Arieh Aroch 1908 - 1974
The High Commissioner, Herbert Samuel, 1970

The High Commissioner, Herbert Samuel, 1970
Oil sticks and pencil on paper, 26.5X27 cm, Signed and dated.

About The Artist:

painter, born 1908, Kharkov, Russia.He participated in the Meyerowitz Artists Group in Zichron Yakov. From 1949-1953 he served in the Israeli diplomatic Office in Moscow; from 1956-1959 he was the Israeli Ambassador to Brazil; from 1959-1962 he was the Israeli Ambasador to Sweden; in 1963 he returned to Israel, retired, and devoted himself to art in Jerusalem where he died in 1974. Arie Aroch, though a member of the "New Horizons" from 1947,(see "New Horizons"), suggested an alternative to lyric abstraction, proposing a greater concentration on form; personal statement instead of objectivity; unconventional techniques instead of methodical professionalism, and a more eclectic approach instead of French abstractionism. Aroch's sources for his art works include children's drawings, found objects, folk and traditional characters, and persons remembered from childhood. His thought and techniques (erasing, scratching, scribbling) influenced Israeli young painters such as Aviva Uri and Raffi Lavie.

Education

1924-26 Bezalel Academy, Jerusalem

1926-28 Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium, Tel Aviv

1934-35 Colarossi, Paris, with Leger



Awards and Prizes

1942 The Dizengoff Prize for Painting and Sculpture, Municipality of Tel Aviv Jaffa, Tel Aviv

1955 Tel Aviv Museum's Dizengoff Prize

1968 The Sandberg Prize for Israeli Art, Israel Museum, Jerusalem

1971 Israel Prize for Painting

Literature:

Gideon Ofrat, In the Library of Arie Aroch, Bavel Edition; Yoseph Chachmi, The Israeli Phoenix; Gaby and Ami Brown, 2001, p. 253, illustrated.



Mordechai Omer, Arieh Aroch, Tel Aviv Museum of Art and the Phoenix, 2003, p. 252, no. 4, illustrated.