Ivan Moscovich

Ivan Moscovich (14 June 1926 – 21 April 2023) was a Yugoslav-Hungarian inventor, designer and commercial developer of puzzles, games, toys, and educational aids. He wrote many books and was internationally recognized in the toy industry as an innovative inventor.

Biography Early life Ivan Moscovich was born to Jewish Hungarian parents on 14 June 1926 in Novi Sad in the Yugoslav province of Vojvodina and had a sheltered, middle class childhood. His father, a professional painter, escaped into Yugoslavia after World War I and opened a photographic studio there which he named Photo Ivan after his son.

World War II and Nazi concentration camp prisoner In 1941, Yugoslavia surrendered unconditionally to the Axis powers during World War II. Hungary occupied Vojvodina. In January 1942, Moscovich's 44 year old father was a victim of the Novi Sad massacre. In 1943, Hungary started secret armistice negotiations with the Allied Powers which was discovered by Germany resulting in the German occupation of Vojvodina. Soon after, at the age of 17, Moscovich was taken to the concentration camp at Auschwitz with his grandfather, grandmother, and mother. Moscovich, who had endured four concentration camps and two forced work camps, was sent to Sweden for recuperation, and while there he was reunited with his mother who had been liberated from Mauthausen by American troops.

Moscovich died on 21 April 2023, at the age of 96.

Artist

Moscovich's kinetic art and other art creations have been shown in major art exhibitions at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, the International International Design Centrum in Berlin, and the Museo de Arte Moderno in Mexico City. He patented his harmonograph drawing device in 1967, and had a show of harmonographic art at the National Museum of Mathematics (MoMath) in New York City on 21 October 2021. In 2019, the Museum of Tolerance featured a retrospective of his work.

Publications