Gabriel (Joseph) Talphir (; 1901–1990) was an Israeli poet, art critic, publisher, editor and translator.

Biography

Gabriel Talphir was born as Joseph Wundermann in Stanislaw, Galicia, then ruled by the

Austro-Hungarian Empire Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military and diplomatic alliance, it consist ...

. When World War I broke out, he was sent to study at a Jewish high school in Vienna. Later he studied at art at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (, ) is a public university, public research university in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest ...

and taught at several Jewish schools in

Vilna Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

Zamość Zamość (; ; ) is a historical city in southeastern Poland. It is situated in the southern part of Lublin Voivodeship, about from Lublin, from Warsaw. In 2021, the population of Zamość was 62,021. Zamość was founded in 1580 by Jan Zamoyski ...

Lwow Lviv ( or ; ; ; see #Names and symbols, below for other names) is the largest city in western Ukraine, as well as the List of cities in Ukraine, fifth-largest city in Ukraine, with a population of It serves as the administrative centre of ...

, and

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

. He was a member of the Zionist youth group

Hechalutz HeHalutz or HeChalutz (, lit. "The Pioneer") was a Jewish youth movement that trained young people for agricultural settlement in the Land of Israel. It became an umbrella organization of the pioneering Zionist youth movements. History Before W ...

and immigrated to Palestine in 1925.Gabriel Talphir, The Israel Museum
/ref> In 1924, Talphir published his first poems in Polish Jewish periodicals. Later, he included them in his collection of verse, ''Three Poems.'' His most well-known poems are ''Legion'' (1925), ''Jazz Band'', a rhythmic poem (1927), ''Hunger'' (1928), and ''The Scattered Manifest'' (1928). Talphir also wrote and published art criticism. In 1932, he founded ''Gazith'', a journal on arts and culture. For years, "

Gazith Gazith was a monthly magazine for art and literature, which described itself as "a stage for artistic-literary creation and free thought". It was founded by Gabriel Talphir (Yosef Wunderman) in 1931. The monthly was published every month from 1932 ...

" was the only Jewish periodical dedicated to the plastic arts. He edited the journal with the help of his wife Miriam. Gazith published prose, poetry, essays, reviews and illustrations of art and architecture. Of the essays published during its first year, a third were dedicated to visual art. Most were about European Jewish artists, among them

Liebermann Lieberman and Liebermann are names deriving from ''Lieb'', a German and Jewish (Ashkenazic) nickname for a person from the German ''lieb'' or Yiddish ''lib'', meaning 'dear, beloved'.Patrick Hanks and Flavia Hodges, ''A Dictionary of Surnames'', Ox ...

, Menkes, Mintchine, Modigliani,

Pascin Julius Mordecai Pincas (March 31, 1885 – June 2, 1930), known as Pascin (, erroneously or ), Jules Pascin, also known as the "Prince of Montparnasse", was a Bulgarian artist of the School of Paris, known for his paintings and drawings. He ...

Pissarro Jacob Abraham Camille Pissarro ( ; ; 10 July 1830 – 13 November 1903) was a Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, St Thomas (now in the US Virgin Islands, but t ...

Frenkel Frenkel is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Aaron G. Frenkel (born 1957), Israeli entrepreneur and philanthropist * Alexander Frenkel (born 1985), German boxer of Ukrainian origin * Boris Borvine Frenkel (1895–1984), Polish ...

and Soutine. In 1937, he published a large format album, ''Contemporary Jewish Painters'', which included the reproductions of 20 painters, most of whom originating from Eastern Europe, 14 Parisians among whom were

Chagall Marc Chagall (born Moishe Shagal; – 28 March 1985) was a Russian and French artist. An early modernism, modernist, he was associated with the School of Paris, École de Paris, as well as several major art movement, artistic styles and created ...

, Soutine and Modigliani and 6 from Erez Israel among whom were

, Castel, Litvinovsky, Shemi and others. On behalf of the 70-year anniversary of Gazith's establishment in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

, the head of the municipality of Tel Aviv-Yafo,

Shlomo Lahat Shlomo "Chich" Lahat (; November 9, 1927 – October 1, 2014) was a major general in the Israel Defense Forces and former Head of the Manpower Directorate. He served as the eighth mayor of Tel Aviv in 1974–1993, for four consecutive terms. Afte ...

, wrote to Talphir that he could not imagine the original artistic and cultural achievement of the city without Talphir's periodical and his dedicated work. Talphir was also a translator. Among the many books he translated were the works of

Ilya Ehrenburg Ilya Grigoryevich Ehrenburg (, ; – August 31, 1967) was a Soviet writer, revolutionary, journalist and historian. Ehrenburg was among the most prolific and notable authors of the Soviet Union; he published around one hundred titles. He becam ...

Ève Curie Ève Denise Curie Labouisse (; December 6, 1904 – October 22, 2007) was a French and American writer, journalist and pianist. Ève Curie was the younger daughter of Marie Skłodowska-Curie and Pierre Curie. Her sister was Irène Joliot-Curie a ...

(the daughter of

Madame Curie Maria Salomea Skłodowska-Curie (; ; 7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934), known simply as Marie Curie ( ; ), was a Polish and naturalised-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first wo ...

) translated with wife Miriam, and

Franz Werfel Franz Viktor Werfel (; 10 September 1890 – 26 August 1945) was an Austrian-Bohemian novelist, playwright, and poet whose career spanned World War I, the Interwar period, and World War II. He is primarily known as the author of '' The Forty ...

. He also edited, published and translated art books and albums.

Legacy

In 1991, on the first anniversary of his death, all his poems were re-released by Gazith. A collection of artist's portrait photographs and letters from Talphir's estate is found today at the

Information Center for Israeli Art The Information Center for Israeli Art (ICIA) is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the Israeli art in Israel. Over 12,000 artists files are housed in the Center in the Israel Museum, Jerusalem. History As a r ...

in the

Israel Museum The Israel Museum (, ''Muze'on Yisrael'', ) is an Art museum, art and archaeology museum in Jerusalem. It was established in 1965 as Israel's largest and foremost cultural institution, and one of the world's leading Encyclopedic museum, encyclopa ...

, Jerusalem.

Biography

Legacy

See also

References

Further reading