Itzchak Tarkay

Itzchak Tarkay (1935 – June 3, 2012) was an Israeli art painter and graphic artist. His is known for being a commercially successful Israel artist, especially in the United States, Israel, and Japan.[1] He is noted in the legal literature for being the only artist to use trade dress to protect his style from being emulated via Romm Art Creations Ltd. v. Simcha International, Inc..[2] A case that Tarkay won.[3]

His art is focused on almost dream images of elegant women, often in pairs. Tarkay's early works, some of which the Israeli art critic Joav BarEl classified as made in the De Staëlian style,[4] were completed by him personally. His later works were drawn by him and then colored in by assisting artists on staff.

Early life and education

Itzchak Tarkay was born in Subotica, on the Yugoslav-Hungarian border. At the age of 9, Tarkay and his family were sent to the Mauthausen concentration camp by the Nazis until Allied liberation freed them a year later.

In 1949, his family immigrated to Israel and was sent to the transit camp for new arrivals at Be'er Ya'akov. They lived in a kibbutz for several years. In 1951 Tarkay received a scholarship to the Avni Institute of Art and Design,[5] where he studied under the artist Schwartzman and was mentored by important Israeli artists of the time including Moshe Mokady, Marcel Janco, Yehezkel Streichman and Avigdor Stematsky.

Art career

As well as being an acrylic painter and watercolorist, Tarkay was a graphic artist and his rich tapestry of form and color was 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. In his later years, Tarkay mentored younger Israeli artists including David Najar, Yuval Wolfson and Mark Kanovich who often visited his studio, worked alongside him and received his critiques. Tarkay was also the only artist to collaborate with Yaacov Agam (1928). He and Agam created two paintings which incorporated both artists’ imagery in a single painting.

Tarkay's art is influenced by French Impressionism, and Post-Impressionism, particularly Matisse and Toulouse-Lautrec, and Tarkay influenced other artists, Yaacov Agam and Yuval Wolfson.

Death and legacy

In the year 2000, his work "Reflection" was minted by the Israel Coins and Medals Corp.[6] In 2008, he became an honorary citizen of Holon.

Tarkay died in 2012 at the age of 77 in Detroit, where he visited as a guest of Park West Gallery.[1] Park West Gallery published an obituary for Tarkay.

See also

References
  1. Herzl Israeli (17 March 2021). "יצחק טרקאי – דמיאן הירסט הישראלי" [Itzchak Tarkay – the Israeli Damien Hirst]. HaSharon Post. Retrieved 15 March 2022.
  2. Daniel Grant (2010). The Business of Being an Artist. Allworth Press. ISBN 9781581157383 – via Google Books. In the Tarkay case, according to the written decision, the court examined “the color patterns and shading of the Tarkay works, the placement of figures in each of the pictures examined, the physical attributes of his women, the depiction of women sitting and reclining, their characteristic clothing [vis-a-vis] those portrayed by Patricia [Govezensky]” to find that “consumer confusion is a likely result."
  3. Leonard DuBoff (2017). Art law cases and materials (Second ed.). ISBN 9781454887935.
  4. Joav BarEl (6 April 1961). "תערוכות תל אביב" [Exhbitions of Tel Aviv]. Haaretz. Retrieved 15 March 2022.
  5. Gabriel Talphir, ed. (1967). "[Unknown]". Gazith. Tel Aviv. 24: 200. Retrieved 17 March 2022. הצייר , כבן 26 , שלמד בסטודיה ע"ש אבני , מגדיר היטב את צורותיו המבריקות, הגאומטריות למחצה, על רקע לבן. הוא התבונן היטב בפימה מצד אחד, בארגוב מצד שני, יש לו גוונים כחולים נאים הצורות לא עוצבו יחד בדרך אורגאנית, וההעזות מדומות.
  6. "הרהורים - יצחק טרקאי; מדליה רשמית, התש"ס 2000; שישית ואחרונה בסדרת המדליות האמנותית "נשים באמנות"". Israel Coins and Medals Corp. Retrieved 15 March 2022.

Books
  • Itzchak Tarkay: The Park West Paintings (1994)
  • Itzchak Tarkay: Profile of an Artist (1997), ISBN 9781883269197
  • Itzchak Tarkay: Tel Aviv Retrospective (2012)
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