ALEXANDER VAISMAN was born in 1967 in Chernovtsy (Czernowitz), a city with a long-standing and strong Jewish tradition, once an important Jewish center in Eastern Europe. Alexander graduated from the Chernovtsy Musical College and worked as a book illustrator and poster designer. Currently Alexander lives in Israel with his wife and four children. 

Alexander Vaisman's one-person exhibition in the State Museum of Bukovinian Diaspora in Chernovtsy in 1992-1993 was featured in a TV documentary ?A Letter to Son?. He also participated in several exhibitions in the United States and Israel. 

Alexander?s drawings and paintings illuminate the experience of being Jewish under the different and often very difficult circumstances. His works are motivated by a strong sense of belonging to a rich and venerable culture. They reflect the eternal themes of Jewish family life, faith, and ritual as well as the turbulent events of our era.  Alexander?s rendering of Yiddishkayt, of the world of Shtetl is far from apologetic. The artist loves the world he is portraying, but he does not enshrine it. In this world zaddikim peacefully coexist with the commissars from the Babel?s ?Red Cavalry?. Chalutzim armed with shovels and machine guns build their future under watchful eyes of klezmorim armed with violins and clarinets. Young lovers and respectable sages soar high above the earth, where only abandoned gravestones mark once vibrant and lively places. 
 
Many centuries of Jewish life in Eastern Europe shaped a unique civilization that whimsically embraced a profound religious belief and an open-minded world outlook, an energetic entrepreneurship and a spirited quest for a social justice, adherence to the tradition and susceptibility to the new influences.  Alexander Vaisman belongs to the last generation that beheld this civilization in its own domain.  All his works form a single optimistic elegy full with hope that the end of the world of Shtetl does not mean the end of it's main spiritual creature - of Yiddishkayt. 

 
Alexander Vaisman Gallery
Alphabetical index of works
Index by series of works
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