Mark Podwal

Most of these works—Podwal's own as well as those he has illustrated for others—typically focus on Jewish legend, history and tradition. His art is represented in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Israel Museum, the National Gallery of Prague, the Jewish Museums in Berlin, Vienna, Stockholm, Prague, New York, among many other venues.

The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is watercolor, visual arts and creative and professional writing. Employment is recorded with New York University. Work by Mark Podwal is recorded in the collections of Metropolitan Museum of Art, Victoria and Albert Museum and Print Collection. Distinctions recorded are American Book Awards.

• Name — Mark Podwal • Born — 8 June 1945 • Birthplace — New York City, U.S. • Died — 13 September 2024 • Place of death — Harrison, New York, U.S. • Known for — Watercolor, Drawing, Painting • Website — http: www.markpodwal.com • Education — * Queens College • New York University Grossman School of Medicine • Children — 2

Podwal was born in Brooklyn in 1945, and was raised in Flushing, Queens. His mother immigrated to the United States from Poland. One of his uncles was refused entry to the United States due to a misdiagnosed illness, and was later killed in the Holocaust. Podwal attended Queens College and the New York University Grossman School of Medicine, and became a dermatologist. He drew as a hobby throughout his early years, before beginning to publish in 1971.

• Illustration — Mark Podwal's Munich Massacre in memory of Israeli athletes killed by Black September terrorists during 1972 Summer Olympics, published in the New York Times in 1972 Beyond his works on paper, Podwal's artistry has been employed in an array of diverse projects, including the design of a series of decorative plates for the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Passover Plate, Zodiac Platter (Met Bestseller), and Life Cycle (Met Bestseller). His work has been animated for public television in A Passover Seder with Elie Wiesel (Time Warner), engraved on a Congressional Gold Medal presented by President Reagan to Elie Wiesel, and woven into an Aubusson tapestry that adorned the ark in the main sanctuary of Congregation Emanu-El of the City of New York. Moreover, he designed sixteen kiln cast glass panels for the United Jewish Appeal Federation Headquarters in New York. Podwal collaborated with Academy Award-winning filmmaker Allan Miller on the documentary House of Life: The Old Jewish Cemetery in Prague, narrated by Claire Bloom. In 2009 and 2010, the film was broadcast on PBS. In conjunction with the Anti-Defamation League, Podwal began The Jerusalem Sky Project, a program that fosters tolerance and awareness by bringing together young children from the Jewish, Islamic, and Christian communities. Participating religious schools study Podwal's Jerusalem Sky in their classrooms, and then encourage their students to illustrate their own depictions of Jerusalem. Amidst the learning, the children of each school write to or meet with their counterparts at a school of another faith and begin to learn about each other's religion and culture. After a few weeks, the program culminates with an exhibition of all of the drawings from each of the schools. At the opening of the exhibition, the children meet to enjoy each other's art and company. In a 2005 article called "Three Faiths, One Lesson", the New York Times covered the completion of the program at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in Brooklyn, NY. The project has since also been carried out in Los Angeles, CA, and Binghamton, NY. Regarding Jerusalem Sky, renowned children's author Maurice Sendak wrote, "All the earned and admiring praise – wondrous, luminous, magical – cannot catch the fierce bite, healthy spirit, and sheer joyousness of this superb book." In 2011, Podwal received commissions to illustrate a new Passover Haggadah for the Central Conference of American Rabbis Press; to design new embroidered textiles for Prague's 700-year-old Altneuschul; to create a limited edition print for the Metropolitan Opera's production of Nabucco; and to design Hanukkah cards for the Metropolitan Museum and the Metropolitan Opera. In 2014, the Terezin Ghetto Museum exhibited Podwal's cycle All This Has Come Upon Us, a series of 42 paintings and drawings created especially for that venue. The works, which span Jewish history from the destruction of the two temples in Jerusalem, through the history of anti-Semitism and persecution in Europe, culminating in the Holocaust, have been described by the artist as offering "a disturbing reminder of how Europe’s extensive history of 'Jew-hatred' laid the groundwork for Terezin and Auschwitz". The series has been published as a portfolio of archival pigment prints, which has been acquired by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Library of Congress, Yad Vashem, the Bodleian Library, the British Library, the Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University Library, Columbia University, Hebrew University, and the National Library of Israel, among many others. In 2015, Mark Podwal was commissioned to design new textiles for the restored synagogue in the Czech city of Brno. At Prague's Klementinum, Podwal's series Mozart and Prague was exhibited along with Mozart's handwritten manuscripts. In 2016, Glitterati Inc. published a 374-page monograph on his work, Reimagined: 45 Years of Jewish Art. Podwal's recent publications include his illustrations for Elie Wiesel's The Tale of a Niggun and Heinrich Heine's poems Hebrew Melodies, and his own A Collage of Customs and A Jewish Bestiary. Published in collaboration with the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center to commemorate the eightieth anniversary of the killings, An Atlas of Jewish Space, includes 139 of Podwal's images with a text by Holocaust scholar Robert Jan van Pelt.

Podwal continued to pursue a parallel career as a physician and served on the faculty of New York University Grossman School of Medicine as Adjunct Associate Professor of Dermatology.

In 1977, Podwal married Ayalah Siev-or. They had two children. Podwal died of cancer at his home in Harrison, New York, on September 13, 2024, at the age of 79. Podwal's papers are stored at Columbia University

Mark Podwal is recorded as physician, writer, painter, ophthalmologist and artist.