Nahum Gutman (1898–1980) is one of the founders of Israeli painting, whose works became a visual chronicle of the young state.

He came to Palestine as a child and grew up together with Tel Aviv — the first Jewish city built on sand dunes. This city became his main subject: the bustling Carmel Market, white Bauhaus-style houses, Arab coffee shops of Jaffa, fishermen on the shore.

His style is bright, almost childlike in its spontaneity. Saturated colors of the Mediterranean, clear outlines, joy from simple things. Critics called it ‘naive expressionism’, while the artist himself said he simply paints what he loves.

Besides painting, Gutman illustrated books and wrote stories for children — his characters befriended camels, merchants, and the sea.

Today in Tel Aviv the Nahum Gutman Museum operates in the historic Neve Tzedek neighborhood — there you can see what this city was like a hundred years ago, through the eyes of a man who truly loved it.

Israeli art is not only ‘Bezalel’. It is also people who simply looked around and could not help but draw.