{{short description|Polish-French, Jewish artist (1905–1945)}} {{Infobox artist | image =Jakub Mącznik (1905-1945).jpg | caption = Jakub Mącznik | name = Jacob Mącznik | birth_date = {{Birth date|1905|12|04|df=y}}<ref name="Fenster">''Jacob Macznik'', pp. 136–140 in the Yiddish book אונדזערע פארפייניקטע קינסטלער, by Hersh Fenster, self-published in Paris in 1951, with a foreword (in Yiddish) by Marc Chagall; [https://macznik.org/Translation%20from%20the%20Yiddish%20Fenster%20Kinstler.pdf English translation]</ref><ref name="Aronson">''Jacob Montshnik'', pp. 523–527 in the Yiddish book בילדער און געשטאלטן פון מאנפארנאס, by Chil Aronson, self-published in Paris in 1963, with a foreword (in Yiddish) by Marc Chagall; [https://www.macznik.org/Macznik%20by%20Aronson%201963%20Paris%20Yiddish%20English%20Translation%20improved%20v3.pdf English translation]</ref> | birth_place = Łódź, Poland<ref name="Fenster" /><ref name="Aronson" /> | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1945|05|10|1905|12|04}} | death_place = Ebensee, Austria | field = painting | movement = École de Paris | spouse = Sonia,<ref name="Fenster" /><ref name="Aronson" /> also known as Stella<ref name="Nieszawer">''Jacob MACZNIK'', pp. 221–222 in the French book Artistes Juifs de l'École de Paris, by Nieszawer & Princ, with a foreword by Claude Lanzmann, published by Somogy Editions d'Art in Paris in 2015</ref> | children = none }} '''Jacob Mącznik''' (4 December 1905 – 10 May 1945) was a Polish-French Jewish artist and a young painter associated with the École de Paris until its destruction during the Nazi occupation. Variations of his surname include Macznik, Moncznik, and Montchnik, while alternative forms of his given name include Jakub, Yankel, Jankel, Yakov, and Yank'l.
Édouard Roditi, the poet, essayist, surrealist author, scholar, critic, translator, and art historian, wrote that Mącznik was "among the more prominent artists who died as victims of Nazi extermination camps" and stated that, had he "lived to profit from the post-war international boom in contemporary art," he "might indeed have now enjoyed considerable fame."<ref name="Roditi">''The School of Paris'' in European Judaism: A Journal for the New Europe 1968/1969, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 13–20</ref>
''Encyclopaedia Judaica'' notes, regarding victims of the École de Paris: "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."<ref name="Judaica">''Paris School of Art'' in Encyclopaedia Judaica, 1972 edition, vol. 13, p. 118</ref>
==Early life== Jacob Mącznik was born in Łódź, Poland, as the eldest of seven children in an Orthodox Aleksander ''K''hassidic family. During the First World War, the family relocated to Potok,<ref name="Fenster" /> near Kielce, likely due to financial difficulties.<ref name="Revue">Salon des Artistes Indépendants et Salon d'Art Français Indépendant: Jacob Macznik, by Raymond Sélig, in ''Revue du Vrai et du Beau: Revue des Arts,'' 25 June 1931 (No. 158), C. Balleroy, Director.</ref> While living in Kielce, Mącznik developed an interest in theatre and performed in amateur productions with friends. In 1921, the family returned to Łódź. There, Mącznik met an art student who inspired his interest in painting and brought him to Warsaw. Shortly after their arrival, the student had to leave for Danzig (now Gdańsk), leaving Mącznik alone in the city.<ref name="Revue" />
Mącznik studied at the School of Fine Arts and worked in Warsaw, but he eventually returned to Łódź out of homesickness, where he began painting.<ref name="Revue" /> Several trips from Łódź awakened in him an appreciation for landscape painting.<ref name="Revue" /><ref name="Nieszawer" />
In 1928, he married and moved with his wife to Paris.<ref name="Revue" /><ref name="Fenster" /><ref name="Nieszawer" /><ref name="Aronson" /> There, he painted and both he and his wife worked to support themselves.<ref name="Revue" /><ref name="Fenster" />
==Artistic career in Paris== In 1931, Mącznik's works were first exhibited in Paris at the Jeune Europe gallery, a combined library and exhibition space owned and directed by Italian writer Antonio Aniante. In the exhibition catalogue, Aniante wrote:
<blockquote>The Young Europe is opening this year to present, first of all, the new paintings of the Polish painter Jacob Macznik, who is exhibiting for the first time in Paris at my place, in autumn 1931. I consider Macznik (along with Carlo Levi and Halé Asaf) as the best painter of my new avant-garde troupe. Macznik distinguishes himself by his surprising quality as a populist artist. He arises from the people and from suffering, but also from love. You will find in his paintings the joy of freedom and the charm of poverty rendered without any artifice. Macznik is a realist, full of honesty and faith. He is a poet, a thinker, a wise man who expresses himself through colour and form. Having understood his past, his present, and his future, and being the first to encourage it, to impress the crowd—this is the best book I have written this year.</blockquote>
The concept of "populism" in art, as used at the time, differed significantly from its modern political connotation. It was introduced around 1929 by French writers and critics André Thérive and Léon Lemonnier.{{citation needed|date=December 2020}} According to William Leonard Schwartz, the term was considered the antonym of snobbism.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/379935|title=A Literary Portrait of M. André Thérive Crusader for Good French and for 'The Novel for the Novel's Sake'|author=Schwartz, William Leonard|year=1932|journal=The French Review|volume=5|issue=5|pages=376–394|jstor=379935 }}</ref> Lemonnier defined it as:
<blockquote>"A reaction founded on the realistic tradition and directed against the literature of analysis. It is a call to an art based on observation and sincerity. It entails sympathy for the chosen subject matter and, in particular, sympathy for the people. It designates, on one hand, any work dealing with the common people, whatever its purpose may be, and on the other hand any book which is a continuation of the realistic tradition and which reacts against preciosity in thought or style. Populism is a return to reason."<ref>https://www.scribd.com/document/486294526/Populism Populism, by Felix Walter, in Publications of the Modern Language Association (PMLA) vol.49, no. 1, March 1934, pp. 356–364</ref><ref>https://macznik.org/Antonio%20Aniante%20Jeune%20Europe.pdf Exposition Jacob MACZNIK, typed preface to a book or catalogue titled JEUNE EUROPE, by Antonio Aniante, 1931.</ref></blockquote>
In 1932, the critic Raymond Sélig wrote (translated from French):<ref name="Revue" /> <blockquote>"''Près de la Fenêtre'' [Before the Window] and ''Vue d'une Fenêtre'' [View from a Window] are the titles of two deeply personal works by Jacob Macznik. In these compositions, filled with deep and lived emotion, the artist pursues his favourite artistic quest: to achieve extreme simplicity without sacrificing the expressive power of beauty in its most absolute and definitive form. The woman sitting by the window, reading intently, is truly sincere, while in the background, the usual Parisian rooftops and chimneys unfold."</blockquote>
Sélig noted that after arriving in Paris in 1928, Mącznik had little time to paint due to the need to work. Nonetheless, he wrote:
<blockquote>"He employs so perfectly the sparse bits of time that he is well spoken of, and in the process is building a reputation marked by an irresistible individualism and an innate personality—his two most precious qualities."</blockquote>
Mącznik had a solo exhibition at Jeune Europe from 15 October to 1 November 1932, and participated in a group show there in November the same year. He also exhibited at the Federation of Jewish Societies—though the exact year is uncertain, it was either 1932 or 1937. In addition, he exhibited at Galerie d'Art Jack in Nevers, France, from 13 September to 13 October 1935, alongside Mane-Katz, Flexor, and Dobrinsky. His works were included in the 1939 group exhibition at the Salon des Tuileries.
==Journey to Eastern Europe== According to artist Chil Aronson, writing in 1963, he suggested in 1936 that Mącznik travel to Poland to paint historic wooden synagogues.<ref name="Aronson" /> In contrast, writer Hersh Fenster claimed in his 1951 book that Mącznik himself proposed a joint trip in spring 1937, saying (translated from Yiddish), "I will paint there and you will write," and warning, "There will come a storm, and no traces will remain of them, of the Jewish monuments."<ref name="Fenster" />
Mącznik and Fenster undertook the journey as a form of artistic resistance. Fenster recorded that Mącznik first visited Prague, where he painted the Old New Synagogue. Two paintings of the synagogue are known; one is missing,<ref>[https://macznik.org/Whereabouts%20Unknown.htm Whereabouts Unknown]</ref> while the other remains in the collection of Mącznik's nephew, Samson Munn (USA). A photograph of Mącznik and Fenster taken in Sandomierz is preserved in the archives of the Museum of Art and History of Judaism (MAHJ); a facsimile is available online.<ref>[https://macznik.org/history.htm Macznik and Fenster in Sandomierz, Poland]</ref> Although Fenster's writings from the trip have never been recovered, two sets of Mącznik's watercolours and gouaches are known to survive.<ref>[https://macznik.org/Macznik%20Synagogue%20Folio.htm The Synagogue Folio]</ref> Additional details of the journey appear in Fenster's book.<ref name="Fenster" />
==Later years and death== At the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, Mącznik and his wife were in Auvergne, France. Rather than return to Paris, they travelled to Toulouse and were later assigned forced housing in Loures-Barousse, in the Pyrenées. According to some accounts, Mącznik either joined or attempted to join the French resistance.
In September 1943, Chil Aronson reportedly encountered Mącznik and his wife by chance in a café in Nice. Within a day, arrests began. Mącznik and his wife were arrested and deported to the Drancy internment camp on 1 October 1943, arriving on 5 October. He was deported from Drancy to Auschwitz on 28 October 1943 aboard transport 901/51, arriving on 31 October.<ref>[https://macznik.org/history.htm] Official Nazi Transport Order</ref>
On 18 January 1945, as Soviet forces approached, Mącznik was forced on a "death march" through blizzard conditions to a train that brought him to the Mauthausen concentration camp. He arrived on 25 January, and was transferred four days later to the Ebensee subcamp, a slave-labour division of Mauthausen.<ref name="Fenster" /><ref name="Nieszawer" /><ref name="Aronson" /> He died in Ebensee on 10 May 1945, four days after the camp was liberated by Allied forces.<ref>[https://macznik.org/history.htm U.S. Army document of death, 18 December 1945]</ref><ref>[https://macznik.org/history.htm Several Documents]></ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Macznik, Jacob}} Category:Jewish painters Category:Polish painters Category:1905 births Category:1945 deaths Category:People from Łódź Category:Polish Jews who died in the Holocaust Category:Polish people who died in the Holocaust Category:Polish emigrants to France Category:People who died in Mauthausen concentration camp Category:French people who died in Mauthausen concentration camp Category:Auschwitz concentration camp prisoners