brauner (1887–1944) Aniela Cukier (1900–1944) Bencion Cukierman (1890–1944) Samuel Cygler (1898–1943) Herszel Cyna (1911–1942) Henryk (Chaim) Cytryn (1911–1943) Jakub Cytryn (1909–1943) Rachel Diament (1920–2003) Boas Dulman (1900–1942) Samuel Finkelstein (1890–1943) Abraham Frydman (1906–1941) Feliks Frydman (1897–1942) Jozef Mojzesz Gabowicz (1862–1939) Izydor Goldhuber-Czaj (1896–1942) Dawid (Dionizy) Grieffenberg (1909–1942) Michal Grusz (1911–1943) Izaak Grycendler (1908–1944) Chaim Hanft (1899–1951) Adam Herszaft (1886–1942) Elzbieta Hirszberzanka (1899–1942) Ignacy Hirszfang (1903–1943) Gizela Hufnagel (1903–1997) Marcin Kitz (1891–1943) Natan Korzen (1895–1941) Józef Kowner (1895–1967) Szymon Kratka (1884–1960) Izaak Krzeczanowski (1910–1941) Chaim Lajzer (1893–1942) Natalia Landau (1907–1943) Henryk Lewensztadt (1893–1962) Mary Litauer (Schneiderowa) (1900–1942) Jozef Majzels (1911–1943) Arieh Merzer (1910–1974) Stella Amelia Miller (1910–? ) Maurycy Minkowski (1881–1930) Abraham Neuman (1873–1942) Szlomo Nussbaum (1906–1946) Abraham Ostrzega (1889–1942) Samuel Puterman (1901–1955) Henryk Rabinowicz (1890–1942) Stanislawa Reicher (1889–1943) Bernard Rolnicki (1885–1942) Roman Rozental (1897–1962) Mojzesz Rynecki (1885–1942) The Seidenbeutel brothers: Efraiim Seidenbeutel (1902–1945) Jozef Seidenbeutel (1894–1923) Menashe Seidenbeutel (1902–1945) Efraiim & Gela Seksztajn(1907–1943) Marcel Słodki (1892–1943) Arieh Sperski (1902–1943) Marek Szapiro (1884–1942) Natan Spigel (1900–1942) Jozef Tom (1886–1962) Feliks Topolski (1907–1989) Symcha Trachtner (1893–1942) Maurycy Trębacz (1861–1941) Tadeusz Trebacz (1910–1945) Izrael Tykocinski (1895–1942) Jakub Weinles (1870–1938) Wladyslaw Weintraub (Chaim Wof) (1891–1942) Israel Szmuel (Szmul) Wodnicki (1901–1971) Pinkus Zelman (1907–1936) Izaak Zajdler (1905–1943) Leon Zysberg (1901–1942) Fiszel Zylberberg (1909–1942)