Yohanan Simon

Yohanan Simon was born in Berlin and attended art schools in Frankfurt and Munich, before moving, in 1927, to Paris, where he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts. He then spent two years living in New York while working at Vogue, before moving to Palestine in 1936. Simon became a member of the kibbutz Gan Shmuel, where he created idyllic portraits of community life, until 1953. During this time, he also produced a number of murals for Israeli institutions and channeled his creativity into literary illustration and set design. Simon received numerous awards throughout his career, including the honor of representing Israel in the Venice Biennale in 1948 and 1958.