Kolnik, Arthur
KOLNIK, ARTHUR
KOLNIK, ARTHUR (1890–1972), French painter and printmaker. Kolnik was a native of Stanislavov, Galicia, and studied at the School of Fine Arts in Cracow. He fought as an officer in the Austro-Hungarian Army in World War i, and was wounded. After the war, he went to Czernowitz (then Romania), where he took part in the intellectual life of the city, and became a close friend of the Yiddish poet, Itzik *Manger. In 1921, with Reuven *Rubin, he went to the United States where they had a joint exhibition under the sponsorship of Prince Bibesco, the Romanian minister. Kolnik returned to Czernowitz, where he made woodcuts. Among the books he illustrated was one of fables by Eliezer Steinbarg. In 1931 he settled in Paris. As a printmaker and painter, Kolnik depicted the ghetto dwellers of Eastern Europe. He presented them with sympathy and understanding, the human forms being very sharply outlined and the whole space freely divided into patterns of geometric planes.