Itzchak Tarkay

Itzchak Tarkay was born in 1935 in Subotica on the Hungarian Yugoslav border. Towards the end of World War II his family was captured by the Nazis and send to the Mauthausen concentration camp. He was nine years old at the time. A year later his family was liberated by Allied Forces. After the war his family returned to Subotica for four years. During this time he began painting. In 1949 his family immigrated to a kabutz in Israel. His early years in Israel was marked by exploratory paintings in various mediums, and after a couple of years in 1951 he began attending the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design. Afterwards he went to the Avni Art Academy on a scholarship. After attending school, Tarkay began his prolific career. He would work often six to seven hours a day in the studio either singly or with other artists. He both mentored and collaborated with many Israeli artists including: Yaacov Agam, Yuval Wolfson, and Mark Kanovich. He was an important Israeli painter who also became known outside of Israel as well. His body of work is reminiscent of Matisse and Toulouse-Lautrec. Impressionism and Post-Impression is what his collection of work is similar to. He primarily drew figures of women either singly or in groups in a variety of settings both intimate and public. He worked with watercolor, acrylic, and oil. While he was prolific, at the same time he was a perfectionist, and would continue to touch up pieces for a long time. In 1986 and 1987 his work exhibited in the International Art Expo in New York. Tarkay passed away on June 3rd of 2012.