Jacques Yankel (born Jacob Kikoïne)
(14 April 1920 - 2 april 2020)

"Paysage" (Village)
Oil on Canvas
97 x 146 cm
100 x 150 cm with frame
Signed upper right Yankel. Circa 1965.

Condition: Excellent. Without trace of any restoration.

Provenance:
- Art Gallery Hadassa Klachkin, 1960s.
- Galerie Barbizon, Paris.
- Parkwest Gallery.




Jacques Yankel, born Jakob Kikoïne, was a French painter, sculptor, lithographer and geologist. Born as the son of renown Ecole de Paris artist Michel Kikoïne, he raised in the most artistic environment in Paris - if not in the world - grew up in the artist residence La Ruche in the Montparnasse district.

After poor performances in school, Yankel was denied from the École nationale supérieure des arts appliqués et des métiers d'art (ENSAAMA) and the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts (ENSBA). During World War II, he held temporary jobs in printing and engraving workshops. In 1941, he moved to Toulouse, in the Zone Libre, and became an apprentice geologist. That year, he married Raymonde Jouve, with his parents crossing the demarcation line to be present at the wedding. He continued his studies and graduated with a degree in geology from the Faculté des sciences de Toulouse. In 1946, his daughter, Dinah Kikoïne, was born. He worked as an amateur painter in a group alongside Jean Hugon, Michel Goedgebuer, Bernard Pagès, Christian Schmidt, André-François Vernette, and Jean Teulières.

In 1949, Yankel was hired by the Ministry of the Overseas for the geological mapping of French West Africa. During this time, he acquired a taste for African art and began collecting it. He unexpectedly met Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre while in Gao, the latter of which encouraged him to return to painting.

In 1952, Yankel returned to Paris, resettling in La Ruche, and made his public debut as a painter at the Galerie Lara Vinci on Rue de Seine. When he was defending his thesis in geology at the Sorbonne in 1954, he also exhibited his works in Paris and Mulhouse. He won the Prix Neumann, shared with Réginald Pollack, as well as the Prix Fénéon.

From 1957 to 1959, Yankel continued to exhibit and travel in the Maghreb, the Balearic Islands, Geneva, and Israel. In 1960, he remarried to Jacqueline Daneyrole in Labeaume. From 1961 to 1965, he exhibited in Paris, Israel, and Amsterdam. In 1966, his mother died. The following year, he went to Israel for the Six-Day War, staying in the kibbutzes of Zikhron Ya'akov, and Ma'ayan Tzvi for three months.

Yankel's father died in 1968, the same year in which he was hired as a plastic arts teacher at the ENSBA. He continued teaching until 1985, and students from the École des Beaux- Arts d'Abidjan continued visiting his workshop. He subsequently presented Arts africains - Sculptures d'hier, peintures d'aujourd'hui, an exhibition organized by the Association pour la défense et l'illustration des arts d'Afrique et d'Océanie (ADEIAO) and displayed at the Palais de la Porte Dorée in Paris.

In 1987, he married his third wife, Lidia Syroka. That year, he also donated art to a museum for the first time, to the Musée des arts naïfs et populaires in Noyers-sur-Serein.[9] He did not donate again until 2018.[13] In 2019, Jean-François Lacour, Yankel's editor, said “He will be a hundred years old in April 2020, and what is surprising is his youth: he paints, draws and talks about art like a child”.

Jacques Yankel died on 2 April 2020 in Labeaume, 12 days shy of his 100th birthday.

(Item Reference No.00645)