Pinchas Burstein


Pinchas Burstein, later known as Maryan S. Maryan, was a Polish-born Jewish post-expressionist painter.

Early life in Poland

Born in Nowy Sącz, he was sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II. After the war, he spent the years 1945–1947 in Germany in the camps for displaced persons.

Education

In the years 1947 to 1950 he lived in Israel where he undertook two years of studies in the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem.
In 1950 Burstein arrived in Paris, where he studied at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts for three years, including two in the lithography workshop.

Art and exhibition

After the war he produced largely autobiographical work, holding major exhibitions in Jerusalem and Paris.
His first individual exhibition took place in 1949 in the YMCA in Jerusalem. From May 9 - August 15, 1996, a collection of Maryan's works were exhibited at Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership in Chicago, as part of an exhibit called Maryan's Truth: Paintings 1957 - 1975. Today, Spertus maintains a sizable collection of his works, due in part to the longtime friendship between Maryan and art collector and Spertus namesake, Herman Spertus.

American period

He moved to New York in 1962 and in 1969 received American citizenship. In the USA he changed his name to Maryan S. Maryan.
He died of a heart attack in 1977 in New York, and was buried in the Montparnasse cemetery in Paris.