Artist
Born in Radauti, Romania
Early Life and Background
Born: Radauti, Romania (1929)
Died: 2010
Victor Długacz (later Avigdor Arikha) was born to German-speaking Jewish parents in Rădăuţi, Bukovina, Romania.
He grew up in Czernowitz, also in Bukovina.
His family faced forced deportation in 1941 to the Romanian-run concentration camps of Transnistria, where his father died.
Arikha survived by drawing scenes of deportation, which were shown to delegates of the International Red Cross.
Artistic Development and Style
Emigration and Education: Emigrated to Palestine in 1944 with his sister. Lived in Kibbutz Ma'ale HaHamisha until 1948. Studied at the Bezalel School of Art in Jerusalem (1946-1949).
Early Career and Abstraction: Won a scholarship to study at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris (1949), where he learned fresco technique. Resided in Paris from 1954. Initially, Arikha became an abstract painter in the late 1950s.
Shift to Drawing and Return to Painting: In 1965, he stopped painting and focused solely on drawing from life, treating all subjects in a single sitting for eight years. Resumed painting in 1973.
Signature Style: Arikha developed a unique style of painting directly from the subject in natural light only, without preliminary drawings. This approach emphasized immediacy and spontaneity.
Influences: Inspired by Chinese brush painting and shared a similar principle of capturing "the decisive moment" with his friend Henri Cartier-Bresson.
Subject Matter: Known for portraits, nudes, still lifes, and landscapes rendered realistically but with spatial compositions influenced by abstraction, particularly Mondrian.
Major Achievements and Recognition
Critical Acclaim: Described as "perhaps the best painter from life in the last decades of the 20th century" by The Economist.
Commissions and Portraits: Painted commissioned portraits, including those of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother (1983) and former Prime Minister Lord Home (1988), both held by the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. Also painted Catherine Deneuve (1990) for the French state and Pierre Mauroy for the city of Lille.
Exhibitions: Showed frequently in London and New York, with over two dozen solo exhibitions.
Retrospectives: Major retrospective at the Israel Museum (paintings) and Tel Aviv Museum of Art (prints and drawings) in 1998. Exhibitions at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, British Museum, Bibliothèque Nationale, and Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum.
Awards & Honors: Received numerous accolades including the Gold Medal, Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, Grand Prix des Arts de la Ville Paris, Prix des Arts des Lettres et des Sciences, and the Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur.
Art Historical Significance
Bridging Modernism: Art critic Marco Livingstone described Arikha as bridging "the modernist avant-garde of pure abstraction with traditions of observational drawing and painting stretching back to the Renaissance."
Post-Abstract Representation: Considered a “post-abstract representational artist,” he moved beyond pure abstraction while retaining its lessons in spatial composition.
Emphasis on Direct Observation: Arikha’s commitment to painting directly from life, without preliminary sketches or photographs, was a significant departure from many contemporary artists and emphasized the importance of immediate perception.
Legacy: His work is held in prestigious collections worldwide, including the Israel Museum, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, British Museum, Bibliothèque Nationale, and Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum.
Art Historian and Writer
Scholarship: Arikha was also a respected art historian and writer on art.
Catalogues & Publications: He wrote catalogues for exhibitions on Poussin and Ingres at the Musée du Louvre, and authored books such as Ingres, Fifty Life Drawings, Peinture et Regard, On Depiction.
Lectures: Lectured widely at institutions like Princeton University, Yale University, and the Frick Collection.
