Exhibitions
- 1962 | Chapelle du Collège de Carpentras
- 1967 | Musée d’Israël, Jérusalem, Israël
- 1968 | Musée Municipal de Haïfa, Israël – Musée d’Art de Ein Harod, Israël
- 1969 | Galerie Katia Granoff, Paris
- 1971 | Centre d’Art de Stavanger, Norvège
- 1972 | Galerie Chantepierre, Aubonne, Suisse
- 1976 | Musée de Tel-Aviv, Israël
- 1981 | Cité des Arts, Paris
- 1982 | Galerie Oftedal, Stavanger, Norvège
- 1985 | Musée d’Art Yad Vashem, Jérusalem, Israël
- 1989/1990 | Musée de Stavanger, Trondheim et Tromso, Norvège
- 1990 | Galerie de l’Ermitage, Paris – La Mémoire gravée, éditée par l’Atelier Georges Leblanc
- 1991 | Musée des Augustins Toulouse. – Le Marjorat Villeneuve Tolosane
- 1992/1993 | Mémorial du Martyr Juif Inconnu, Paris
- 1993 | Pavillon du Musée Fabre, Montpellier – Galerie Nationale Zacheta, Varsovie, Pologne – Musée de la Résistance, Gouda, Pays-Bas
- 1994 | Arsenal, Sion, Suisse
- 1995 | Archives départementales du Finistère, Quimper, France – Galerie Hollar, Prague, République tchèque – Musée de Terezin, Terezin, République tchèque.
- 1996 | Galerie Fenclová, Plzen, République tchèque
- 2005 | Musée National de Cracovie (mars) – Mairie du 4ème Arrondisement de Paris (2 au 21 avril) – Centre Mondial pour la paix – Verdun (Mai) – Musée National de Cracovie (novembre)
- 2006 | Musée d’Art et d’Histoire du Judaïsme – Paris (27 mars au 1er juillet 2007)
- 2007 | Galerie Les Montparnos/Mathyeu le Bal – Paris (27 septembre au 4 décembre 2012)
- 2012 | Salle Culture – Sainte Agnes (23 juillet au 16 août 2014)
- 2019 | Mairie du 5eme arrondissement de Paris
Isaac CELNIKIER - Biography
| Polish artist |
Born on 8 May 1923 in Warsaw, died November 11, 2011 in Ivry sur Seine.
1934/38 – Raised in the orphanage of the pediatrician and pedagogue Janusz Korczak.
1938 – Leaves the orphanage and stays at the family house.
1939 – To avoid being locked up in the Warsaw Ghetto, he flees with his mother and sister towards Bialystok.
1940 – Works in a factory in Bialystok, learns about painting in La Maison de la Creation du Peuple, meets lots of painters and takes part in a collective exhibition in Minsk.
1941 – Locked up with his family in the Bialystok Ghetto. Works in a carpentry workshop, and then in a copyist (copiste, ecriture ou art?) studio for the German manufacturer Oskar Steffen.
1943 – After the Ghetto liquidation, loses track of his mother and sister. He will never see them again. Imprisoned at Lomza.
1943/44 – Deported to Stutthof camp on the Baltique sea (November-January)
1944 – Deported to Birkenau (Auschwitz II), registration number 171870, then transferred to Bruna (Auschwitz III), where he is first assigned to Kabelkommando IG-Farben (cabling commando), and then to Malerlkommando 78 Siemens (painting commando)
1945 – Evacuation by foot or through open wagons to Mathausen (January), then to Schsenshausen (February), to Flosseburg (March) and lastly Dachau (April). During the last transportation, the train is sprayed with bullets from Allies planes; his leg is wounded. Found amongst corpses and dying American soldiers??, brought to the hospital where he narrowly avoids an amputation. Sent to the Czech boarder along with Russian soldiers, he is to be given to the Soviet authorities. Every single one of the prisoners is charged of high treason. Imprisoned in the Soviet camp of Sumperk in Moravia to ten years of forced labor. Works as a painter for the Soviet propaganda. Two days prior to being sent to the Gulag, he escapes and takes refuge in Prague. Goes back to Bialystok (December) and restores some thumbs where the Ghetto was located.
1946/51 – Studies at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague, in Emil Filla’s artist studio, painter and sculptor, prominent figure of the expressionist and cubist movement in Czechoslovakia.
1952 – Returns to Warsaw, takes part in Nowa Kultura and Przeglad Kulturainy periodical publications.
From 1953 onward – Participates in collective exhibitions in Poland and abroad.
1955 – Starts a dissident movement of young artists ‘Arsenal’, contributes to the organization of the National Exhibition of the members of the movement, displays the Ghetto, wins an award but fights against the members of the socialist realism movement.
1957 – Upon the rise in anti-Semitism in Poland and thanks to a scholarship of the Minster of Culture and Arts, he goes to Paris for what is supposed to be a one-month trip; however, he settles there permanently.
From 1962 onward – Exhibits individually in France, Israel, Switzerland, Norway, Czechoslovakia, and Netherlands.
1966 – He is raised Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by André Malraux.
1966/68 – Makes a few trips to Israel, where he paints his first landscapes of Jerusalem.
1968 – From his union to his first wife Barbara Majewska, his son Jacob is born on May 27th.
1969 – Encouraged by Miodrag, a Serbian artist, he creates his first Ghetto and Holocaust engravings.
1971 – Receives the Award of Honors ‘Yehouda Zadjé’ at the Couttoute Congrès in Paris.
1981/90 – From his union to his second wife Anne Szulmajster, his son Yoshua is born on February 20th. A series of portraits, nudes, maternity, and landscapes from South of France blooms. Creates intensively monumental paintings as well as engravings. 1990: birth of his daughter Sarah.
1993 – Receives the Award ‘Mémoire de la Shoah’ from the ‘Fondation du Judaïsme Français’.
2006 – Receives the Award Witold Wojtkiewicz from the ‘Association des Artistes d’Art Plastique et la Galerie Pryzmat’, during a retrospective at ‘Musée nation’.
November 11th, 2011 – Passes away in Ivry sur Seine.