Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 11

Jonah Kinigstein
Large Judaica Oil Painting Rabbi Rediscovered NY Artist Simchat Torah

c. 1950s

$4,400
£3,340.40
€3,820.71
CA$6,147.44
A$6,837.29
CHF 3,570.22
MX$83,202.58
NOK 45,597.18
SEK 42,762.11
DKK 28,515.43
Shipping
Retrieving quote...
The 1stDibs Promise:
Authenticity Guarantee,
Money-Back Guarantee,
24-Hour Cancellation

About the Item

"Simchat Torah" by Jonah Kinigstein Large Oil on Board Painting of Rabbi Frame: 46 X 32 Image: 39 X 25.5 Jonah Kinigstein (b. 1923) is an American Postwar & Contemporary painter. He works in a figurative expressionist style. His works are featured in the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the National Academy of Design, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He lives in New York City. Jonah Kinigstein was trained at Cooper Union Art School, The Grande Chaumiere in Paris; and Belle Arte in Rome. He has been a Fulbright Fellow. He has holdings at MOMA, the Ain Herod Museum in Tel Aviv; Smithsonian; the Albright-Knox Gallery and the Nelson Gallery of Art. He lived and worked in Brooklyn New York. Kinigstein was inducted as an Academician into the National Academy of Design in 1997. Exhibits include: Young Americans at the Whitney Museum of American Art; the National Academy of Arts and Letters; ACA Gallery; Rittenhouse Gallery; the Washington Irving Gallery; and the Pindar Gallery. Contemporary American Painting and Sculpture (CAPS) '59, University of Illinois, Arthur Okamura, Fred Farr, Jonah Kinigstein, Lawrence Calcagno, Reuben Tam and Rico Lebrun. Jonatha Kinigstein attended The Cooper Union and Grand Chaumiere, Paris. He received a Fulbright scholarship to study in Rome, and has also received awards from the Butler Art Institute; American Academy of Arts and Letters; Silvermine Guild; and Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation. Kinigstein has had solo shows at Galerie Bretau, Paris; Alan Gallery, Grippi Gallery, ACA Gallery, and Pindar Gallery, New York; Siembab Gallery, Boston; Rittenhouse Gallery, Philadelphia; among others. His work is in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art; Museum of Modern Art; Allentown Art Museum; Albright Art Gallery; Butler Art Institute; and more. He has taught at the Brooklyn Museum and National Academy of Design School of Fine Arts. Born in 1923 in Coney Island, Jonah’s early influences were discovered during visits to the Metropolitan Museum- “When I really saw the old masters, it blew my mind, of course.” He attended Cooper Union for a year before he was drafted into the Army, serving from 1942 – 1945. Soon after, Jonah moved to Paris where he spent time at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, conversing with other aspiring artists, exchanging ideas, exhibiting his work, seeing established artists, and generally soaking up a fertile creative environment. He exhibited in several shows including the Salon D’Automne, Salon de Mai, and the Salon des Moins de Trente Ans, and had one-man shows in the Galerie Breteau and Les Impressions D’Art. After Paris, Jonah moved to Rome on a Fulbright Scholarship and studied at the La Schola Di Belles Artes. After a year, he returned to the U.S. and exhibited his paintings at the Downtown Gallery in Manhattan. A classically trained painter whose ambitions were frustrated by the New York art world’s obsession with Abstract Expressionism and the lucrative industry that grew up around it. Like so many painters, he was unable to make a living solely from painting, so he worked in the commercial art world and did freelance illustration and design. Throughout this time, Jonah’s commitment to his own art never wavered, and he continued to paint and occasionally exhibit. He was included in the MoMA show, Summer Exhibition: New Acquisitions; Recent American Prints, 1947–1953; Katherine S. Dreier Bequest; Kuniyoshi and Spencer; Expressionism in Germany; Varieties of Realism along with Alexander Archipenko, Francis Bacon, Balthus, Will Barnet, Leonard Baskin, Eugene Berman, Reg Butler, Lovis Corinth, Andre Derain, Otto Dix, Raoul Dufy, Max Ernst, Lucian Freud, George Grosz, Alexei Jawlensky, Oskar Kokoschka, Roberto Matta, Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp and more. The most comprehensive collection of paintings by the noted satirist and cartoonist Jonah Kinigstein Unrepentant Artist features over a hundred paintings that “discover the most repulsive absurdities and abnormalities in the world as a whole — in human existence as such” (from Barry Schwabsky’s introduction). Kinigstein’s portrait and landscape paintings and satirical cartoons. An art-world pariah most of his life, he’s become an unlikely star at age 92, with an acclaimed exhibition of his savagely satirical cartoons at the Society of Illustrators in New York and a new book from comics powerhouse Fantagraphics that shares its title, “The Emperor’s New Clothes: The Tower of Babel in the ‘Art’ World. “ As that name attests, Kinigstein’s work rips into what he sees as the vapidity, pretension and inanity of 20th-century modern art, from institutions like MoMA to gallerists like Ilona Sonnabend to critics like Clement Greenberg. Sacred-cow abstract expressionist artists — Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Jasper Johns – don’t escape his poison pen, either. “I put the cartoons up on walls all over Soho,” he says. “I really gave these people the business. And I got a lot of pushback. Some people wanted to fight with me.” They’d have a tough adversary. Kinigstein was born in the Bronx and raised on East Tremont Avenue in one of the borough’s rougher sections. His family was Jewish, but not especially religious; “we had Passover Seders, things like that,” he says. He studied architecture and painting at Cooper Union, which was still free at the time for deserving students. After serving in the Army as a photographer, Kinigstein bolted for Paris and Rome, where he studied art on a Fulbright scholarship and exhibited his paintings. Back in the U.S., Kinigstein’s figurative work found a following, until it didn’t; as more diffuse art forms took over, his style fell out of favor among art-world gatekeepers. “There was no interest in figurative art or what I had to say,” he remembers. To support himself, he launched a career in advertising and commercial illustration, drawing and painting on the side. “I’m really a painter. The cartoons came later,” he says. “I had to do something to clear the air.” Eventually, Kinigstein sent his cartoons to Fantagraphics, where they lay in the office of publisher Gary Groth for five years. When Groth finally got around to opening Kinigstein’s mailing tube, he was blown away. “It was savage, contrarian work,” Groth says in the short film that accompanies Kinigstein’s MoCCA exhibition. The cartoons – which draw inspiration from classic satirical cartoonists like William Hogarth, James Gillray, and George Cruickshank — have been collected in a handsome 80-page volume that lands this month. Not everyone in the art world gets darts from Kinigstein. “I never lost interest in Picasso,” he says. “He was always figurative.” Kinigstein pointed to the packed walls of the Society of Illustrators’ gracious third-floor restaurant, where he spoke with the Forward. In the meantime, Kinigstein seems to be enjoying his belated moment in the sun. He’s even slated to lecture this spring at Parsons the New School for Design, the temple of art education in New York.
  • Creator:
    Jonah Kinigstein (1923, American)
  • Creation Year:
    c. 1950s
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 46 in (116.84 cm)Width: 32 in (81.28 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
    Minor wear to frame. Mat has some toning. Please see photos.
  • Gallery Location:
    Surfside, FL
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU38214733622

More From This Seller

View All
Rare Judaica Jewish Rabbi Oil Painting
By Samuel Heller
Located in Surfside, FL
Genre: Judaica Subject: People Medium: Oil Surface: Board Dimensions: 14 1/2" x 19" Dimensions w/Frame: 20 1/4" x 24 1/4"
Category

Mid-20th Century Impressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Hungarian Judaica, Hassidic Rabbi painting
By Weber Gyula
Located in Surfside, FL
Gyula Weber Genre: Realism Subject: Portrait Medium: Oil Surface: Canvas Dimensions: 16" x 12" x 3/4" Dimensions w/Frame: 21 1/4" x 17 1/4"
Category

20th Century Impressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Rare Modernist Judaica Scholar Rabbi in Synagogue Oil Painting Signed Mora
Located in Surfside, FL
a mid century Judaica painting of a Rabbi wearing a Tallit prayer shawl. In the Modernist manner of Maurice Kish, Tully filmus or William Gropper. ...
Category

20th Century Folk Art Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Large Judaica Jerusalem Oil Painting Israeli Jewish Rabbi Artist Tzvi Raphaely
By Zvi Raphaeli
Located in Surfside, FL
Rabbi Portrait, Oil Painting Framed: 37.5 x 26. Canvas: 31.5 X 20 Bears original label verso from Safrai Gallery Lovely Israeli Chassidic Rabbi portrait oil painting, vibrant colorful painting. Hand signed in Hebrew and English. Done in a style similar and influenced by Marc Chagall. Svi Raphaely (also known as Tzvi Raphaeli...
Category

20th Century Post-Impressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Rare 1950s New York Modernist Judaica Rabbi Oil Painting signed A. Einstein
By A. Einstein
Located in Surfside, FL
Rare Mid Century Judaic figure of a Jewish rabbi at prayer. signed A. Einstein.
Category

1950s Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Chassidic Rabbi with Shtreimel, Rare Judaica Oil Painting Signed in Hebrew
Located in Surfside, FL
Rare Judaica Art. Jewish genre scene. In the tradition of Moritz Oppenheim, Isidor Kauffman and Maurycy Gottlieb and later of Tully Filmus, Zalman Kle...
Category

Mid-20th Century Post-Impressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

You May Also Like

Rabbi and Torah, Oil Painting by Abraham Straski
By Abraham Straski
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Abraham Straski, Polish (1903 - 1987) Title: Rabbi and Torah Year: circa 1957 Medium: Oil on Canvas, signed l.r. Image Size: 16 x 12 inches Frame Size: 26 x 20 inches
Category

1950s Post-War Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Rabbi, Oil Painting by Donald Roy Purdy
By Donald Roy Purdy
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Donald Roy Purdy, American (1924 - ) Title: Rabbi Year: circa 1960 Medium: Oil on Masonite, signed l.r. Size: 36 x 24 in. (91.44 x 60.96 cm)
Category

1960s Post-War Figurative Paintings

Materials

Masonite, Oil

Judaica Portrait Oil Painting of a Rabbi Examining the Lulav Signed Rosendall
Located in Long Island City, NY
An oil painting on canvas representing a Judaica portrait of an old Rabbi, after the original oil painting, Examining the Lulav, . Signed by the artist, Rosendall, lower left. Framed...
Category

Antique 19th Century Unknown Paintings

Materials

Paint

Rabbi with Torah, 1970s Oil Painting by Donald Roy Purdy
By Donald Roy Purdy
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Donald Roy Purdy, American (1924 - ) Title: Rabbi with Torah Year: circa 1970 Medium: Oil on Masonite, signed l.r. Size: 36 x 24 in. (91.44 x 60.96 cm) Frame Size: 45 x 31 in...
Category

1970s Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Masonite, Oil

Rabbi with Torah, Oil Painting by Abraham Straski 1950
By Abraham Straski
Located in Long Island City, NY
Rabbi with Torah Abraham Straski, Polish (1903–1987) Date: 1950 Oil on Canvas on Wood, signed and dated Size: 16 x 12 in. (40.64 x 30.48 cm) Frame Size: 19.5 x 15.5 inches
Category

1950s Post-War Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Wood

Rabbi with Torah, Oil Painting by Sandu Liberman
By Sandu Liberman
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Sandu Liberman, Romanian/Israeli (1923 - 1977) Title: Rabbi with Torah Scroll Year: Circa 1970 Medium: Oil on Canvas, signed and dedicated verso S...
Category

1970s American Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil