Celnikier Isaac, born 8 May 1923 in Warsaw, he died 11 November 2011 in Paris. Painter and graphic artist of Jewish origin. In the years 1941-1943 held in the Bialystok ghetto, then imprisoned in concentration camps (including Stuthoff, Auschwitz, Sachsenhausen and Flossenburg). In 1945 he was in a Soviet camp in Šumperk in Moravia, from where he escaped to Prague, where in 1946-1952 he studied monumental painting under the direction of E. Filla at the School of Art and Industry. In 1947-1948 he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts (Polish: Akademia Sztuk Pięknych, ASP) in Warsaw. One of the organizers and a participant in the Young Artists Exhibition at the Arsenal in Warsaw (1955). From 1957 he lived in France. Celnikier’s art is dominated by the theme of the Jewish Holocaust (Ghetto 1949, the Birkenau series 1992), biblical motifs (the Song of Songs cycle 1978-1982, Esther 1979), landscapes from Israel (the Masada cycle 1971-1982). He also painted portraits and still lifes, in these works, usually marked by a strong expression, the form plays a major role as a carrier of feelings and emotions.

Entry based on source materials of PWN.