The Prints and Drawings of Max Pollak
Images from the early 20th century
The Annex Galleries
A selec'on of ex libris in etching and drypoint by Austrian/American ar'st Max Pollak (1886 –1970), from the estate of the ar'st’s wife, Friedl Pollak. Czechoslovakian-born Max Pollak studied at the Austrian Academy of Art beginning in 1902, and traveled throughout Italy, France, and Holland following gradua'on to further his ar's'c research. With the onset of World War I, he was conscripted into service as an official painter for the Austrian Army, capturing harrowing images of life in war 'me as well as the daily lives of Central and Eastern Europeans.
Pollak made numerous ex libris for colleagues, friends, and family. This collec'on, which he assembled together on acid-free matboard, appears to focus on friends of the Jewish diaspora, par'cularly in Austria and North America.
The Annex Galleries’ vast collec'on of prints and drawings by Pollak includes numerous images of pre-World War II Eastern, Central, and Southern Europe, and post-war America, Mexico, and Central America. For inquiries about the drawings in this collec'on or to see other works by Pollak, please contact the gallery:
+1 (707) 546-7352 artannex@aol.com www.annexgalleries.com
Ex Libris: Josef Blum
Etching in sepia ink, ca. 1920-‘30. Signed in the plate, lower right. On ivory wove. 2-13/16 x 2-13/16” platemark.
Ex Libris: Dr. Emmerich ____
Etching and aqua'nt, ca. 1920-‘30
Pencil signed, lower right. On sturdy, an'que-white wove. 2-11/16 x 4-7/16” platemark.
Ex Libris: F. Julius and Cora B. Fohs
Etching and aqua'nt in teal ink, ca. 1940. Pencil signed, lower right. On ivory simile-vellum wove. 3-7/8 x 3-13/16” platemark.
(F. Julius Fohs was a Kentucky-based petroleum geologist)
Ex Libris: Helen A. Gutman
Etching and drypoint in dark blue ink, ca. 1920-‘30. Signed in the plate, lower middle-right. On thin, cream wove. 2-3/4 x 2-1/8” platemark.
Ex Libris: Elinor and Edward Heller
Etching in sepia ink, ca. 1920-‘40. Signed in the plate, lower right. On thin, ivory wove. 2-13/16 x 2-13/16” platemark.
(Elinor was a California academic administrator and ac'vist, Edward was a financier)
Ex Libris: Dorothy and Samuel Herwitz
Etching in brown-black ink, ca. 1930-‘40. Signed in the plate, lower lee. On ivory simile-vellum wove. 3-3/16 x 3-3/16” platemark.
(The Herwitz’s lived in Cincinna', Ohio, where Pollak briefly lived in the 1930s.)
Ex Libris: Leon Meyer Mack
Drypoint, printed in colors, printed chine-collé, ca. 1940. Signed in the plate, lower right. On textured ivory laid. 3-5/16 x 2-9/16” platemark.
(PFC Leon Meyer Mack was born in Ohio and died in the Second World War in Luxembourg at the age of 20. He was likely the son of Pollak’s friends.)
Ex Libris: Rudolf Paschkis
Etching in sepia ink, ca. 1920-‘40. Signed in the plate, lower right. On an'que-white wove. 3-1/16 x 2-3/16” platemark.
(Rudolf Paschkis was a Viennese urologist who emigrated to the U.S. in 1938 to escape Nazi Germany.)
Ex Libris: Rabbi Irving Frederik [sic] Reichert
Etching in brown ink, ca. 1930-‘40. Noted in pencil by ar'st as a proof. Signed in the plate, lower right. On an'que-white wove.
3-7/8 x 2-1/16” platemark.
(Irving Frederick Reichert was a noted San Francisco rabbi emeritus of Temple Emanu-El.)
Ex Libris: The Joe Stern’s
Etching in sepia ink, ca. 1930-‘40. Signed in the plate, lower right. On an'que-white wove. 4-3/16 x 3-15/16” platemark.
Ex Libris: Ing. Siegmund Strauss
Etching in sepia ink, ca. 1920-‘40. Signed in the plate, lower right. On an'que-white wove. 4-3/16 x 3-15/16” platemark (Siegmund Strauss [Strauß] was an Austrian-born engineer, physicist, and inventor. He emigrated to the US in 1938 to escape Nazi Germany.)
Ex Libris: Annie u. Edmund Walters
Drypoint, ca. 1920. Signed in the plate, lower right. On an'que-white wove. 3-7/8 x 2-7/8” platemark
