Zeev Kun

Zeev Kun (2015)

Zeev Kun (born April 16, 1930 in Nyíregyháza , Hungary ) is an Israeli painter of Hungarian origin. He is the father of the painter Shay Kun .

Life

The Israeli painter Zeev Kun was born on April 16, 1930 in the city of Nyíregyháza in northeast Hungary . His parents, Blanka and Sándor, owned a small art supply store, where Zeev worked as a messenger at the age of twelve. His work in the shop of the parents did not last long: in March-June 1944, the deportation of Hungarian Jews began, and Zeev, who at the time was only 14 years old, was in a concentration camp Jaworzno noted the 23 kilometers from Auschwitz was removed and served as a satellite warehouse. From January to April 1945 he was taken to the Groß-Rosen , Buchenwald and Flossenbürg camps. On April 23, 1945, the concentration camp was liberated by the 97th Infantry Division of the US Army.

At the end of August 1945 he managed to return to Hungary. Zeev Kun returned to school with the warehouse number on hand. After finishing school he was admitted to the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts in autumn 1947 , where he studied for almost two years. When the new political regime intensified its repression, all of the family's property was confiscated in 1949. Now Zeev Kun managed to secretly cross the Czech border with a group of 30 Jews from the organization " Hashomer Hatzair " and then to travel on to Italy via Austria . From the city of Bari, the group arrived in Israel on board a ship .

When he arrived in Israel, Zeev Kunst first went to Kibbutz Giwat-Haim near Hadera . He did not stay there long: in 1951 he returned to Austria to begin his studies at the Vienna Art Academy . Zeev Kun came to Vienna just at the time when the so-called “ Vienna School of Fantastic Realism ” was being formed. Students and young professors at the Vienna Art Academy tried to analyze and portray the tragedy and horror of the Second World War in their works. At the same time they tried to enter into a dialogue with the artists of the German Renaissance (with painters like Hieronymus Bosch and Peter Brueghel the Elder ) and with surrealists of the twenties and thirties, primarily with Max Ernst (1891–1976). As Zeev Kun remembers, Anton Lehmden and Ernst Fuchs were particularly close to him during those years . The main theme of the works of E. Fuchs is the apocalypse. His paintings convey a premonition of a catastrophe, of an inevitable collapse of the world; Death is always present in his fearful works. It is no wonder that Zeev Kun, who walked through Auschwitz and Buchenwald, was so deeply moved and influenced by the paintings of this painter, who was also of the same age.

Art and exhibitions

After his time in Vienna, Zeev Kun returned to Israel, where he joined the local association of painters and sculptors in 1954. His exhibitions have been held in many Israeli cities such as Jerusalem (1954) and Tel Aviv (1959, 1961, 1963, 1964, 1968, 2014), as well as in Brussel (1960), Paris (1962, 1972, 1994), London (1965 ), Sydney (1967), New York (1968), Los Angeles (1968), Detroit (1970), Amsterdam (1972), Stockholm (1975), Antwerp (1976) and in Berlin (1987). Zeev Kun was awarded the Max Nordau Prize in 1973 from numerous Israeli painter prizes.

In his artistic works, Zeev Kun tries to show that despite the national rebirth in Israel and in some diaspora countries, the memory of the Holocaust will never be overcome.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Style and Works (exhibition in Tel Aviv)
2. ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: Exhibition in Haifa
3. ^ Museum of Israeli Art

Web links

• The Art of Zeev Kun (in English)