Ryback was an important member of the Russian Jewish, modernist movement, which members were seeking to revitalize Jewish art during a period which saw the cultural efflorescence of Yiddish literature, music, theater, and art. In addition to drawings, paintings, and prints, he left a series of small ceramic figures, representing folk types of the shtetl.
Education
Issachar's father sent him to the "heder", though rather late, only at the age of 10, because due to his delayed development and unhealthiness Ryback lacked speech habits nearly till he was nine. He studied in the "heder" for slightly more than a year, dedicating most of his time to the evening drawing classes for workers attached to the local factory, which he attended in secret. At the age of 11 he entered the Yelisavetgrad courses for scene painters, and having completed the course, was working since 1909 in an artel (co-operative unit) that dealt with interior paintings of public and church buildings. The money he earned in the artel permitted him to become independent and continue his artistic education, despite his father's resistance.
At that period he became a member of the non-formal group created by the school Jewish painters that included, in particular, Boris Aronson, Alexander Tyshler, Solomon Nikritin, Mark Epstein, and Isaac Rabinovich, who later became the well-known artists. They all were consolidated by the idea of keen national self-identity and interest to various modernistic trends in art. In 1913-1914 Ryback attended classes in Exter's private studio.
Career
In 1918-1919, Ryback taught drawing and painting at the Kiev Jewish Children's Studio attached to the Artistic Division, designed a number of stamps for Jewish publishing houses and made artistic design of the Eygns, a literary almanac in Yiddish. Besides, he prepared scenery sketches and scale model for the pioneering production of the Culture League Theater Studio that have foreseen some of the Constructivist set design discoveries. In summer 1919, in the Baginen, the Kiev Yiddish-language magazine, in collaboration with Boris Aronson, Ryback published The Ways of Jewish Painting paper. In spring 1920, Ryback was one of the organizers and participants of the exhibition held by the Culture League Artistic Division in Kiev. In April 1921, Ryback resided in Kovno (now – Kaunas) and designed there a couple of books in Yiddish and worked at the Lithuanian Culture League institutions. In 1921-1924, Ryback was the Novembergruppe member and took part in its exhibitions; he also exhibited his works.In 1923, the Shvelln, a Berlin Jewish Publishing House, published Ryback's graphical album named Stetl. From December 1923 until January 1924 he had his solo exhibition in Berlin, which revealed Ryback's achievements as the original interpreter of Cubism. In December 1924 he came back to Moscow as he was invited by the Jewish Studio of the Belorussian Theater to make stage design of a theater play. In 1926 he went to Paris, where he became a success, and in 1935, Wildenstein, the art dealer, planned a large retrospective exhibition of his work. On the eve of the opening Ryback died suddenly.