Original Tarkay painting of women in a cafe setting, acrylic on canvas, signed lower right. Purchased in New York City directly from the artist. Itzchak Tarkay was born in Subotica on the Yugoslav-Hungarian border. Towards the end of World War II when Tarkay was just 9 years old, the Nazis sent him with his family to the Mathausen concentration camp. The Allied liberation freed them a year later. Tarkay’s family survived and immigrated to Israel, spending time at a transit camp for new arrivals. In 1951, Tarkay received a scholarship to the Bezalel Art Academy in Jerusalem, where he studied for a year before having to leave due to difficult financial circumstances at home. In order to continue his scholarship, he was allowed to study under the artist Schwartzman until his mobilization to the Israeli army. After returning to the familiar environment of Tel Aviv, Tarkay enrolled in the Avni Institute of Art, which he graduated in 1956. Today, Itzchak Tarkay has achieved recognition as a leading representative of a new generation of figurative artists. The inspiration for his work clearly 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. As well as being a painter and watercolorist, Tarkay is a master graphic artist and his rich tapestry of form and color is achieved primarily through the use of the serigraph. In his serigraphs, many colors are laid over one another and used to create texture and transparency. Overall Size: 52 x 77 1/2 in. Sight Size: 51 x 76 1/2 in.