72 Imre Ámos: Holidays

Imre Ámos

1941

Linocut series

Donated by Imre Ámos, 1941

The creator of the linocut series depicting Jewish holidays was born as Imre Ungár in 1907in Nagykálló, but in 1937 he changed his name to Ámos, in reference to the biblical prophet. He participated in exhibitions from 1931. In 1936 he became a member of the New Society of Artists (KÚT). In 1937 he met Marc Chagall in Paris whose influence is noticeable in his work. From 1940 he was practically continuously in forced labour and during this period drawing was his exclusive artistic expression.  He sent some pieces of his series on Jewish Holidays to the Jewish Museum, which already possessed an oil painting of his entitled ‘Sukkot’, in which his grandfather can be seen holding the bouquet and an Etrog in his hands. His series on Jewish holidays was shown not only as part of the museum’s permanent exhibition, but it was published on postcards too. Imre Ámos died painfully young; he died in 1944 in a German concentration camp.