{"id":18044,"date":"2021-02-19T22:35:33","date_gmt":"2021-02-19T20:35:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/judaicacenter.kyiv.ua\/?page_id=18044"},"modified":"2021-02-19T23:13:02","modified_gmt":"2021-02-19T21:13:02","slug":"tolkachov","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.judaicacenter.kyiv.ua\/en\/archive\/art\/tolkachov\/","title":{"rendered":"Zinovii Tolkachov"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zinovii Tolkachov<\/b> (1903\u20131977) was a painter, monumental artist, and the master of easel and book graphics.<\/span><\/p>\n

Zinovii Tolkachov was born in 1903. The future artist spent his childhood in the Belarusian town of Shchedrin, a Jewish agricultural colony. Tolkachov graduated from the artisan department of Kyiv State Jewish College. Later he studied at the art school, yet the studies lasted for only 6 months since he had to leave the school due to financial struggles. Tolkachov earned his living by painting street signs and film posters. In 1920, he studied at the Higher Art and Technical Studios (Vkhutemas) in Moscow (under the supervision of Piotr Konchalovsky), and in 1928\u20131929, at Kyiv Art Institute (under the supervision of Fedir Krychevsky). Later he became a lecturer at this institute and was offered the Dean\u2019s position right before World War II.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

In the interwar period, Zinovii Tolkachov became a famous artist, whose works were exhibited in the museums of many Ukrainian cities as well as Prague, Moscow, Leningrad, Warsaw, Venice, Philadelphia, Copenhagen, and Amsterdam. However, after the war, the artist would suffer from oppression for alleged \u201ccosmopolitanism\u201d.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

During World War II, Zinovii Tolkachov was a front painter and took part in the liberation of Auschwitz and Majdanek. He entered the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp immediately after it was liberated by the soldiers of the First Ukrainian Front. Overwhelmed by the discovery, Tolkachov started to make sketches right in the camp. In the absence of paper, he was drawing on the camp blanks. Tolkachov was one of the first artists who depicted the horrors of the Nazi camps and the Holocaust.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Zinovii Tolkachov is the author of the portraits of the Soviet state officials as well as Ukrainian writers. His legacy also includes multiple posters, satirical paintings in the magazine <\/span><\/i>Perets<\/span> (Pepper), and illustrations for the works of Sholom Aleichem and other writers. Yet the most famous of Zinovii Tolkachov\u2019s creations are the series of lithographies on anti-fascist topics (<\/span><\/i>Majdanek<\/span>; <\/span><\/i>O\u015bwi\u0119cim<\/span>; and <\/span><\/i>The Flowers of O\u015bwi\u0119cim<\/span>).<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The painter died in Kyiv in 1977.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

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The archive of the Center contains unique materials related to the life and creations of Zinovii Tolkachov (more than 220 units), which can be useful for art and cultural historians, researchers of World War II and the Holocaust and historians of Jewish shtetls.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are 16 Zinovii Tolkachov\u2019s auto lithographies in the archive:<\/span><\/p>\n