The Otto Hahn Biography and the Peculiarities of Study of Jewish Artists’ Legacy in Eastern Galicia
By Bogdana Pinczewska
(Modern Art Research Institute of the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine)
Source: Judaica Ukrainica 1 (2012): 264–284
Publication date: December 1, 2012
Publication type: article
Language: Ukrainian
Full text: 
Abstract
The paper is devoted to unknown in Ukrainian art-history biography of painter and graphic Otto Hahn, who in the early 1930s was in the Lviv Art Group “Artes”. In addition to general facts, the article includes a previously unknown archival materials relating to the background and ruination of the artist and his works. From facts in the article we can conclude that the biography of O. Hahn can be regarded as a typical biography of Jewish artists in his circle, born in Eastern Galicia in the early twentieth century. The characteristic features of similar biographies from texts this scientific research work can be considered: a) art-study education in Lviv, particularly under the leadership of K. Sihulsky; b) continuing art education in Western Europe; c) death in occupied Lviv during World War II; and d) the absence of details the fate of most of his works. Typical also is a discrepancy in the accurate date of birth of this artist, mentioned in various sources of information, issued by the Polish in the 1930– 40-s. In some cases, different dates of birth were listed in the archival sources of different universities, as, for example, was done in the case of B. Grunberg, who studied in Warsaw and in Krakow Academy of Arts. Differences of such a type recorded in archival sources, were later reprinted in the informational literature of the late XX – early XXI century. Eventually, it is typical in the research of creativity of Jewish artists of the specified region and period is an exclusively unique opportunity to study their work in art and information periodicals published during the most significant exhibition of the artist’s activity. All foregoing demonstrates the need for further thorough archival research of art historians in the field of Jewish art in Galicia in the first third of the twentieth century.
Keywords: Jewish art, Jews in Galicia, Otto Hahn, Lviv Art Group “Artes”, Jews in Lviv
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