Jacob Mącznik

Jacob Mącznik (4 December 1905 – 10 May 1945) was a Polish-French, Jewish artist, a young painter of the École de Paris until its destruction by the Nazis. Alternative versions of his family name that have been used include Macznik, Moncznik, and Montchnik. Alternative versions of his first name are Jakub, Yankel, Jankel, Yakov, and Yank'l.


Édouard Roditi, the poet, essayist, surrealist author, scholar, critic, translator and art historian, wrote of Mącznik that he was "among the more prominent artists who died as victims of Nazi extermination camps," that he was "gifted with outstanding" "individual talent," and that had he "lived to profit from the post-war international boom in contemporary art," he "might indeed have now enjoyed considerable fame."


Encyclopaedia Judaica notes of the École de Paris victims, "Among the more prominent artists who died as victims of Nazi extermination camps were [seventeen painters are then listed, including] "... Jacob Macznik 1905–1944 [sic] ..." The entry continues, "These martyred artists were gifted with such outstanding and diverse talents that it would now be as unfair to try to force them all into a Jewish school as it was, under the Nazi regime, to deny them their human rights because they were Jews.


Mącznik was the first of seven children in an orthodox, Aleksander Khassidic family in Łódź, Poland. His family moved to Potok, near Kielce, during World War I likely for financial reasons. While in Kielce, he fell in love with drama, and gave theatrical performances with his friends. Jacob and his family left Kielce in 1921, moving back to Łódź. An art student sparked his interest in art, and took him to Warsaw. Very soon after arrival in Warsaw, the friend abruptly needed to depart to Danzig (now Gdańsk) for family reasons, leaving Mącznik on his own.


He studied at the School of Fine Arts and worked in Warsaw, but grew nostalgic for home, and so eventually returned to his parents in Łódź, where he tried to paint. From there, several trips revealed to him the charm of landscapes.


In 1928, he was wed and later the same year arrived with his wife in Paris. He painted and they both worked.


In 1931, Macznik's works were first shown in Paris. It was in the autumn 1931 exhibition of Jeune Europe Young Europe, a combined library and gallery owned and directed by the Italian writer Antonio Aniante. Aniante wrote:


"The YOUNG EUROPE is opening this year to present first of all the new paintings of the Polish painter Jacob Macznik who for the first time in Paris exhibited at my place in autumn 1931. I consider Macznik (with Carlo Levi and Halé Asaf) as the best painter of my new avant garde troupe. Macznik moves away from them with this surprising quality of populist artist. Here is Mr. Therives, a follower for your movement. Macznik arises from the people and suffering, but also from love. You will find in these paintings, the joy of freedom and the charm of poverty rendered without any artifice. Macznik is a realist, all honesty and all faith. He is a poet, a thinker, a wise man who expresses himself in color and form. Having understood his past, his present, and his future, and being the first to encourage it, to impress the crowd, here is the best book I have written this year."

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