# Zygmunt Menkes artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/zygmunt-menkes/
Profile generated: 2026-05-09T14:49:01.000Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1896-05-06
- Death date: 1986-08-20
- Nationality: Polish, American
- Movements: School of Paris, Expressionism, Colorist painting
- Common media: oil painting, drawing, graphic art

## About Zygmunt Menkes

Zygmunt Menkes (1896–1986) was a Polish-Jewish painter and graphic artist recognized for his role in the School of Paris during the interwar period. Born in Lwów (now Lviv, Ukraine), Menkes studied art in Kraków and Berlin before settling in Paris in 1923, where he joined the circle of émigré modernists who shaped the city's vibrant art scene. His work from this period reflects the expressive colorism and figurative intensity characteristic of his peers. In 1935 Menkes emigrated to the United States and established himself in New York, where he continued painting and exhibiting until his death. His later output is associated with colorist painting and expressionism. He worked across landscape, still life, portraiture, genre scenes, and Jewish-themed subjects, and his drawings and graphic works are also documented in institutional collections.

## Common works and media

Menkes worked primarily in oil on canvas and works on paper including drawings and prints. His documented subjects encompass landscapes, still lifes, portraits, genre scenes, figure studies, and Jewish-themed compositions. He was active as a painter and draftsperson throughout a seven-decade career spanning Kraków, Berlin, Paris, and New York. Collectors encountering his work at auction will most commonly find mid-century oil paintings and figurative compositions from his New York period, alongside earlier Paris-period canvases and works on paper.

## Market and appraisal context

Zygmunt Menkes's works appear at auction primarily as oil paintings and works on paper. His Paris-period pieces from the 1920s and 1930s — when he was part of the School of Paris — tend to attract the most collector attention, though his substantial New York-period output also circulates. Key factors in appraisal include the work's date and period, medium (painting versus drawing), subject matter, provenance history, condition, and exhibition record. Works with documented gallery or exhibition provenance from his Paris or early New York years may carry stronger attribution confidence. Collectors should verify dates and authenticity against catalogue and institutional records, as his long career and geographic shifts created stylistic variety.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine identity research grounded in library authority files, museum records, and scholarly sources with auction records, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are available. For Zygmunt Menkes, biographical data is supported by the Library of Congress Name Authority File, Getty ULAN, VIAF, RKD Netherlands Institute for Art History, and Wikidata.

## Sources

- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q245361
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zygmunt_Menkes
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500004834
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/3362263/
- Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/nr96042056
- RKD Netherlands Institute for Art History: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/55242