Nahum
Gutman

Nachum Gutman (born. Nukem Alterovich Gutman; Hebrew. נחום גוטמן; 5 Oct 1898, Telenesti Orhei district, Bessarabia province — November 28, 1980, tel-Aviv, Israel) is an Israeli landscape painter, Illustrator and printmaker, children's book writer, founder of the so-called Palestinian style in landscape painting. Laureate of the prize of Hans Christian Andersen for her contribution to children's literature (1962). Wrote in Hebrew.

Nukem Gutman was born in the Bessarabian Jewish agricultural colony Telenesti (now the district center of teleneşti district, Moldova) is the fourth child in the family of Walter Gutman and his wife Rivka. All in the family grew to five children. The father of the future artist, an aspiring writer Walter Gutman — later known under his pen-name S. Ben-Zion (or Simcha Ben-Zion) — at the time worked as a teacher.

In 1903 the family moved to Odessa, where Nachum studied at the experimental cheder (elementary school) with instruction in Hebrew, which his father taught. In 1905 the family moved again, this time to Palestine and settled in Jaffa. Nachum studied at the school of "Ezra". In 1910, suddenly, his mother died and in the future children grow up with the grandmother of the artist's paternal Mints Gutman, who had come specially for this from Telenesti. Then the art began to take his first drawing lessons from Ira, Jan (Esther slepyan) and entered the gymnasium "Herzliya". In 1913, he alone went to Jerusalem and entered the school of painting and the fine arts "Bezalel" to Boris Schatz and Abel pan.

After temporarily disbanding the school during the fighting of the First world war in 1916, Gutman worked on the distillation of grapes and citrus groves in Petah Tikva, Rishon LeZion and Rehovot that many years later reflected in his autobiography "chofesh HaGadol on Calumet eargasim" (Summer vacation, or the mystery box). In 1917, together with the other residents, he was banished from Jerusalem by the Turks (described in the book "the Road of orange peel"), in 1918 he volunteered for the Jewish Legion of the British army, served as a guard in a pow camp of the Turks in Egypt.

In 1920, immediately after demobilization, he went to study painting in Europe until 1926 he lived in Vienna, Paris, Berlin, illustrated books lived then in Berlin of the father, and of writers in his circle — H. I. S. Bialik and Tchernichovsky. In 1926 he returned to tel Aviv and devoted himself mainly peisagistice (Gutman that time were later attributed to the new, so-called "Palestinian style"). In 1928 he married Dora Yoffe and in the same year was born their only son Menachem. Since 1929, Gutman worked on the design of sets and costumes, for modern theatre "OEL" (Tent), was the author of scenery for plays "the Crown of David" (1929) and Shabtai Zvi (1932). In 1931 he received a permanent position as an Illustrator in the newspaper "Davar Leadin" (the children's Supplement to the newspaper "Davar"), which functioned without interruption for the next 35 years. After some time he began to write articles for this newspaper.

In 1932 he held his first solo exhibition Gutman. In 1933-1934 were involved in making decorations for the annual purisma procession-carnival in tel-Aviv "Adloyada" organized by choreographer Baruch Agadati. In 1934, the 25th anniversary of the founding of tel Aviv created the emblem of the city, adopted (in its same revision, 1959) to this day. 1934-1935 years spent in South Africa, where he wrote his first book for young adults ", Berec Lobengula malah Zulu" (In the country Lobengula king Zulu), which was published with his own illustrations. In Johannesburg, Cape town and Durban held solo exhibitions of the artist.

Since then, Gutman illustrated all her books that were released up to the end of life. It was released written and illustrated books "Beatrice about the sages of the Zohar Sethilite Hamor, Vasio Ari Dores" (Beatrice, or history, which began with donkey and ended with an angry lion, 1942), "abadat Hamor Seculo Thelet" (the adventures of the present blue donkey, 1944), "IR Ketina hanashim bleat" (Small town and few people in it, 1959) and others.

During the war of independence of Israel in 1948, Guttmann made a series of portraits of soldiers of the Israel defense forces, which were included in his album "How it was".

In the early 1960-ies started with mosaic (the first mosaic Gutman was installed in the building of the chief Rabbinate of Israel in 1961), for the next two decades were decorated with mosaics of the wall of the tel Aviv gymnasium "Herzliya" (1967), the fountain on Bialik street (1976) and the first skyscraper, Shalom Meir (1966) in tel Aviv. 1970 was also engaged in pottery.

Nachum Gutman died 28 Nov 1980 in tel Aviv. Soon after the death of him came the first detailed monograph "bein Holot withal the shaman" (Sand dunes and blue sky) art critic Ehud Ben-Ezer. The most complete collection of his works is in the Gutman Museum in tel Aviv Neve Tsadik, where the artist lived most of his life. The Museum is located in one of the oldest houses in the district, built in 1887.