Born on the Yugoslav-Hungarian border in the city of Subotica in 1935, Itzchak Tarkay was an artist with a remarkable history. In 1944, Tarkay was deported to the Nazi concentration camp Mauthausen-Gusen in Austria. Luckily, the Allied liberation of the camps in 1945 came in time for Tarkay to emerge alive, and in 1949 his family emigrated to Israel.

In 1951, Tarkay’s formidable artistic skill earned him a scholarship to the Bezalel Art Academy in Jerusalem, but he was forced to leave the school after one year due to his family’s financial difficulties and his obligation to serve in the Israeli army. After his service, Tarkay moved to Tel Aviv and enrolled in the Avni Institute of Art, graduating in 1956. From that time, he gathered quite a following through his numerous exhibitions in Israel and abroad, notably the International Art Expo in New York City (1986, 1987). His paintings can be found in public, private, and corporate collections around the world.

The great appeal of Tarkay’s work has been described as possessing “timeless, universal values – values that have staying power and do not simply ride the tide of fashion.” He painted for the sake of painting, not to make a political or social statement, and his art is without the modern trappings of mixed-media installations, videos, or site-specific sculpture. Influenced by French Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, Tarkay’s artwork shows hints of the styles of Matisse and Toulouse-Lautrec. It is this art that will endure the test of time. The return to classic styles is what makes his artwork so memorable, so powerful, and so refreshing. An end of an artistic era, Tarkay passed away on June 3, 2012.