Itzchak Tarkay

If there were a global prize for the most inspiring artist of our time, Itzchak Tarkay would be the prime candidate. This exuberant painter of joy was born in 1935 on the Yugoslav-Hungarian border, a dark place and time when Europe was on the brink of war.  In 1944, when he was only 9 years old, his entire family was captured and sent to the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp. It is miraculous that they all survived.

When the Allied Forces liberated the camp, his family returned home. Having escaped almost certain death, young Itzchak found, in art, a way to express his love for life.  Today he is revered not just as a survivor, but as an artist who has redeemed tragedy with the power of the paint brush.

Savoring the sunny colors and sensual scenes of Tarkay’s widely popular paintings, you would never guess the traumatic prologue. Elegant ladies reclining languorously in opulent drawing rooms, or fashionable women passing a lazy afternoon in a sophisticated café, the world of Tarkay’s paintings is a realm of pleasure. On the canvas, all is voluptuous and luxurious.

Itzchak Tarkay occupies a special place in twentieth-century art history, holding on to the ideals of figurative painting in an era dominated by abstraction. You can see echoes of French Impressionism in his work, particularly the work of Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec, Cézanne, Pissarro and especially Henri Matisse. You see a dialogue with Matisse in the way his models are posed, in the vibrant ornamental fabrics and backgrounds, the beckoning window opening on the beautiful blue sea beyond and in the Fauve-style of the landscapes.

Like many artists, Tarkay admitted the most difficult part of painting was realizing when a work was complete. Art historian and critic Joseph Jacobs said of Tarkay; “In a world so preoccupied with being politically correct, dealing with social issues and making art that is anything but painting, Tarkay holds onto timeless, universal values that have staying power and do not simply ride the tide of fashion.