Nachum Gutman

Nachum Gutman (1898-1980) was born in Teleneşti, Bessarabia, in today’s Moldova, and came to the Land of Israel with his family as a child. The family lived in Neve Tzedek, where his father, the writer and educator S. Ben-Zion, taught. He studied art at Bezalel in Jerusalem.

Gutman was a painter, illustrator, sculptor and writer, and one of the artists who shaped the visual image of early Tel Aviv and Jaffa: the alleys, the orange groves, the sea and the people. His paintings stand out for their Mediterranean light and color, and in later years his style became freer and more abstract.

He wrote and illustrated dozens of children’s books, created mosaics that still stand in public spaces in Tel Aviv, and received the Dizengoff Prize for painting (1938 and 1956) and the Israel Prize for children’s literature (1978). In 1998 the Nachum Gutman Museum of Art opened in Neve Tzedek, dedicated to his work.