Israel Litwack

1868 - 1960

Israel Litwak was born in Odessa, Russia in 1868.  He became an apprentice to a cabinet maker at age 11. Litwak served in the Russian Army 4 yrs (21 to 25).  He came to the U.S.A. in 1903 with his family consisting of his wife and 2 children.  At the age of 68, Litwak was unable to hold on to the sort of hard work he did as a cabinet maker and was forced to retire. Not being used to idleness and to occupy his time with anything, Litwak suddenly had an urge to do some drawing and followed it up with painting. He tried oil paint, watercolor, and crayon. He was pleased with the results of the crayon work. He also did some landscapes. He worked very long and hard on each picture, first making a full-sized drawing on paper and then carefully tracing it on cardboard. The design made by the deeply impressed lines was then filled in with colored crayon giving the picture the general effect of tooled leather. After applying fixative and shellac, he waxed the pictures almost as if they were pieces of furniture and framed them behind glass. Many components in the work of Litwak had the direct and elemental character of child art. In November of 1939, he had 36 pictures completed and was honored by the directors of the Brooklyn Museum by giving his work a special one-man exhibit. Litwak said of the figures in his paintings: "They are motion figures!” In speaking of his landscapes: "I look at it just to get an idea; then I go home and make it the way I want it, not the way it is." Israel Litwak was included in the seminal book by Sidney Janis They Taught Themselves which is the source of this bio.