The Impressionist - Joseph Wisnia, multi-genre artist, Holocaust survivor

Text for exhibit

The Impressionist

Joseph Wisnia, multi-genre artist, Holocaust survivor.

Joseph Wisnia was born in 1934 in Międzyrzec, Poland. Upon the Nazi invasion of Poland, when he was five and a half years old, he was taken into hiding at a monastery on the outskirts of town. There, the monks taught him the basics of art and music.

In 1945, Jewish activists transferred him from the monastery to a children’s home in Silesia, western Poland, and there, his parents, after returning from Russia, located him. The family made its home in Wroclaw. After his studies at secondary school, Joseph was accepted to the military academy, where he studied engineering for five years. During his military service, he studied graphics, painting, and sculpture at the art academy in Wroclaw. He completed his art studies in 1954 and found his place in the Polish art community.

In 1957, Joseph Wisnia immigrated to Israel with his family. Initially, he made his living at music. In 1961 he married Rivka, nee Steinberg from Lutsk, Poland.

Wisnia studied art at the Avni Institute from 1961 to 1965. His work appeared at various exhibitions in Israel and elsewhere. Wisnia died in Tel Aviv in 2020.

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This exhibit presents small watercolors of Israeli landscapes. The works belong to a series of 120 watercolors that were a birthday gift to his wife Rivka.

Wisnia was an impressionist. He conveys his perception of his surroundings, the rustle of the wind through the landscape, and the character of the place, and his feeling of being uplifted by the scene.

He constantly observes the vistas of the Land of Israel so as, in his words, “to allow the holy plains and mountains on which our ancestors walked, to penetrate his eyes, breath, all his senses, and his being as a whole.”

In his works, he employs patches of color that harmonize into one another, emphasizing elements of the landscape and radiating tranquility and confident simplicity. A song that praises the past while also preserving the artist’s  individuality and his own world of artistic values.

Regarding the sources of his artwork, Wisnia said:

“Look at me and be so kind as to tell me, is my beard the beard of my grandfather or of my father? Or perhaps of my uncle? — No! But I do have a beard like theirs.

“Is the fur hat that I wear in winter a shtreimel? No!

“Is the coat that I wear in the fall a black caftan? No!

“So you see, my friends, I am an impressionist. And the experience that is engraved in my memory of this image, or event, is the impetus that urges me to create something.”

Curator: Lilach Efraim

Hebrew editor: Zvika Oren

Graphics: Art Media – Gaaton

English: GATS Translations