Issachar Ber Ryback was a Russian Jewish painter, sculptor, art critic and arguably the spokesman for the Yiddish avant-garde movement. These lithographs are from his series, Shtetl, My Destroyed Home: A Remembrance. It’s a beautiful work of spastic geometry and destabilizing perspectives, depicting Ryback’s Ukrainian village before its destruction in a pogrom. One might interpret the style as echoing the precariousness of life in the shtetl, even as Ryback depicts a dynamic community, rich with vitality.

Ryback did this work in Russia, but went to Berlin in 1921 after the murder of his father in the Petliura pogroms. There he became a member of the collective of expressionist artists Novembergruppe and he had a very successful career, traveling around Europe and Russia until his death in 1935 from a chronic disease. The work reminds me a lot of the German Expressionist film, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari which in turn was a big influence on The Night of the Hunter—check them both out if you haven’t already, I implore you. It’s also worth noting that although Shtetl, My Destroyed Home was published in 1922, most of these lithographs were done in 1917, three years before Caligari. Ryback really was on the cutting edge.
 

 

 

 
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