Arik Kilemnik
| Arik Kilemnik | |
|---|---|
| Native name | אריה קילמניק |
| Born | Arie (Eric) Kilemnik 1935 (age 90–91) Rehovot, Mandatory Palestine |
| 🏫 Education | Bezalel Academy of Art and Design (1958–1961) Pratt Institute, New York (1964) Brooklyn Museum Art School (1964–1966) Art Students League of New York (1966–1967) |
| 💼 Occupation | |
| Known for | Printmaking, founding the Jerusalem Print Workshop |
| 🏅 Awards | Herman Struck Prize (1961); Mordechai Ish-Shalom Life Work Prize (1997); Jerusalem Foundation Award (2001); Ministry of Culture and Sport Lifetime Achievement Award (2016) |
| 🌐 Website | jerusalemprintworkshop |
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Arik Kilemnik (also known as Arie or Eric Kilemnik; born 1935, Rehovot) is an Israeli printmaker, painter, and arts institution-builder. He is best known as the founder and long-time director of the Jerusalem Print Workshop, which he established in 1974 and which became Israel's leading fine-art printmaking studio.
Kilemnik's work spans etching, lithography, screenprinting, and woodcut, and he has developed original techniques including a method known as white ground alba-tinta, sometimes called Jerusalem alba-tinta.[1]
Early life and education
Kilemnik was born in 1935 in Rehovot, in what was then Mandatory Palestine. In the late 1950s he enrolled at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem, where he studied printmaking between 1958 and 1961. His teachers there included several figures central to the development of Israeli graphic art: Jakob Eisenscher, Isidor Ascheim, Jacob Steinhardt, Moshe Tamir, Jacob Pins, and Jossi Stern.[1] He received the Herman Struck Prize for Printing from Bezalel in 1961.[1]
Years in New York (1963–1970)
Between 1963 and 1970, Kilemnik lived and worked in New York City, where he deepened his specialisation in printmaking. He studied at the Pratt Institute of Art (1964), the Brooklyn Museum Art School (1964–1966), and the Art Students League of New York (1966–1967).[1] The Smithsonian American Art Museum holds screenprints he produced in New York in 1967 in its permanent collection.[2]
After completing his studies, Kilemnik taught printmaking at Cooper Union and founded a screenprinting workshop there.[1] It was during this period that he resolved to return to Israel and establish a dedicated print workshop, having recognised how little professional printmaking infrastructure existed back home.[3]
Jerusalem Print Workshop
Kilemnik founded the Jerusalem Print Workshop in 1974, initially operating from a rented premises on Rabbi Akiva Street in Jerusalem, funded in part by a sum of 5,000 liras saved by his mother.[3] The venture was built on a shoestring, with Kilemnik simultaneously holding a teaching position at Bezalel to provide income.[3]
Under Kilemnik's direction the Workshop grew into Israel's premier printmaking institution, inviting leading Israeli and international artists to create prints in collaboration with professional master printers. Among those who worked there were Igael Tumarkin, Menashe Kadishman, Moshe Gershuni, Anna Ticho, Lea Nikel, and Aviva Uri, as well as internationally renowned figures including Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, and Alexander Calder.[4][5]
Kilemnik directed the Workshop for over fifty years. In 2025 he was succeeded as director by Tamar Gispan-Greenberg.[6]
Artistic practice
Alongside his institutional work, Kilemnik maintained his own artistic practice throughout his career. He works in a range of print media and has developed original techniques, most notably the white ground alba-tinta (or Jerusalem alba-tinta), a method he created and refined at the Workshop.[1] His solo exhibitions include shows at the Artists' House, Jerusalem (1963, 1971, 1981) and Ithaca at the Jerusalem Print Workshop (2015).[1]
Selected group exhibitions include Graphic Art 25 (traveling exhibition, Israel, 1975); 1967: The Americanization of Israeli Art (Bograshov Gallery, Tel Aviv, 1989); and No pasarán: Eighty Years of the Spanish Civil War (Jerusalem Print Workshop, 2018).[1]
He is also listed in the collection of the Israel Museum's Information Center for Israeli Art.[7]
Awards and recognition
Over his career Kilemnik has received numerous awards, including the Herman Struck Prize for Printing at the Bezalel Academy (1961), the Mordechai Ish-Shalom Life Work Prize from the Artists House in Jerusalem (1997), the Jerusalem Foundation Award (2001), and the Lifetime Achievement Award in Visual Arts from Israel's Ministry of Culture and Sport (2016).[8]
See also
- Jerusalem Print Workshop
- Printmaking
- Bezalel Academy of Art and Design
- Jacob Pins
- Jacob Steinhardt
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Jerusalem Print Workshop, "Kilemnik, Arik – Artist Profile." jerusalemprintworkshop
.org /en /artists /קילמניק-אריק / (accessed June 2026). - ↑ Smithsonian American Art Museum, "Arie Kilemnik." americanart
.si .edu /artist /arie-kilemnik-2620 (accessed June 2026). - ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Barry Davis, "Jerusalem Print Workshop: One of the city's best-kept secrets." The Jerusalem Post, 13 May 2022. www
.jpost .com /israel-news /culture /article-706540 - ↑ Jerusalem Foundation, "Jerusalem Print Workshop." jerusalemfoundation
.org /old-project /jerusalem-print-workshop / (accessed June 2026). - ↑ James Lewin, "Print Workshop Aids Artists," Detroit Jewish News, 12 November 1982. Digital Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan. digital
.bentley .umich .edu /djnews /djn .1982 .11 .12 .001 /25 / - ↑ "What's happening at the 9th Jerusalem Biennale of Drawing?" The Jerusalem Post, 16 November 2025. www
.jpost .com /must /article-873771 - ↑ Information Center for Israeli Art, Israel Museum, Jerusalem. "Arie (Eric) Kilemnik."
{{URL|example.com|optional display text}} - ↑ "Kilemnik, Arik". Jerusalem Print Workshop. Retrieved 2026-06-07.
External links
- Arik Kilemnik – Profile at the Jerusalem Print Workshop
- Arie Kilemnik – Smithsonian American Art Museum
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