Itzhak Holtz is without doubt, one of the outstanding painters of traditional Jewish life. An observant Jew, he has painted Jewish types and scenes from Jewish life with great talent, devotion and love.
An exhibition of his work will open next Sunday afternoon, October 29, at the Chassidic Art Institute in Brooklyn (375 Kingston Ave.)
I saw Holtz’ paintings for the first time 22 years ago, when he had a one-man show at the Theodor Herzl Institute Gallery in Manhattan.
“Rejoicing of the Torah,” The Old Hasid,” “An Alley in Jerusalem” and “On the Lower East Side” were some of the titles of his works.
Visitors marvelled. They spent a long time in front of each of the pictures, admiring the artist’s conception, studying details of the portraits, and taking in the overall impressions of his larger compositions.
Since then I have visited him in his studio and have seen some of his other exhibitions.
He has continued to excel during the last two decades. He has had shows in various cities, his paintings have been acquired by numerous collections and he has been the recipient of prestigious awards. However the artist has remained the same: the same unobstrusive and soft spoken man I had met in 1967 at the Herzl institute.
Holtz began drawing at an early age. He was born in Poland. His father, a hatmaker drew pictures for young Itshak. The child was fascinated with them. The artist recalls with a smile, how as a child he would waken his father in the night and ask him to draw pictures.
In 1935, when he was 10, the family left Poland and settled in Jerusalem. He attended the local Tachkemoni school. In class he would draw figures and scenes from the weekly Sidra.
He studied at Jerusalem’s Betzalel and after coming to the United States in 1950 continued his art education at the New York Art Student League and the National Academy of Design.
In Jerusalem he had lived near Me’ah Shearim. He fell in love with the quarter, its people, alleys and synagogues. In New York his favorite haunts were the Lower East Side, Williamsburg and Boro Park.
Periodically he visits Israel to paint in the old quarters of Jerusalem and Safed.
The late famous art critic Alfred Werner wrote about Holtz: “His swift pencil, his brisk, easy brush are not confined to simple narration. Close examination of his offerings reveals that his works are based on a thoughtful organization of all pictorial elements. One finds a subtle planometric composition, a careful orchestration of pigments, demonstrating that, far from being a counterfeiter of reality, Holtz always endeavors to work out before the genuine aesthetic problems that intrigue him.”
“At his best,” Werner continued, “Holtz is also trying to bring into focus important details, while omitting others that might detract from the solidity of composition. What he is after, in short, is a poetic instensification of reality, by availing himself fully of the spirit lacking even in the most complicated machine – the mind and the soul of man. He seeks to give us authentic people and if, there are many of them, he groups them with an artful plausibility, with careful consideration for space, depth and the play of light, in order to satisfy his own creative yearnings no less than the customer’s taste for the unpretentiously charming and quaint.”
Holtz’ portraits are drawn in fine detail. So are his large compositions. The successful combination of colors and the interplay of light and shadow lend his pictuers a plastic quality. You can feel the figures and scenes they represent.
While I write these lines some of his paintings which I had seen on various occasions and had impressed me deeply, pass before my mind’s eye.
Three men wrapped in Talleissim, at prayer. Watching their moving lips and clear eyes turned heavenward, you understand the meaning of devotion!
An old, bearded tailor sewing a coat bespeaks honesty and industriousness.
A group of Jerusalem Jews returning home from the Shabbos morning prayers radiates the serene Shabbat atmosphere of the Holy City.
A rabbi immersed in study makes you lower your voice, lest you disturb the scholar.
And there were his large canvasses: Huppa in Jerusalem, Kiddush Levana, Sukkoth in Wiliiamsburg, The Ethrogima nd Lulavim market on the Lower East Side and Jerusalem’s Meah Shearim. What wonderful paintings! What brilliant compositions!
Such are Holtz’ creations. Works like these will be on display at the forthcoming exhibition. The centerpiece of the show is a large canvas. Shopping for Sukkoth, a fascinating painting portraying an Ethrog and Lulav market in Williamsburg. The Chassidic Art Institute printed it — in full color– on the invitations to the show. The reproduction aroused excitement, whetting appetites for the exhibition.
The Jewish Press, Friday, October 27, 1989 p. 14