1902–1975
Moshe Mokady (ne Brandstatter) was born on June 5th, 1902 in Tarnow, Galicia.
Between 1914-1920, Mokady lived in Vienna and Zurich and studied painting with Lazar Krestin.
He also studied music and the piano.
In 1920 his family migrated to Eretz-Israel and settled in Haifa.
1922-1923 Mokady studied at the Art Academy in Vienna.
From 1927-1933 lives and works in Paris, returns to live in Jerusalem and then in Tel-Aviv.
Between 1946-1965 travels frequently to Europe and the U.S.A., visiting New York for the first time in 1947. Mokady was the first Director of the Art Department of the Ministry of Education and Culture (1950-1952) in Israel and first Director of the Avni Institute of Painting and Sculpture in Tel-Aviv (1952-1965).
From 1953, Mokady was active in the founding of the first Israeli artists village in Ein Hod.
Moves to live there permanently in 1965 and dies in September 1975 in Ein Hod after a short illness.
Between 1934-1958 Mokady stage designs for the Eretz-Israeli theatre numerous productions for the Cameri, Ohel and Habimah theatres.
Mokady received various national and international prizes, including the Dizengoff prizes in 1937, 1942, 1951.
Numerous exhibitions of his have been held in Israel, Paris, New York, Geneva. The last major retrospective was in 1999 at the Tel-Aviv Museum of Art. Numerous Group Exhibitions were held, among them in Israel, at the Venice Biennial (1952, 1958) World Fair in New York, Metropolitan Museum in New York, Paris, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Sao Paulo, Montevideo, Toronto, Winnipeg, Vancouver, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Gotesburg, Helsinki, Athens, Washington,D.C.
Mokady’s paintings are to be found in numerous museums in Israel and abroad (including Paris, New York, Berkeley, Chicago, Cairo), as well as in private and public collections in Israel, Europe, North and South America.
A two-volume set of books in English and in Hebrew was published in 1999 by the Mokady Foundation and the Tel-Aviv Museum of Art, and is available for purchase.
