Maimon Izhak

Cafe Oil on canvas signed 70/50 cm Including frame

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BIOGRAPHY:
Women meeting in somewhat hazy coffee houses. Colours that are bold and bright. The essence of a true urban scene, a city in which daytime life and night life mingle. It is a warm, gentle, and inviting atmosphere. The air is full of hints promises and secrets just like any self-respecting coffee house.

This is Isaac Maimon's world. As the owner of many Israeli cafes, he has worked and lived amid this coffee culture. Maimon's enchant- meant with this stimulating atmosphere is extremely evident in the scenes that he paints with consuming passion.

Maimon paints totally modern works. The bold colours consist of purity and richness. He is influenced by the Paris school, and he creates works which are absorbing, rich, and uniquely Maimon. Maimon is a humanist artist who cannot live without the human touch.

Born in Israel in 1951, to French-speaking parents, he exhibited an early artistic ability and was enthusiastically supported by his family. From 1973 to 1976 he attended the Avni Institute of Fine Art in Tel Aviv, the most prestigious academy for the arts in Israel, where Maimon's interest in the Paris school was cultivated and advanced.

As an artist in Paris from 1978 to 1980, Maimon haunted the galleries and museums. He was a frequent visitor to the cafes of Montparnasse, St. Michel, and the Latin Quarter. He states, "Paris is a great art exhibition." Maimon's paintings capture the "boulevard culture," a uniquely French atmosphere that so intrigued Lautre, Bonnard and other artists before him.

Upon his return to Israel in 1980, Maimon began teaching at the School of Visual Arts in Beer- Sheba, and later at the Kaye Art Academy. He was also a professor of art at the Ben-Gurion University in Beer-Sheba. Maimon currently devotes all of his time to painting.

In March of 1991, Maimon embarked on his first U.S. tour, commencing in Sausalito, California and ending in Miami. All of the five one-man shows were tremendously successful. Maimon quickly became enchanted with the American art buying public. He appreciated their warm, easy manner and their fascination with and acceptance of his work.

"I have been painting since as far back as I can remember. I received much encourage- meant from my family and friends. In my youth, I was given important direction from Moshe Agmon and later, at the Avni Insitute, I was greatly influenced by Haim Kiva and Moshe Rosentalis, whose studio I visited frequently. Other artist whose paintings have affected me are Matisse and of course Lautrec.

"I have always been attracted to the atmosphere of the Paris coffee houses of the twenties. I try to re-create this in my paintings. Painting is a part of me. It is my way of expressing myself. Life is art and my art is my life."

Other artist's works: