Born in Algiers, painter Henry Valensi was a prominent figure of the French avant-garde at the turn of the twentieth century, leading a group of artists known as the Musicalistes (or Effusionists), who sought to express musical rhythm through abstract painting. Working between the 1930s and 1950s, the Musicalistes organized more than twenty exhibitions of their work in Paris, as well as several other group and solo exhibitions across Europe. As the epicenter of modern art in Europe during the early twentieth century, Paris offered Valensi a cohort of fellow abstractionists with whom he frequently exhibited. This group formed the collective Section d’Or in 1912, and included the artists Francis Picabia and Marcel Duchamp; they strongly influenced Valensi’s abstract, geometric style.
Mané-Katz was a prominent member of the School of Paris (École de Paris), a group of young artists, many of whom were Jews from Eastern and Central Europe. Mané-Katz painted in a modernist style but…
This elaborately decorated title page is from a book of Psalms created by the scribe Nathan ben Samson in Gross Meseritsch, Moravia (today Velké Meziříčí, Czech Republic). On the left is Aaron in his…
Architect Ignaz Reiser won a contest to design this ceremonial hall for the New Jewish Cemetery in Vienna. Construction began there in 1926. The most prominent feature of the building was its dome, an…