Trio

023540   Chaim GOLDBERG [1917-2004]
Trio
colour lithograph on paper, dim: 50 x 66 cm
signed l.r. "Chaim Goldberg", l.r. "A.P." 

Chaim Goldberg [1917-2004] was a painter, sculptor, and engraver. He was born and raised in Kazimierz Dolny (Poland),  in an orthodox Jewish family. His father was a shoemaker. The specifics of his oeuvre is based on a representation of a local Jewish community and their simple life affected by the rhythm of nature.  Varied and colourful figures of klezmers, rabbis and poor people were the first models of young Goldberg, who as  an attentive observer created a local chronicle of this provincial and traditional world. Childhood had been a vivid inspiration throughout his artistic lifetime, but subsequently it also determined the naïve aspects of Goldberg’s later oeuvre. However after the Second World War he decided to face the Holocaust themes, what he treated as a national duty and  mission. 

Goldberg’s artistic talent was discovered by dr Saul Silberman – Sigmund Freud’s  student, who accidently visited Kazimierz Dolny. Thanks to Silbeman’s intercession young Chaim Goldberg received scholarships that helped him continue his artistic education. Eventually he graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow, where he studied under the supervision of Tadeusz Pruszkowski and Władysław Skoczylas.

Goldberg moved to Israel after the Second World War. In 1967 he emigrated to the United States with his family and settled in New York. While living in the USA he did not abandon the main issues and the spirit of his art – he still had focused on the traditional scenes from the life of Jews, showing their eclectic shades.  In his artwork he created an image of a Jewish tradition based on a divine order, therefore he became a main representative of  the vanished world of Jewish shtetls.

The artwork made by Goldberg are in the collections of the most famous American museums, such as: Metropolitan Museum of Art and Museum of Modern Art in New York, National Gallery of Art in Washington, Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Museum of Art in San Francisco. His works can be also seen in a numerous museums around the world e.g.: in museums of Israel, National Museum and Jewish Museum in Warsaw.