Jacques Zucker (1900-1981), French
Pastel (15" x 12")
Au Salon
Price on Request

Jacques Zucker (1900-1981)

Zucker was born in Radom, Poland in 1900.  As a youth he went to Palestine to study at the Bezalel Art School in Jerusalem.  In 1917 he joined the British Royal Fuesiliers under the leadership of General Allenby to liberate Palestine from the Turks.  After the war he studied art in Paris at the Academie Julian.  He emigrated to the U.S. in 1922 and continued his art studies at the National Academy of Design.  He supported himself by designing jewelry.  In 1925 he returned to Paris and studied at the Academie de la Grande Chaumier et Colarossi. During the Depression he worked for the WPA.

Zucker’s work, including landscapes, still-lives, and portraits painted in post-impressionist style were exhibited in numerous one-man shows in leading galleries and museums in New York, Paris, Tel Aviv, and other art centers.  His work is represented in numerous museums and private collections, including the Hirshorn, the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, the Bezalel Art Museum in Jerusalem.  A comprehensive studyof Zucker’s oeuvre was written by the dean of French art critics, Claude Roger-Marx of Figaro Litteraire.  It is illustrated with 135 color and black and white plates.

While being Jewish figured extensively in Zucker’s art and writings, he also took pride in being an “internationalist”.  “The art of painting in its highest expression is universal.  People who respond to quality in art will understand the beauty and meaning of a ‘good painting,’ no matter where the canvas was created, in their own land or in a foreign land.”

Zucker maintained homes in Paris and New York, and spent considerable time painting in Mexico, Portugal, Greece, and Israel.  He died in New York, March 18, 1981.

Sources: New York Artists Equity Newsletter, June, 1981, p. 2, “In Memoriam”.