David Tartakover
Encyclopedia
David Tartakover (born 1944) is an Israel
i graphic designer
, political activist, artist
and design educator.
He studied at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem, and is a graduate of the London College of Printing. Since 1975, he has operated his own studio in Tel Aviv
, specializing in various aspects of visual communications, with particular emphasis on culture and politics.
From 1976, Tatakover has been a senior lecturer in the Visual Communication Department of the Bezalel Academy, is a member of Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI), has been a president of the Graphic Designers Association of Israel (GDAI).
He has established a reputation for a series of politically provocative self-produced posters, some at the time of Rosh Hashanah
(the Jewish new year). His compositions are driven more by content or themes than by high aesthetics. He has described his work as a "seismograph" and "a way of reacting to events... to alter opinions and attitudes".
Tartakover designed Peace Now's logo in 1978. The logo emerged from a poster created by Tartakover for a mass rally, held in what is now Rabin Square
in Tel Aviv on April 1, 1978, titled "Peace Now." It became the name of the organization, the first political bumper sticker in Israel and it is still one of Israel's most popular stickers. Tartakover, commenting in 2006, said "The movement activists liked the logo, [b]ut they thought there should also be a symbol. I told them it wasn't needed - this is the symbol. It took time until they understood that this was the first political sticker in Israel." The logo combines two typefaces, "Shalom" (peace) in black traditional Koren Bible Type (designed by Eliyahu Koren) and "Achshav" (now) in the red headline-style Haim Type (designed by Yaakov Haim Levitt).
He describes himself as "a local designer," meaning that the subjects he tackles concern Israel. He follows the mantra of Hebrew expressionist poet Avigdor Hameiri (b. Andor Feuerstein): "Freedom of opinion is not a right but a duty". Influences on Tartakover's work stem from Gustav Klutsis
, John Heartfield
, Alexander Rodchenko
, Ben Shahn
, and Andy Warhol
. He claims that his mentor has been comic-book artist Bob Gill
and that best work is the Hebrew-lettered "Peace Now" logo. Tatakover is one of the most prominent Israeli graphic designers; others include Franz Kraus
(1905–1998), Gabriel and Maxim Shamir
(1909–1992, 1910–1990), and Dan Reisinger
(b. 1934).
, Jerusalem; "Produce of Israel" (1985), Tel Aviv Museum of Art
; "Proclamation of the Independence" (1988), Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Espace Floréal, Paris, France (1994); Festival d'affiches, Chaumont, France (1995); Plakatmuseum an Niederrheim, Germany
(1997); Passage de Retz, Paris, France (1998); DDD Gallery, Osaka
, Japan (1998); Arc en Rêve, Centre d'architecture, Bordeaux, France
(1998), Les Rencontres d'Arles festival, (France), 2005.
, for design. The judges said, "His unique work creates a synthesis between popular and high culture, between the written text and visual imagery, and between personal statements and collective representations of local cultural values. As a creator, teacher, and an active member of the community for over thirty years, has has influenced the language of visual representation in Israel."
His work has won numerous awards and prizes and is included in the collections of museums in Europe, U.S.
and Japan
.
Prizes include the Gold medal, 8th Poster Biennale (1989), Lahti, Finland
; second prize at the Salon of Photography (1990), Kalish, Poland
; honourable mention, Helsinki International Poster Biennale (1997); bronze medal, 17th International Poster Biennale (2000), Warsaw
; second prize, 13th International Poster Biennale (2001), Lahti, Finland
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i graphic designer
Graphic designer
A graphic designer is a professional within the graphic design and graphic arts industry who assembles together images, typography or motion graphics to create a piece of design. A graphic designer creates the graphics primarily for published, printed or electronic media, such as brochures and...
, political activist, artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
and design educator.
He studied at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem, and is a graduate of the London College of Printing. Since 1975, he has operated his own studio in Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
, specializing in various aspects of visual communications, with particular emphasis on culture and politics.
From 1976, Tatakover has been a senior lecturer in the Visual Communication Department of the Bezalel Academy, is a member of Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI), has been a president of the Graphic Designers Association of Israel (GDAI).
He has established a reputation for a series of politically provocative self-produced posters, some at the time of Rosh Hashanah
Rosh Hashanah
Rosh Hashanah , , is the Jewish New Year. It is the first of the High Holy Days or Yamim Nora'im which occur in the autumn...
(the Jewish new year). His compositions are driven more by content or themes than by high aesthetics. He has described his work as a "seismograph" and "a way of reacting to events... to alter opinions and attitudes".
Tartakover designed Peace Now's logo in 1978. The logo emerged from a poster created by Tartakover for a mass rally, held in what is now Rabin Square
Rabin Square
Rabin Square , formerly Kings of Israel Square , is the largest open public city square in central Tel Aviv, Israel. Over the years it has been the site of numerous political rallies, parades, and other public events...
in Tel Aviv on April 1, 1978, titled "Peace Now." It became the name of the organization, the first political bumper sticker in Israel and it is still one of Israel's most popular stickers. Tartakover, commenting in 2006, said "The movement activists liked the logo, [b]ut they thought there should also be a symbol. I told them it wasn't needed - this is the symbol. It took time until they understood that this was the first political sticker in Israel." The logo combines two typefaces, "Shalom" (peace) in black traditional Koren Bible Type (designed by Eliyahu Koren) and "Achshav" (now) in the red headline-style Haim Type (designed by Yaakov Haim Levitt).
He describes himself as "a local designer," meaning that the subjects he tackles concern Israel. He follows the mantra of Hebrew expressionist poet Avigdor Hameiri (b. Andor Feuerstein): "Freedom of opinion is not a right but a duty". Influences on Tartakover's work stem from Gustav Klutsis
Gustav Klutsis
Gustav Klutsis was a pioneering photographer and major member of the Constructivist avant-garde in the early 20th century...
, John Heartfield
John Heartfield
John Heartfield is the anglicized name of the German photomontage artist Helmut Herzfeld...
, Alexander Rodchenko
Alexander Rodchenko
Aleksander Mikhailovich Rodchenko was a Russian artist, sculptor, photographer and graphic designer. He was one of the founders of constructivism and Russian design; he was married to the artist Varvara Stepanova....
, Ben Shahn
Ben Shahn
Ben Shahn was a Lithuanian-born American artist. He is best known for his works of social realism, his left-wing political views, and his series of lectures published as The Shape of Content.-Biography:...
, and Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
. He claims that his mentor has been comic-book artist Bob Gill
Bob Gill (artist)
Bob Gill , American illustrator and graphic designer. He played the piano at summer resorts in the Catskill Mountains, New York, to pay his school tuition. He attended the Philadelphia Museum School of Art , Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts , City College of New York...
and that best work is the Hebrew-lettered "Peace Now" logo. Tatakover is one of the most prominent Israeli graphic designers; others include Franz Kraus
Franz Kraus
Franz Kraus was an Israeli graphic designer.-Biography:...
(1905–1998), Gabriel and Maxim Shamir
Gabriel and Maxim Shamir
Gabriel Shamir and Maxim Shamir , were Israeli graphic designers....
(1909–1992, 1910–1990), and Dan Reisinger
Dan Reisinger
Dan Reisinger is an Israeli designer of graphics, exhibitions, and stage sets.-Biography:He was born in Kanjiža, Serbia, into a family of painters and decorators active in Austria-Hungary and the Balkans. Most family members died in the Holocaust, including his father...
(b. 1934).
One-Person Exhibitions
Tokyo Designers Space Open Gallery (1982); "Produce of Israel" (1984), Israel MuseumIsrael Museum
The Israel Museum, Jerusalem was founded in 1965 as Israel's national museum. It is situated on a hill in the Givat Ram neighborhood of Jerusalem, near the Bible Lands Museum, the Knesset, the Israeli Supreme Court, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem....
, Jerusalem; "Produce of Israel" (1985), Tel Aviv Museum of Art
Tel Aviv Museum of Art
The Tel Aviv Museum of Art is an art museum in Tel Aviv, Israel. It was established in 1932 in a building that was the home of Tel Aviv's first mayor, Meir Dizengoff. The Helena Rubinstein Pavilion for Contemporary Art opened in 1959. The museum moved to its current location on King Saul Avenue in...
; "Proclamation of the Independence" (1988), Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Espace Floréal, Paris, France (1994); Festival d'affiches, Chaumont, France (1995); Plakatmuseum an Niederrheim, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
(1997); Passage de Retz, Paris, France (1998); DDD Gallery, Osaka
Osaka
is a city in the Kansai region of Japan's main island of Honshu, a designated city under the Local Autonomy Law, the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and also the biggest part of Keihanshin area, which is represented by three major cities of Japan, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe...
, Japan (1998); Arc en Rêve, Centre d'architecture, Bordeaux, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
(1998), Les Rencontres d'Arles festival, (France), 2005.
Awards
In 2002, Tartakover was awarded the Israel PrizeIsrael Prize
The Israel Prize is an award handed out by the State of Israel and is largely regarded as the state's highest honor. It is presented annually, on Israeli Independence Day, in a state ceremony in Jerusalem, in the presence of the President, the Prime Minister, the Knesset chairperson, and the...
, for design. The judges said, "His unique work creates a synthesis between popular and high culture, between the written text and visual imagery, and between personal statements and collective representations of local cultural values. As a creator, teacher, and an active member of the community for over thirty years, has has influenced the language of visual representation in Israel."
His work has won numerous awards and prizes and is included in the collections of museums in Europe, U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
.
Prizes include the Gold medal, 8th Poster Biennale (1989), Lahti, Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
; second prize at the Salon of Photography (1990), Kalish, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
; honourable mention, Helsinki International Poster Biennale (1997); bronze medal, 17th International Poster Biennale (2000), Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
; second prize, 13th International Poster Biennale (2001), Lahti, Finland
Further reading
- Goldstaub-Dainotto, Edna (1997), "David Tartakover: the imagery of hope." Graphis magazine (vol. 53, pp. 50–57)