Self-Portrait

Oil on Wood, 63×71

‫Isidor Ascheim

Isidor Ascheim was born in Posen (Poznań), Prussia (present-day Poland) in 1891 to an Orthodox Jewish family. He studied in Breslaue. Among his teachers were Otto Mueller and Friedrich Pautsch. His works were painted in the spirit of German Expressionism, as he was highly influenced by Erich Heckel – a member of the Die Brücke group (The Bridge). When the Nazis gained power, he was no longer permitted to exhibit his works, therefore he began working as a teacher at a Jewish school.

In 1940, he immigrated to Palestine, illegally. Upon his arrival he was arrested, and ended up spending 7 months in custody in Atlit. In 1845 he began teaching at the Bezalel Academy of Art and even served as the school’s director in 1960-1961.