Mintchine Isaac

Biography

Isaac Mintchine, born in 1900 in kyiv, Ukraine, had a difficult and unhappy childhood in an era marked by instability. At 17, he was plunged into the chaos of the Russian Revolution and the war in Ukraine. It was as a young adult that he arrived in France, probably with the hope that Paris would enrich his art. Yet Mintchine was not particularly sociable. Although he formed friendships with artists such as Soutine and Zadkine, he had difficulty mixing with art collectors and lived in poverty.
Even so, at a time when cheap travel was possible, Mintchine visited Algeria and Morocco. A poet as well as a painter, he wrote in Yiddish and his paintings often illustrated his poetic works. Like Chagall's, his world is filled with Russian folklore, fables, nostalgia, dreams and regrets. He was also inspired by French history and his memories of the Orient. Mintchine, a natural colorist with an innate sense of composition, was frustrated by his lack of formal artistic training, which he could not afford. He wrote: "I weep in my own way, my painting follows the sobs and tears of my soul."
In 1941, Minchin was deported by the Nazis and never returned. Most of his writings were lost during the German occupation. However, several of his paintings survived, and the artist eventually received posthumous recognition.