Aizik Feder (Adolphe Feder aka) - Odessa - 1885 - deported to Auschwitz - 1943
Feder was born into a family of shopkeepers. After participating in the revolutionary bundist movement, he left for Berlin at the 19 years age. He then moved to Geneva where he attended the Fine Art Academy. In 1908 he arrived in Paris and studied both at the Académie Julian and in Henri Matisse’s atelier.Integrated into Parisian life, he frequented Café La Rotonde where he met Othon Friesz, Modigliani and Jacques Lipchitz. Feder was a serious art lover and collected art nègre and art naïf; his atelier overflowed with sculptures and paintings acquired in the flea market. His collection would later confiscated by the Germans during the war.
In 1923, he published his drawings in the newspaper Le Monde and also illustrated several works including those by Joseph Kessel and Arthur Rimbaud. The same year he impressed bohemian Parisian with the reception which he gave in honor of the Russian poet Vladimir Maïakovski. Together with Michel Larionov and Ossip Zadkine, he was one of the most active members of the Russian Artist Society, which regrouped artists of La Ruche. Feder enjoyed travelling and voyaged to the south of France, then discovered Brittany, the Basque country, and ventured as far as Algeria.
Attracted by the Orient, he travelled to Palestine in 1926, returning to Paris with several canvases and drawings. He refused to take flight with his sculptor friend Jacob Loutchansky and remained in Paris during the Occupation.Feder was arrested with his wife on 4 June 1942. After four months of internment in the Cherche-Midi prison, he was transferred to Drancy and deported on 13 February 1943 in convoy n° 48.
He was assassinated in Auschwitz. His wife succeeded in escaping with an album of his drawings executed while in Drancy
Nadine Nieszawer, Marie Boyé, Paul Fogel
"Peintres Juifs à Paris 1905-1939 Ecole de Paris"
Editons Denoel 2000
email: expertise@ecoledeparis.org