Yitzhak Danziger

Yitzhak Danziger studied at Slade School of Fine Art, Gymnasia Rehavia and Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium. The recorded working language is German. The field of work recorded is sculptor. Places of work recorded in the authority are Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. Employment is recorded with Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. Works named in the authority record are The Burning Bush, King of the shepherd, Shebaziya, Serpentine and Monument to the memory of Shlomo Ben-Yosef. Work by Yitzhak Danziger is recorded in the collections of Israel Museum. Distinctions recorded are Israel Prize and Dizengoff Prize.

• Name — Yitzhak Danziger יצחק דנציגר • Born — 26 June 1916 • Birthplace — Berlin, Germany • Died — 11 July 1977 • Place of death — near Ramla, Israel • Known for — Painting and Sculpture • Training — Slade School of Fine Arts University of London • Movement — Canaanite Movement • Illustration — Nimrod (1939), Israel Museum collection. • Illustration — For the Fallen (1962), Beit Yad Lebanim, Holon • Illustration — "Kesher Hadorot" (Connection between Generations), a monument to Clandestine Immigration at the entrance to the Clandestine Immigration and Naval Museum, Haifa, Israel • Illustration — Sheep of the Negev (1963), Tel Aviv Museum of Art. • Illustration — Relief (1958), Givat Ram, Jerusalem.

Danziger was born in Berlin in 1916. His father was a surgeon and served in the German Army during World War I. The family settled in Jerusalem. Danziger studied art at the Slade School of Fine Art 1934–37. He met Marion Edie at the Slade and they later married and had a son, Jeremy. Marion's mother was Muslim and Marion's union with Danziger was happy. They remained friends after their separation. Danziger's work was influenced by his visits to the British Museum, the Anthropological Museum and the art from Ancient Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, India and Oceania and Africa. These would later on play an important role in his sculptures.

He returned to Palestine and set up a studio at Tel Aviv in 1937. Danziger created his statue "Nimrod" in 1938–1939. The statue is 90 centimetres high and made of Red Nubian Sandstone imported from Petra in Jordan. It depicts Nimrod as a naked hunter, uncircumcised, carrying a bow and with a hawk on his shoulder. The style shows the influence of Ancient Egyptian statues. The unveiling of the statue caused a scandal. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem which had commissioned Danziger's statue was not happy with the result and religious circles made strong protests. Within a few years, however, the statue was universally acclaimed as a major masterpiece of Israeli art, and has noticeably influenced and inspired the work of later sculptors, painters, writers and poets up to the present. The Nimrod Statue was also taken up as the emblem of a cultural-political movement known as "The Canaanites", which advocated the shrugging off of the Jewish religious tradition, cutting off relations with Diaspora Jews and their culture, and adopting in its place a "Hebrew Identity" based on ancient Semitic heroic myths – such as Nimrod's. Though never gaining mass support, the movement had a considerable influence on Israeli intellectuals in the 1940s and early 1950s. In 1946 Danziger went to Grande Chaumière in the south of France to work in the local sandstone, from which he sculpted large-scale figures and heads. During the summer of 1948, he stayed in Perpignan in the South of France. In September, he settled in London and reconnected with his classmates from the Slade, including Eduardo Paolozzi and Kenneth Armitage. In 1950 he had a solo exhibition at the Brook Street Gallery. Danziger was involved with two schools: the Cass Institute near Whitechapel and he participated in two courses in the design of gardens and landscape at the School of Architecture Association. While entering art competitions, he supported himself financially restoring the facades of buildings such as the Neo-Gothic stone carvings on the Houses of Parliament in London. In 1955 he returned to Israel and he was commissioned to design a sculpture for the Kaplan building of the Hebrew University. In the same year, Danziger began teaching three-dimensional design in the Architecture Department at the Technion Institute in Haifa, a position he held for the rest of his life. He also had teaching roles at the Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem. He also enjoyed running workshops at the artists’ village at Ein Hod, which was an integral part of his vision as an artist. Danziger and seventeen sculptors from different countries were invited to participate in the cultural events of the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City. He created 'Gate of Peace', a giant sculpture that reaches some 7.5m in height.

Yitzhak Danziger was born on 26 June 1916 in Berlin. Danziger held the nationality of Germany and Israel. Danziger was educated at Slade School of Fine Art, Gymnasia Rehavia, Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium and Hebrew Reali School. Danziger worked as sculptor, pedagogue and landscape architect. Danziger was active from 1935 to 1977. Danziger worked in Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. Danziger was employed by Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. Danziger worked in German. Danziger is placed by the collections within Ofakim Hadashim. Danziger died on 11 July 1977 in Ramla. Danziger is buried at Cemetery compound in Southwest Haifa.

• 1945, the Dizengoff Prize for Sculpture. • 1958 Milo Club Award, Kiryat Ono Monument Prize, Tel Aviv • 1968, the Israel Prize, in sculpture. • 1969, Sandberg Prize, in sculpture, Israel Museum of Jerusalem