MANE-KATZ Mane (Emmanuel) Lazarevich (Leyzerovich)

June 5, 1894 (Kremenchuk, Poltava province) — September 8, 1962 (Tel Aviv)

Painter, graphic artist

Emmanuel Mané-Katz was born to a family of rabbi. He studied at Vilna art college, Kiev art school (1900s — early 1910s) under the guidance of F. G. Krichevsky, G. K. Dyadchenko, A. A. Murashko and others. In 1913 he lived in Paris, attended the studio of F. Cormon, and copied the paintings by the Old Masters in the Louvre Museum. In 1914 Mané-Katz moved to St. Petersburg. He studied at the New Art workshop under M. V. Dobuzhinsky.

In 1917 the artist moved to Kharkov, taught at Kharkov Art School (1918–1919, professor). Mané-Katz became friends with V. V. Khlebnikov, N. N. Aseyev, the artists V. D. Ermilov, V. V. Bobritsky and other figures of artistic and literary bohemia. He was a member of avant-garde Group of Three, collaborated with the group Liven (“Downpour”) and the futuristic group Semerka (“Seven”). Mané-Katz published an album Seven Plus Three in 1918.

The artist took part in the exhibitions of the group Mir Iskusstva (“World of Art”) in Petrograd in 1916, the 1st exhibition of the Union of Arts in 1918, the 2nd exhibition of the society Khudozhestvenny Tsekh (“The art guild”) in Kharkov in 1919. The personal exhibitions of the artist were held in Kharkov, Tiflis, and Rostov-on-Don (1921).

In 1921 Mané-Katz emigrated, lived in Berlin (1921–1922), later — in Paris (since 1922).  In 1928 he became a French citizen. In 1920s–1930s Mané-Katz travelled a lot through the Middle East and South Europe; he visited the USA (late 1930s), Africa and Australia. In 1940 he lived in New York. After the World War II, the artist settled in Israel.

Mané-Katz painted portraits, still lifes, genre scenes, landscapes of France, Italy, America, and the Middle East; he was also engaged in sculpture. The majority of the artist’s works were dedicated to the Jewish subject: views of Palestine, Jewish types, paintings on Judaic history and religion.

Since 1926 Mané-Katz showed his works at the Autumn Salon, the Salon Tuileries and Salon des Indépendants, in 1930s — the Salon des Superindépendants. The personal exhibitons of the artist were held in Paris at the gallery Percier (1923, 1928) and in Brussels (1928). In 1930s he participated in many exhibitions in New York galleries. Works by the painter were shown at the exhibitions in the Soviet Union, in particular at the All-Ukrainian Jubilee exhibition dedicated to the 10th anniversary of October Revolution (1927) in Kharkov, Kiev, Odessa and other cities; at the exhibition The Modern French Art (1928) in Moscow.

Works by Emmanuel Mané-Katz are in many museum collections, including Luxembourg Museum in Paris, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and Jerusalem Art Museum. The Mané-Katz Museum was opened in Haifa.