Gershon Knispel, Man From the Shtetl (Sholem Aleichem)

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GERSHON KNISPEL
Cologne, Germany (Haifa, Israel - Sao Paulo, Brazil), b. 1932
Gershon Knispel was born in Cologne, Germany in … Read more GERSHON KNISPEL
Cologne, Germany (Haifa, Israel - Sao Paulo, Brazil), b. 1932
Gershon Knispel was born in Cologne, Germany in 1932. Within a year of his birth the Nazi Party came to power. Fleeing the impending danger, the Knispel family immigrated to Palestine in 1935.

Knispel came of age in the exuberant atmosphere of the socialist-kibbutz movement, widespread amongst the many immigrants and refugees in the years preceding and following the State of Israel's creation in 1948.

A harsh reality set in as survivors of the Holocaust began immigrating to Israel, arriving from the DP camps scattered across Europe. Sensitive to the plight of newly arrived and now largely unemployed immigrants, Knispel sought to to draw attention to the social issues of the day. Utitlizing his artistic talents, the young artist helped found the modern realist school of Israeli painting.

Having been selected for a large commission in Sao Paulo, Knispel moved to Brazil in 1959. In the five years that Knispel lived and worked in Brazil, he became a central part of Sao Paulo's cultural scene.

In 1964, a government coup in Brazil led Knispel to return to Israel, where through his art he began to face both his personal history and that of his people, having personally lost five uncles in the Holocaust.

His monumental paintings, sculptures and public works serve as a constant reminder, warning against the danger of totalitarianism. See less