Issachar Ryback

RYBACK, ISSACHAR (1897-1935), Russian-French artist. Ryback was born in the Ukrainian town of Elisavetgrad and studied at the Art Academy in Kiev from 1911-1926. He was an important contributor to the Kiev art scene until 1921 when he moved to Berlin where he participated in the historically important Berlin Secession exhibit. In 1926 Ryback moved to Paris, where he became quite successful and in 1935, Wildenstein, the art dealer, planned a large retrospective exhibition of his work. Sadly Ryback died suddenly, at the age of 38, just before the show's opening.

Ryback was an important member of the Russian Jewish, modernist movement that included Lissitsky, Altman, Aronson, Chaikov, and Chagall, all of whom were seeking to revitalize Jewish art during a period which saw the cultural efflorescence of Yiddish literature, music, theater, and art. In addition to drawings, paintings, and prints, he left a series of small ceramic figures, representing folk types of the shtetl. In 1962, his collection was donated for the establishment of the Ryback Museum in Bat Yam in Israel where it is now on permanent display.