Adolph S. Oko

Eric Goldberg (Germany 1890–1969 Montreal)
Oil on canvas, undated
Cincinnati Skirball Museum

This canvas usually hangs proudly on the first floor of the Klau Library, where Adolph Oko served as librarian from 1906 until 1933. During his tenure, Oko significantly expanded the Klau’s collections and began assembling a collection of art and artifacts which grew to become today’s Cincinnati Skirball Museum. In a letter to the artist’s son when the painting was undergoing conservation in 1985, then executive dean for academic affairs Eugene Mihaly wrote: “Your father was the prime builder of our Library, and his memory is deeply cherished by all of us.” 

Jewish Canadian artist Eric Goldberg was born in Berlin, the son of the portrait painter Richard Goldberg. He began his art studies in Paris in 1906, first attending the École des Beaux-Arts and later the Académie Julian. After completing his studies in Paris in 1910, Goldberg returned to Berlin, where he studied at the Berlin Academy and became professor of drawing and painting there. In 1913 Goldberg moved to Palestine, where he was appointed to the faculty of the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts, Jerusalem, to teach drawing and painting. After four years in Palestine, Goldberg returned to Paris. He moved to Montreal in 1928. He exhibited frequently in Montreal and Toronto, as well as in American cities such as New York, Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Chicago.