YOSEF KUZKOVSKI 1902-1970
Mogilev, Belarus 1902 - 1970 Tel Aviv Israel (Russian / Latvian)
Title: No Brothers Stand with Submitting Hands, 1964 / ????? ??? ?????? ??? ????????? ?????
Technique: Original Hand Signed and Dated Linocut on paper
Paper size: 73.5 x 55 cm / 28.9 x 21.7 in
Additional Information: The interesting work is a linocut by the Jewish Russian artist Yosef Kuzkovski.
It is hand signed and dated by the artist in the lower right margin.
The hand written text reads in Yiddish: "????? ??? ?????? ??? ????????? ?????" (No Brothers Stand with Submitting Hands)
It was realised in 1964.
The work is stamoed verso with a Soviet stamp.
Literature: Aleks Faitelson, The Truth and Nothing But the Truth: Jewish Resistance in Lithuania, page 265, illustrated.
Note: Yosef Kuzkovski, Painter. born in 1902, Russia. Immigrated to Israel 1969.
Died 1970, four months after immigration.
Studies:
Art Academy, Kiev.
After a long struggle for immigrating to Israel, he arrived in Israel in 1969, but after four months he passed away.
1970 exhibition in memory of the artist at the Artist's House in Tel Aviv.
His Works are included in the collections of The Revolution Museum in Moscow, The Museum of Art, Riga, The Museum of Art, Oslo, and more.
His most famous painting is "The Led Executed" ("Babi - Yar") which described the last hours of the Jews of Kiev led to death. The work was purchased by the Knesset and is there today.
Yosef Kuzkovski left his parents’ home in a young age, volunteered for service during the Russian Revolution and, when the fighting was over, enrolled at the Kiev Institute.
It was close to the outbreak of the Second World War that Kuzkovski felt the stirrings of a growing interest in the riches of Judaism. He began drawing and painting Jewish characters in a series of works all of which were lost during the War years.
During the War he was resettled in Uzbekistan, where he began work on a canvas that was to take up many years of his time: "The Last Way", but at the same time he was also working on a number of pictures destined for various museums.
When the war was over he moved to Riga and continued working on "The Last Way" and on a new canvas "When Victory Comes".
Yosef Kuzkovski did a considerable amount of graphic work, and his home was almost a "club" for youth, to whom he wished to spread knowledge of hid art and methods.
Throughout his life, Yosef Kuzkovski clung steadfastly to the hope that he would one day come "home", to his motherland and own country. It was only in 1969 that he succeeded to get the permition to immigrate to Israel.
The dream was of short duration: Kuzkovski lived only four months in Israel until he passed away on January 4, 1970.

Condition: Good condition apart from two tears in the margins, creases, handling marks, stray ink verso.