Ismar David was born on 27 August 1910, in Breslau (
Wrocław), then part of the
German Empire, to Rosa and Wolff David.[1][2] He was apprenticed to a house painter in Breslau from 1925 to 1928, when he went to Berlin.[3] There, he went to art school at Städtische Kunstgewerbe- und Handwerkerschule in
Charlottenburg.[4]
A Hanukkah lamp designed by Ismar David combines a series of pointed arches, familiar from traditional medieval Hanukkah lamps, with clean contemporary lines.
Cover design from the first-edition dust jacket of the 1963 novel V. by Thomas Pynchon, designed by Ismar David
David settled permanently in New York City in 1953.[8][9] David's art often accompanied religious texts.[10]
He died on 26 February 1996 in New York City.[1][11]
Ismar David Archive
The
Cary Graphic Arts Collection, a rare book library on the history of graphic communication, holds the Ismar David Papers. The collection contains correspondence, personal papers, photographs, writings, artwork, and publications that document David's life and career.[12]
Publications
The Hebrew Letter: Calligraphic Variations (1990)[13]
^
abKelly, Jerry; Koeth, Alice, eds. (2000). Artist & Alphabet: Twentieth Century Calligraphy and Letter Art in America.
Godine. p.
121.
ISBN1-56792-137-X.
OCLC43927537.