Things are never quite what they seem in the surreal world inhabited by Izhar Cohen. With an approach to illustration that is rooted in consummate draughtsmanship, tempered by a wry take on the seemingly mundane Izhar Cohen is set apart from his contemporaries. He has the ability to transform workaday phrases and ideas into surreal but simple images that have gained an appreciative audience worldwide.

Originally trained at the Bezalel Academy of Arts in Jerusalem and at the Ecole des Arts Decoratifs in Paris, it was even as a student that he started to receive editorial assignments that helped hone his by now well-developed ability to come up with just the right trigger idea. At a time when so many artists had seemed to forsake the discipline of draughtsmanship for the easily accessible, yet ultimately facile approach of stylistic illustration, Izhar Cohen has used the assurance of his drawing skills in a positive way and as a liberating influence that enables him to create a world that is entirely personal and in which anything is possible. Yet that is not say that his work is in anyway old-fashioned. The skill that is obvious in his control of line and form is so evidently a perfect collaboration of eye and hand. But he has readily embraced new technology and the further liberation that it brings to those who are masters of their craft.

Immediately after leaving the Ecole des Arts Izhar began a very fruitful collaboration with L' Express magazine, finding that he responded to the pressures of newspaper deadlines, a habit that he has found hard to overcome. The adrenaline rush that sort of work creates fuels his imagination and even to this day he finds that he responds better to shorter deadlines rather than with a more leisurely approach. Having created a formidable body of work in Paris Izhar and his wife Noa moved to London in 1990 where he soon found himself working on a regular basis for The Times Newspaper.


It was around this time that Izhar joined The Artworks and after having a successful launch exhibition at our gallery in Rosaline Road, he soon came to the attention of Design Groups who found his wry sense of humour a perfect foil to otherwise mundane texts. His ability to create simple line drawings to proved a great hit after our designer Howard Brown utilised them on the cover of our catalogue No.7.

He has made a few forays into the world of Children’s Books, notably for a title The Flood Tales, published by Pavilion Books and latterly an Alphabet Book created for David Bennett Books. But in his estimation the best is yet to come in that area as he still feels that he has not properly mastered that particular genre. Yet. Even though Flood Tales was commended for the National Library Illustration Awards held by the Victoria and Albert Museum.

His fruitful collaboration with Howard Brown has led to a series of successful jobs. Work on the presentation packs for the Weather series for the Royal Mail, led subsequently to the plum commission of a series of then stamps commemorating the Rudyard Kipling centenary. Based on the Just So stories the series of ten stamps together with presentation packs, posters point of sale etc produced some much admired designs.




Presentation Pack for The Royal Mail Kipling Centenary Stamps

Another productive collaboration for Izhar has been the production of the annual corporate calendar for Saison a Japanese insurance company. Corporate calendars are very big business in Japan and the prestige attached to each company's annual offering is very important. Such has been the success of the images that Izhar has produced for them, that he has now created the calendars for the last four years. Izhar's Bizarre gives him free rein to create images calling on his powers of imagination and existing very much in a world of his own making. A dream job for such an imaginative illustrator

Izhar's Bizarre A series of 12 page calendars for the Saison Corporation

He continues to thrive on the challenge of strict deadlines and has for several years contributed a weekly illustration to Maariv Weekend Supplement a commitment that he honours wherever in the world he happens to be. his ability to switch from traditional pen and ink drawings to the use of a computer enables Izhar to operate in a very international market, very often receiving text in the morning and sending off a wittily observed and beautifully rendered illustration as an attachment anywhere in the world by the afternoon.

Web icons for European Business Forum