Avigdor Arikha Enter a
feeling, not
a gallery.
Choose a mood and the room itself answers — the light cools or warms, the air changes pace, and only the works that carry that feeling step forward from the dark. Everything else recedes into shadow.
Avigdor Arikha
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 bec…