Izhar Cohen
b. 1963, Raanana, Israel; lives and works in Tel Aviv.
Illustrating for newspapers and books, Izhar Cohen usually draws with digital brushstrokes on small formats, creating illustrations with an accompanying text. On the truck, together with his daughter Alma, he depicted a group of people joining forces to push the truck forward. The painting is based on a photograph of a group of volleyball players he came across on the Tel Aviv beach, whom he staged in the requested scene. On the other side of the truck he portrayed his daughter Alma, single-handedly "pushing" the truck forward. In the absence of an attached text, the painting is open to interpretation.
BFA from the Department of Graphic Design, Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem (1984–1987); studied at the École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, Paris (1988–1990), where he specialized in etching and woodcut, and at Central Saint Martin's College of Art & Design, London. In the early 2000s he began teaching in the Department of Visual Communication, Bezalel, Jerusalem.
Concurrent with his studies, he worked as an illustrator for various newspapers and magazines, first in Israel, later in Paris (for L'Express, Le Figaro, and Le Monde, and the publishing house Gallimard), and in London (The Times). After graduating, he began collaborating with prominent clients in the US, the Netherlands, and Japan, and illustrating for various newspapers and magazines around the world, including The Sunday Times, Financial Times, The Guardian, Prospect, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. For some two decades (since 1993) he regularly illustrated Yair Lapid's column, first in Ma'ariv's weekend supplement and then in the 7 Days supplement of Yedioth Aharonoth, and later (since 2012)—Shlomo Artzi's weekly column in the same supplement. In 2005 he was given a studio at the Cité internationale des arts, Paris, wherefrom he continued to create illustrations for the world press.
In 1992 a first retrospective of his work was exhibited at De Beyerd Museum, Breda, the Netherlands, and in 2003 his first retrospective in Israel was staged at the Municipal Art Gallery of Ra'anana, his hometown. His solo exhibition "Licence Artistique" was presented in 2018 at Bibliothèque Germaine Tillion, Paris, and in 2019, as part of Illustration Week, his exhibition "Intimacy" opened at the Old Jaffa Museum, with thirteen etchings created at the Gottesman Etching Center, Kibbutz Cabri.
In the mid-1990s he won a competition to illustrate a ceramic wall for the municipal swimming pool in Breda, Holland, a project which was completed in 2000. In 2001, he was awarded the British V&A Illustration Award, and a year later, he won a competition to design ten stamps for the British Royal Mail dedicated to the centenary of the publication of Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories.
In the late 1990s, he began illustrating children's books. In 2007–2009, he created a series of linoleum prints on the subject of literature, which were based on his weekly columns in the British Guardian.