Acrylic paint on canvas, signed lower left
Image size: 32 x 40 inches (81.25 x 101.5 cm)
Dutch ripple frame
Tarkay’s art is clearly influenced by French Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, particularly Matise and Toulouse-Lautrec. In this painting, as is common in many of his works, we are drawn into an imaginary world that is filled with dream-like images of elegant women in classical scenes.
The Artist
Itzchak Tarkay (1935 – June 3, 2012) was an Israeli artist. Tarkay was born in 1935 in Subotica, on the Yugoslav-Hungarian border. In 1944, Tarkay and his family were sent to the Mauthausen, a Nazi concentration camp, until Allied liberation freed them a year later.
In 1949, his family emigrated to Israel, living in a Kibbutz for several years. Tarkay attended the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design from 1951, and graduated from the Avni Institue of Art and Design in 1956. His work was exhibited at the International Art Expo in New York in 1986 and 1987. He has been the subject of three books, published by Dr. Israel Perry. Perry Art Gallery And Park West Gallery, his dealer.
Few realize that Tarkay’s early works were done by him personally to completion, but his later works were drawn by him and then colored in by helping artists on staff. This increased production, but that additional inventory reduced value of his total body of work. Today, the most important works by Tarkay are those that were done by his hand without assistance from others.
