Kuzkovski, Joseph
KUZKOVSKI, JOSEPH
KUZKOVSKI, JOSEPH (1902–1970), Russian Jewish artist. Kuzkovski was born in Mogilev, Belorussia. In 1920 he enrolled at the Kiev Academy of Art, where in 1941 he held a one-man exhibition. He was selected as a member of a group of Russian representative artists at an exhibition in Oslo, Norway. During World War ii he lived in Uzbekistan, and it was during this period that he began to use Jewish themes and characters in a series of works which were lost. After the war he took up residence in Riga and devoted himself to themes connected with the Holocaust. His greatest work, The Last Way, on Jews being led to their death at *Babi Yar, first exhibited in 1964, was acquired by the Knesset, where it is on permanent exhibition.
Kuzkovski and his wife immigrated to Israel in 1969. He was engaged on what he called a sequel to The Last Way – Masada Shall Not Fall Again – the theme of which was to be hope instead of despair, but died before it was completed. An album of his works was published in 1971.