Itshak Holtz

Itshak Holtz, born in Israel in 1927, is an artist totally immersed in the Jewish genre. He was born in Poland, grew up in Israel, mainly in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Geula, and for the last thirty-five years he has maintained homes in both New York and Jerusalem

Itshak Holtz, born in Poland in 1927, is an artist totally immersed in the Jewish genre. He was born in Poland, grew up in Israel, mainly in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Geula, and for the last thirty-five years he has maintained homes in both New York and Jerusalem. He is comfortably rooted in a Jewish life of religiosity, love of Israel and respect for the Jewish experience in the Diaspora. Holtz is a thoroughly modern Jew; a cosmopolitan with deep roots in Israel and America, who is also a highly successful painter specializing in one aspect of his own history and reality, Jewish genre painting. For over forty years Itshak Holtz's subjects have been the back alleys and markets of Me'ah Shearim, Geula, and other religious neighborhoods in Israel. His extensive training years ago at the Bezalel Art Academy in Jerusalem, the Art Students League in New York especially with Robert Brackman and the National Academy of Design with Robert Philipp still influences him. The ability to combine inventive and detailed compositions with evocations of deeply individual religious feeling stem as much from the artist as from his subjects. Holtz's Jewish genre painting represents an essential aspect of contemporary Jewish life. It reveals a world that many secular Jews choose to either ignore or reject. This world is an important link with a vital Jewish past even as it represents a growing Jewish present that must be explored with a finely tuned combination of sympathy and honesty. Genre painting offers a particular sensibility, attention to detail and nuance of place and time that provide a unique opportunity to explore this world. Itshak Holtz masterfully opens the door to begin this exploration.