I was born in 1933 in Zagreb. During WWII, I had been arrested several times, managed to escape, and spent the last years of the war in hiding.
In 1948 I immigrated to Israel and became a member of kibbutz Sha’ar Ha’amakim, served in the army as a set painter in the military theater, studied art at “Oranim” Art Institute, at the Avni Institute in Tel-Aviv with the reputed artists Naftali Bezem, Yehezkel Streichman and Avigdor Stematzky.
In 1958 I had my first one-man show at the Katz gallery in Tel-Aviv. At the time, I had been part of a group of young artists drawn to social realism and had several shows with that group. Soon after, I left this style for and a more personal one.
In 1964, following a study grant, I left for Europe, had lived in Paris, Zurich and Brussels and finally settled in Amsterdam, where I had lived from 1964 to 1984.
My first years in Amsterdam saw the Provo’s demonstrations and the blooming of the "Flower Power". In 1968 I was involved in setting up “Paradiso”, one of the first Pop culture centers, where I later created projects which were subsequently known as “Installations”. I worked with a group of artists on a project for a newly built quarter in Amsterdam: The Osdorp project. In 1982 I planned the Vulcan Project, which was to have taken place on Dam square, but did not materialize due to security problems.
Upon arrival in Amsterdam I've also started working with soft plastic materials, creating three-dimensional works, relief and electrostatic objects, which would change by touch. I represented Israel with this sort of works at the Caen Biennale, in France in 1969. Some of them were purchased by The Stadelijk Museum in Amsterdam.
Around 1972, I've turned to art animation films, and with the assistance of animators from Zagreb, made several films which represented Holland at film festivals around the world. One of my films "The Birth of a Mountain" was awarded Paris' prestigious Beaubourg Museum first prize. At about that time, I have collaborated with curators of the Stedelijk museum in an exhibition of Dutch animation works. During that period, I also took part in the making of “A to Z”, a TV film. In 1969I met the French film director Jacques Tati and collaborated with him in the making of his last film Traffic which was filmed in Holland.
Chinese art and philosophy have always fascinated me, and in 1982 this new dimension of art has started to preoccupy me and I took lessons with a Chinese artist, M.F. Lay, in order to explore the mysteries of black and white drawing with the Chinese brush, as well as drawing from nature and still life. These studies led me back to nature, that never ending storage of forms, lines, compositions and colors.
Later on, I taught the "Chinese brush" method at the Rijks Academy, and subsequently at the Summer International Art School in Amsterdam. This teaching experience succeeded my previous experience as guest teacher at the Rietveld Academy in the 1970s, where I had taught the use of and experimentation with new plastic materials.
In 1984 I returned to Israel and moved to Jaffa permanently. Faithful to Monet’s eloquent principle: “I am excited by what is happening to me in between nature and the brush”, I returned to Nature, painting outdoors once a week with the Chinese brush. Upon returning to my studio I transformed the landscapes I drew into “mindscapes”, which was also the title of a big exhibition I had in Jerusalem’s Hall "Binyanei Ha'uma" in 1998.
Einan Cohen
