us-005578-irn84801
type: RecordSet
archival history: Shomer ha-tsaʻir (Organization : Israel). Merkaz tiʻud ṿa-ḥeḳer
biographical history: Nathan Rapoport was born in 1911 in Warsaw, Poland to a poor but extremely religious Jewish family. He was the grandson of Hasidim: one grandfather was a cantor; the other a shochet [ritual slaughterer]. As a child he belonged to Hashomer Hatsa’ir [Young Guard of the Zionist Left Wing], and attended Hebrew school. However, he had to leave school to help support the family. Rapoport trained as an architectural apprentice and at age 14 entered a municipal art school and studied sculpture. He attended the Academy of Art in Warsaw and won awards for his architectural, metal, and sculptural work and commissions for portrait busts that helped pay his tuition. He received scholarships to study at the Fine Arts Academy in Paris and to travel to Italy. Throughout the 1930s, he entered and won many competitions. In 1936, his piece, The Tennis Player, was submitted by the Polish government for exhibition in Berlin as part of the Summer Olympics, but Rapoport refused to let it be shown in Nazi Germany. In June 1939, Rapoport left Paris and returned to Warsaw. When Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, Rapoport fled the city to join the Polish army which was regrouping in the forests between Warsaw and Bialystok. Unable to locate the army, Rapoport, along with other Jewish refugees, fled east into Soviet-controlled territory. Refugees who could provide skills deemed valuable by the state were allowed to stay in the Soviet Union. Rapoport identified himself as an artist and joined a collective of 120 Jewish artists in Bialystok which provided food, clothing and housing. Members of the Communist Party Arts Committee arrived from Minsk, looking for works for an upcoming exhibition. Rapoport’s work impressed the committee and they moved him to a studio in Minsk where he worked alongside another Jewish artist. Several of his pieces were shown at this exhibition. While in Minsk, the 2nd secretary of the Party, Kulagin, visited Rapoport’s studio and commissioned several state pr…
conditions of use: Copyright Holder: Shomer ha-tsaʻir (Organization : Israel). Merkaz tiʻud ṿa-ḥeḳer
has beginning date: 1911-01-01
has end date: 1995-12-31
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had identifier: 1
has or had identifier: 2
has or had some members with language: heb
has or had some members with language: eng
has or had some members with language: yid
has or had some members with language: fra
has or had subject: 684
has or had subject: 701
has or had subject: 843
has record set type: Item
identifier: irn84801
record resource extent: 13,856 digital images, JPEG
record resource structure: The system of arrangement of the source repository has been preserved in digital images.
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: The collection consists of diaries, an interview with Nathan Rapoport conducted by Ellen Kurtz, his biography by Stella Corraine-Lieber, a list of his work, notebooks, newspapers clippings, articles and correspondence. Includes also photographs of the artist's works.
title: Nathan Rapoport personal archives (RG-95-80) נתן רפופורט