Avrom Yanovsky

Avrom Yanovsky (1911–1979) was a Canadian graphic artist and editorial cartoonist, whose work appeared in a variety of leftist publications. He was known professionally as Avrom, though some of his work was also signed Armand, Richards or Tinòdi. In 1966-67, he was president of the Canadian Society of Graphic Art. His son was musician and restaurateur Zalman Yanovsky.

Avrom Yanovsky
BornApril 3, 1911
Krivoi Rog, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire (now Ukraine)
DiedMay 22, 1979
Toronto, Ontario
NationalityCanadian
Area(s)Cartoonist

Early life

Yanovsky was born in 1911 at Krivoi Rog, in Tsarist Russia (now Ukraine), and came to Canada at two years of age with his family. In Winnipeg, Manitoba he was educated at the I.L. Peretz Shule and St. John's Technical High School. He also took classes at the Winnipeg School of Art and, after moving to Toronto, Ontario, the Ontario College of Art. In 1938-39, he attended the American Artists School in New York City. He joined the Young Communist League in Winnipeg in his teens and subsequently became a lifelong member of the Communist Party of Canada.[1]

Cartoons

In the 1930s, Yanovsky's cartoons and illustrations appeared in left-oriented periodicals such as Masses and New Frontier and party newspapers such as The Worker and its successor, the Daily Clarion. From the 1940s to the 1970s, he published in the Canadian Tribune and a number of union and ethnic newspapers and leftist magazines. His cartoons attacked unemployment, poverty, fascism, racism and capitalism. They also promoted labour unions, human rights, anti-imperialism and other causes, including, by the 1950s, Canadian nationalism, peaceful coexistence and nuclear disarmament.[2] "Although not well known to the general public in Canada," stated a history of political cartoons published in 1979, "his work was reproduced in numerous socialist publications throughout the world during the last forty years."[3] An exhibition of Yanovsky's political cartoons was held at the Samuel J. Zacks Gallery in Toronto in 2005. Curator Anna Hudson stated: "What is so surprising about his political cartoons is how relevant the messages remain."[4]

Other Art

Although known mainly as a cartoonist, Yanovsky also exhibited sketches, drawings and lithographs at the annual shows held by the Canadian Society of Graphic Art.[5] In 1952, he published a folio of lithographs.[6] During the brief heyday of Canadian comic books in the 1940s, he created stories and art for several series published by Bell Features.[7] Yanovsky also designed costumes and settings for stage productions, especially those associated with the Labour League Mutual Benefit Society, later part of the United Jewish People's Order, where he was an active member.[8] In 1958, he was appointed as the editor of the English section of the Canadian Jewish weekly Vochenblatt.[9] Throughout his career, Yanovsky gave entertaining chalk-talks on political, historical and biblical themes to children's classes, union meetings and other audiences.[10] He was also known for a mural depicting the Canadian doctor Norman Bethune, which was completed in 1964 for display at Communist Party headquarters in Toronto.[11] In recent years, several websites have posted examples of his art, including photographs of the Bethune mural.[12]

gollark: * is that bad
gollark: ```c#define R2(x) x x#define R4(x) R2(R2(x))#define R16(x) R4(R4(x))#define QUITELONG R16(long)```
gollark: #define LONG2 long long#define LONG4 LONG2 LONG2#define LONG8 LONG4 LONG4
gollark: I use a desktop!
gollark: x = y correlates with x = y + 1.

References
  1. Ester Reiter, A Future without Hate or Need: The Promise of the Jewish Left in Canada (Toronto: Between the Lines, 2016), pp. 277-278.
  2. Anna Hudson, Free Discussion is the Key to Peace: The Political Cartoons of Avrom Yanovsky (Toronto: Samuel J. Zacks Gallery, 2005).
  3. Terry Mosher (Aislin) and Peter Desbarats, The Hecklers: A History of Canadian Political Cartooning and a Cartoonists' History of Canada (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1979), p. 227.
  4. Hudson, Free Discussion is the Key to Peace. The exhibition was also discussed in David Abramowitz, "Exhibiting the Political Cartoons of Avrom Yanovsky," Outlook (January/February 2006).
  5. "Who's Who in Ontario Art," Ontario Library Review, XXXII, 3 (August 1948), p. 245.
  6. Avrom, Twelve Litho Prints (Toronto, 1952).
  7. Michael Hirsh and Patrick Loubert, The Great Canadian Comic Books (Toronto: Peter Martin Associates, 1971), pp, 78-80, 148-149, 258.
  8. Reiter, A Future without Hate or Need, pp. 277-278.
  9. "Introducing Our New Editor". Vochenblatt. 13 November 1958. Retrieved 3 July 2013.
  10. Reiter, A Future without Hate or Need, pp. 277-278.
  11. Marxist Quarterly, 12 (Winter 1965), at pp. 64-65.
  12. The mural is among the several images on the website "Today's Inspiration: The Artists of the Canadian Whites: Avrom Yanovsky (1911-1979)," posted June 6, 2013. Another selection of his work is on the "Avrom Yanovsky" page of the Comic Book Daily site, posted August 15, 2013. Both retrieved April 17, 2018

Further reading

David Frank, “Looking for Avrom Yanovsky: An Exploration of the Cultural Front,” Left History, vol. 22, no. 1 (2018), pp. 37-87. ISSN 1192-1927. Retrieved March 14, 2019 via Left History access site.

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