Jean David

Jean David was born in 1908 in Bucharest

Jean David was born in 1908 in Bucharest, Romania, to a wealthy family. In 1927 he went to Paris to study architecture but turned to painting. He studied at the École des Beaux-Arts, the Scandinavian Academy in Montparnasse and the Académie Julian.

Back in Bucharest he showed in a group exhibition in 1929 and held his first solo show in 1933. He was part of the Dada circle and worked for avant-garde journals. He made a fresco for the Romanian pavilion at the 1937 Paris World's Fair and a mural at the 1939 New York World's Fair.

In 1942 he sailed on a small immigrant ship that the British captured off Lebanon, and he was held for 2 years in a camp in Cyprus. After his release in 1944 he joined the British navy, and later the Israeli Navy.

After the war he lived in Jerusalem and illustrated books by Dan Ben-Amotz and Haim Hefer. In 1954 he was among the first residents of the artists' village Ein Hod. He showed with the New Horizons group and designed posters, stamps, El Al aircraft interiors, and sets for the Cameri Theater.

He won the Dizengoff Prize in 1960 and was the first Israeli designer elected to the Alliance Graphique Internationale. He died in 1993. A large exhibition of his work was held at the Tefen Open Museum in 2002.