A Creative Type

This exhibition presents, for the first time, a comprehensive selection of works from the oeuvre of Pesach Ir-Shay, a Hungarian-Jewish multidisciplinary artist and international graphic designer who specialized in poster and advertising design. Born István Irsai in Budapest in 1896, he worked in Tel Aviv during the 1920s before returning to Hungary, where he emerged as one of the country’s most prominent modernist designers before World War II. In 1945, after he and his family were liberated from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, they immigrated to Mandatory Palestine. A pioneer of modern graphics in Israel, Ir-Shay died in 1968, leaving behind a prolific, innovative, and multifaceted body of work that resonates deeply with its surroundings.

Advertising and applied graphic design have become among the most distinctive expressions of modern society and economy. Ir-Shay, who grew up in a progressive, cosmopolitan milieu and was influenced by Freudian psychological theory, saw the purpose of advertising as not merely to present a product but to spark emotion and desire, writing eloquently, “People do not long for a stove, but for warmth.” To achieve this, the designer must construct a visual narrative, guide the viewer’s eye, and synthesize color, tension, and movement with a clear and concise message. Central to advertising is the written word – both its content and its typographic form. With this principle in mind, Ir-Shay designed elegant, modernist Hebrew typefaces, stripped of decorative embellishment, for advertisements and posters. The significance he attributed to the written word, in Hebrew and other languages, reflected the primacy of text in Jewish tradition.

His work is presented here as testament to the achievements of a groundbreaking modernist artist whose multidisciplinary talent encompassed music, architecture, printing, graphic design, and stage design. An artist who found creative solutions for every challenge, he conceived his work as a bridge between Jewish tradition and the avant-garde modernist spirit, employing design not only for commercial purposes but also for social objectives. This exhibition was made possible through a substantial collection of the artist’s work donated to the Museum by the designer and collector David Tartakover. We also extend our thanks to the artist’s daughter, Miryam Ir-Shay, for lending a fine selection of his artistic estate.