Moussia Toulman was born in the Ukraine and came to Israel when she was 19 years old. Just a few months after her arrival she married, settled in Metula however, she didn’t forgo her ambition to study art.
In 1923 she enrolled to study at the’ Betzalel’ Institute in Jerusalem and completed her studies there in 1926. Like Tziona Tajar, who preceded her a few years earlier, Moussia Toulman chose to become an artist-woman in the full significance of the term.
She wasn’t satisfied with the local studies framework that was available and chose to continue her studies in Paris, which at that time was considered the art capital.
From 1929 onwards Musia lived in Paris, studied art and joined the ‘ Independent Salon’ society. She made contacts with artists and writers and exhibited during the 30’s in a number of select group exhibitions.
In 1936 Tolman visited Israel and forged bonds with artists she studied with at Betzalel, among them Avni, Gliksberg and Stematzky. She painted landscapes and portraits and presented one of the works she painted in Paris to the Tel Aviv museum. It was a portrait of the poet and art critic Gustav Kahn who had died the same year. Moussia returned to Paris and exhibited a one-man show just before the outbreak of the Second World War. During the war all the works she exhibited in this exhibition were lost without a trace and Moussia Toulman herself wandered around France moving from one hiding place to another.
After the war, in 1946 Moussia Toulman continued painting but was reluctant to exhibit her works. She became a well-known public figure and volunteered for aid programmes for Holocaust survivors, especially orphans. Later on she founded together with Mane Katz, Jacques Atlan and other artists the ‘Art’ organization with the object of developing cultural ties with Israel and to aid Israeli artists during their stay in Paris.
In addition to painting Moussia Toulman wrote poetry, published articles and was involved in art criticism.
Only a few score of her paintings remained after her death, self-portraits, portraits of artists, writers and poets, as well paintings of still life and landscapes, including a self-portrait of the artist as a painter. Proud and self-assured, Moussia Toulman sits opposite her easel, a scene from a few years before the war- a woman artist who journeyed as a young woman from Russia to Turkey, to Palestine and then to Paris, believing that everything was open and opportunity was awaiting her, however, the war changed her life.
This exhibition is a tribute to Moussia Toulman and her work.
Moussia Toulman
1977 – 1997
Curator: Galia Bar Or
May-June 2003