Yitzhak Frenkel - Biography

Yitzhak Frenkel (born 1899, died 1981) (alternate romanization: Isaac Frenel, Isaac Fraenkel, Yitzhak Frenel, Yitshak Frenkel-Frenel, Alexandre Frenel, Izhak Frenel) was an important Israeli painter.

1 Biography
2 Awards
3 Selected exhibitions
4 Selected collections
5 Further reading
6 External links

Biography

Frenkel was born in 1899 in Odessa, Ukraine, Russian Empire. He was a great-grandson of the famed Rabbi Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev. In 1917, he studied under Aleksandra Ekster at the Art Academy in Odessa. Frenkel emigrated to Mandate Palestine in 1919 as part of the first wave of settlers of the Third Aliyah (see Aliyah). In 1920, he established the artists' cooperative in Jaffa and an artists' studio in Herzliya. Later that year Frenkel traveled to Paris where he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts and at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière at the studios of the sculptor Antoine Bourdelle and painter Henri Matisse. One of the most important Jewish artists of the École de Paris, Frenkel’s contemporaries included Chaim Soutine, Marc Chagall, Amedeo Modigliani, Michel Kikoine, Pinchus Krémègne, Mané-Katz, and Jules Pascin.

Frenkel returned to Palestine in 1925 and opened the studio of painting arts of the Histadrut School in Tel Aviv. His students included Shimshon Holzman, Mordechai Levanon, David Hendler, Joseph Kossonogi, and Ziona Tajar. He was also a mentor to Bezalel Academy of Art and Design students Avigdor Stematsky, Yehezkel Streichman, Moshe Castel, and Arieh Aroch. Frenkel’s paintings favoured the abstract contemporary influences he had adopted during his years in Paris, rather than the orientalist trends then popular in Israel. After a five-year stay in Paris, Frenkel made Safed his home in 1934, well before the establishment of the influential Artists' Colony.

In 1973, a museum of his works was opened at his house in Safed. In 1979, he had a one-man show at the renowned Orangerie in Paris. He died in Tel Aviv in 1981 and was buried in Safed.

Awards

Among Frenkel's numerous prizes and accomplishments are the Dizengoff Prize for painting in 1938 and again in 1948 and his participation in the first and second Venice Biennales.