Itzchak Tarkay

Itzchak Tarkay was born in Subotica on the Yugoslav-Hungarian border. Towards the end of World War II when Tarkay was 9 years old, the Nazis sent him with his family to Mathausen concentration camp. The Allied liberation freed them a year later.

In 1951 Tarkay received a scholarship to the Bezalel Art Academy where he studied for one year before he left due to financial difficulties. In order to continue his scholarship, Tarkay was allowed to study under the artist Schwartzman until his mobilization in the Israeli Army. After his service term ended, Tarkay returned to his familiar environment in Tel Aviv and enrolled in the Avni Institute of Art, which he completed in 1956. He was also mentored by other important Israeli artists of the time, including Mokady, Janko, Streichman, and Stematsky.

arkay has achieved recognition as a leading representative of a new generation of figurative artists. The inspiration for his work lies with French Impressionism, and Post-Impressionism, particularly the color sophistication of Matisse and the drawing style of Toulouse-Lautrec, while summing up the characteristics of his model subject without relying on the precise copying of natural forms, or the patient assembling of exact detail.

Tarkay is a master graphic artist and his rich tapestry of form and color is achieved primarily through the use of the serigraph. Many colors are laid over one another and used to create texture and transparency.

After exhibiting in Israel and abroad, he received recognition at the International Art Expo in New York in 1986 and 1987 for works in several forms of media, including oil, acrylic, and watercolor. Many books have been written on Tarkay, his talent, and artistic legacy.