Joseph Zaritsky

Joseph Zaritsky was born in 1891 in Boryspil

Zaritsky was born in 1891 in Boryspil, in the Russian Empire, to a large traditional Jewish family. His parents, Golda and Joseph Ben Ya'acov, were farmers with Zionist views who set aside two rooms of their home for Hebrew study and reading.

From 1910 to 1914 he studied art at the Academy of Arts in Kiev. He was drafted into the Russian Army in 1915 and served until 1917. In 1918 he married Sarah (Sonia), and their daughter Etia was born a year later.

After a pogrom in 1919, the family fled to Kalarash in Bessarabia, and he left all his earlier work behind. There he painted small watercolors, and only 5 of them survived.

In 1923 he moved to the Land of Israel and settled in Jerusalem, where he painted landscapes in watercolor. In 1924 he held his first solo exhibition at the Menorah club in Jerusalem. He later moved to Tel Aviv and in 1927 spent several months in Paris.

In 1948 he was among the founders of the "Ofakim Hadashim" group. He developed a style of abstract art and received the Israel Prize for painting in 1959. He died in 1985.