Abel Pann biography

Abel Pann biography, 1883 - 1963

Abel Pann [Pfeffermann] (between $ 10,000 and $50,000) was born in Latvia in 1883. His father was a rabbi and the head of a yeshiva (Jewish religious school). At an early age he showed interest in drawing and studied in an art school in Odessa (1898).

In 1903, he moved to Paris and continued his studies at the Grande Chaumiere, an art academy. One of his teachers was the French painter Adolphe William Bourguereau and another Yehuda Pan, teacher of Chagall. His works aroused much interest, winning him prizes and medals. His works were exhibited together with those of Renoir and Matisse. He contributed to journals of humor and was a member of the "Salon des Humoristes" in Paris. In the course of time he became well known as a caricaturist in the French capital.

In 1913, he went to Palestine and taught at the Bezalel Academy of Art, Jerusalem, for a year. A few weeks before World War I broke out, he traveled to Paris, intending to return to Palestine shortly afterwards. Because of the war he was prevented from doing so. When it became known that pogroms had taken place in Russia, he drew paintings on that theme, his purpose being to print reproductions of them. In 1916 he painted the series, "Road of Tears", drawings and lithographs of the Russian pogroms. However, the Russian Minister in Paris was informed of this project and succeeded in convincing the French government of the necessity to forbid the printing. During the war, he painted war subjects, depicting French patriotism and the French war effort.

In 1917, he traveled to the United States where the Union of Museums organized exhibitions of his works in several cities. He became known as a Jewish artist.

In 1920, he returned to Palestine to settle permanently and until 1924 taught again at Bezalel. In 1921, he established the first lithographic installation in Palestine, where lithographs of his works were made from a printing machine he had imported from Vienna.

Even before that date he began to paint biblical themes but thereafter dedicated his work mainly to the Bible. He began to use pastel colors, whereas formerly he had painted in oil. He viewed the Bible realistically and the people and landscapes of his paintings are of the Orient, as he saw them in Palestine. This is one of the innovations of his work. One of his critics pointed out that "this time the Bible is seen by the eyes of Shem and not of Japhet and there is a feeling that this is the correct interpretation."

In the twenties and thirties he held many exhibitions in Western and Central Europe. His works, including reproductions of them, are widely known all over the world. In the course of World War II, he drew paintings of the Holocaust, but at the same time continued to paint themes of Eretz Yisrael. Art critic David Giladi said of him: "Had Abel Pann not seen his vocation as being specially Jewish, his name might have been among those inscribed in letters of gold in the pantheon of French art".

Today, Pann occupies a central place among the masters of Eretz Yisrael. His works increase in value and are much sought after by collectors all over the world.

He died in Jerusalem in 1963.

Il s’installa à Paris en 1903 et étudia dans l’atelier de Bouguereau. Son œuvre fut vite appréciée et il remporta de nombreux prix en ayant une fois le privilège d’être exposé en compagnie de Renoir et de Matisse.

Il voyagea à Odessa et à Vienne avant de se fixer en Palestine où il resta durant la Seconde Guerre Mondiale. Pann aborda de nombreux thèmes juifs dans on œuvre

Abel Pann writes in the supplement to the Palestine Weekly in January of 1924; "I wish to picture the heroes of the Bible as human beings made of flesh and bone, beings in whose veins blood flows. I wished the characters of the Bible to be shown as possessing the passions of human beings just as they are pictured in the Book, with their virtues and vices, loves and hatreds, stories of tragedy and humour, poetry and prose."

The large crowds drawn to the Abel Pann exhibition at the Etzion Judaica Center in the year 2000 has shown the public's love for the Bible as well as its appreciation of the Bible's vivid portrayal through Abel Pann's magnificent paintings.

The Etzion Judaica Center, in cooperation with the Gush Etzion Regional Council, has now undertaken an exciting new project and is proud to announce plans for the establishment of the "Center For the Living Bible", adjacent to the Etzion Judaica Center. The goal of the museum is to bring the Bible to life, which was Abel Pann's life long mission and for which there is no better place than here in Gush Etzion, where many of the biblical events unfolded. This project is of top priority for the Etzion Judaica Center as well as for the entire region.

The exhibits will be organized by topic, and illustrated through the use of Abel Pann's paintings, (which are being lent to us for the long term by the Pann Family), relevant archeological displays as well as ethnic artifacts, and the use of multimedia.

Imagine the impact of a showcase exhibiting Abel Pann's painting, "The Sacrifice of Isaac", a display of knives and swords from the corresponding historical period, and a pile of wood that would have been used for the fire, against a backdrop of a view of Mount Moriah, as seen from afar by Abraham and Isaac as they traveled through Gush Etzion. Actors in Biblical dress dramatizing this scene, would effectively bring its emotional impact and powerful message to the forefront. Visitors to the Museum, whether Jews, Christians, or Moslems will surely be moved towards a greater understanding and love of the Bible through the kaleidoscope of media used to recreate this dramatic moment and others.

In addition, films and plays will be produced to animate stories of the Bible, i.e. the welcome Abraham the Patriarch extends to visitors, or dramatic episodes in King David's life. Visitors to the museum will be able to participate in interactive workshops dealing with various themes, to be held inside and outside the museum.

[Millie]Heyd draws parallels between the "New Negro" of the Harlem Renaissance (a movement which she curiously limits to 1925-29) and the "New Jew," describing both groups' quests for self-identification as a reaction to a Eurocentric conception of the world. Within the New Negro movement and the Zionist revival (begun in 1906 with the founding of Bezalel, the first art school in Palestine), there was a call to go back to the sources--to African art and Ethiopia on the one hand, and to the Bible and images "having a flavor of the East" on the other. Heyd examines these impulses in the book illustrations of Aaron Douglas, Abel Pann, and E.M. Lilien, and in their themes of longing and spiritual birth and rebirth. She also effectively compares explorations of rebellious aspirations and a desire for a pure source of identity in sculpture by Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller and Yitzhak Danziger. Heyd argues that two changes in Blacks' images of Jews occurred in the early twentieth century: Biblical personages became Black, and artists' styles became markedly modernist, as seen in the work of Douglas, William H. Johnson, and Romare Bearden. Their portrayals of Jews involved identification, religious quests, class issues, and problems of racial and stylistic identity.