Jean David

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Jean David was a Romanian-Jewish artist, working as a painter, illustrator, scenographer, and designer. He is recognised as one of the most important figures of the Romanian avant-garde and of Israeli modernism. David studied at the National School of Fine Art in Bucharest, the Scandinavian Academy, and the Julian Academy in Paris. His early works, such as Portrait with a Woman with Fruits, are not stylistically dissimilar to those of famous Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani, as sensuously depicted female characters have their faces and necks elongated to suggest a sense of both strength and fragility. In the early 1930s, Jean David became a member of the surrealist and dadaist group Unu (One), publishing illustrations in the collective’s magazine. Due to the growing antisemitic policies in Romania, he left the country and eventually managed to arrive in Palestine not without considerable efforts. He established, together with fellow artist Marcel Iancu, the artist village of Ein Hod. Jean David received important prizes later in his career such as the 1954 Gold and Silver medal at the Triennial for Applied Art, Milan or the 1960 Prize for Painting and Sculpture, awarded by the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.