The Haverhill Citizens Hall of Fame plans to induct abstract expressionist artist and sculptor Israel Levitan as its 45th member.
Israel “Jack” Levitan was born in Lawrence June 13, 1912 to Russian immigrants Hyman J. and Esther N. (Jelkowsky) Levitan. The family moved to Haverhill around 1919, living first at 107 Webster St. and later on New Hampshire Avenue and S. Prospect Street. Levitan attended Haverhill schools, but left home at an early age to travel the United States, Canada and Mexico.
His induction ceremony takes place Saturday, Sept. 9, 2 p.m., in Haverhill Public Library’s Johnson Auditorium, 99 Main St., Haverhill. The public is invited and there is no admission charge.
The Haverhill Citizens Hall of Fame honors those Haverhill sons and daughters who achieved fame and brought recognition to the city. A display of honorees may be seen on the first floor of the Haverhill Public Library.
During World War II, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy. He became a medical corpsman, attached to the Marines, and was awarded two battle stars for the bloody invasions of Leyte and Okinawa. After the war, he settled in New York City and took advice to study sculpture in Paris, where he exhibited in a group show at the Musée des Beaux Arts.
The New York Times in 1957 praised Levitan’s works, stating that “one of the best pieces in the show is a dancer’s torso in a warm-colored wood in which (he) has captured well the thrust of a dancer’s body.” ARTnews selected his 1959 show as one of the 10 best one-man exhibitions of the year.
Levitan used various media in his sculpture, including plaster, stone, clay, marble and wood, especially ash, cedar, Douglas fir and oak. He was listed in Who’s Who in American Art, served as vice president of American Abstract Artists and taught at UC Berkeley and MacDowell Art Colony, Peterborough, N.H. His papers are preserved in the Smithsonian Archives of American Art.
He died at his Largo, Fla., home May 17, 1982.