The Art of Chaim Livchitz

Walking into the home of Michael and Luda Livschultz was better than going to the Art Institute.

Their home is a living museum of the works of Chaim Livchitz, Michael's father. 

"The gallery was designed specifically for this painting, " Michael said. 

The man on the left holding the candlesticks is Chaim, my mother is in the red dress on the right, I modeled the clarinet player, my wife, the lady above the Rabbi on the left. He used family and friends as models. "This is a very sad painting, when it was in my sculpture studio I had to cover my father's work with white sheets so that I could focus on my work." "It is like reading poetry, everything for the first time. Each time. How can someone work when you have these paintings staring at you?"

"Misha", with his father overlooking his shoulder. 

"For every painting, he did studies."

This is the east side of the gallery. Inside the room to the right is filled with hundreds of more works of art. He simply has no space for it all. Entering the room, looking up to the left in the rafters, 100 paintings or more stacked side by side. Up the ladder, frames, and to the right, shelves of smaller hand painted portraits and scenes. 

A picture of his mother leans against the wall on the floor, behind the white basket.

His own sculptures on the black pedestals. 

The bookshelf inside the closet also holds black and white photography.

The photo on the bottom is Michael's father Chaim and his mother in the 1990s.

"This painting was used by a professor at a University to teach figurative painting."

The painting on the bottom is a smaller version of a larger work. 

The original was bought by a museum and is located in Minsk. 

The original is about 3 times the size. This piece is a study of the original that was commissioned. 

At the time, Jewish artists and Jewish art was not allowed. This was the first piece that was allowed to be debuted because it was commissioned. "The people flocked to see it."

"Can you tell the difference?" Michael said.

"Yes, the left one is your father's, the right one is yours." I replied.

"Yes, how did you know? We painted this side by side. He put me in the picture. "

Misha's dining room table. 

"One summer, for three months, it took my father to paint this. He spent 2-3 hours per day working on this with a palette knife."

"This is the last painting my father ever painted. Two weeks before his death."

In Misha's sculpting studio he points to the wall...

"See the palette at the top? That was the last palette used by my father. The photograph was taken 12 hours before he died."