Siona Tagger

Siona Tagger was born in 1900 in Jaffa

Siona Tagger was born in Jaffa in 1900 to Shmuel and Sultana Tagger. Her parents were among the first residents of Ahuzat Bayit, the neighborhood that grew into Tel Aviv. She studied at a girls' school and later at the Levinsky seminary.

She first studied art in a studio at the Herzliya Gymnasium under Isaac Frenkel and Joseph Constant. She then studied at Bezalel in Jerusalem from 1921 to 1922, against her parents' wishes, and later continued her studies in Paris. In 1925 she became the first woman member of the Hebrew Artists Association.

She married Mordechai Michel Katz in 1933, and their son Avraham Katz-Oz was born in 1934. The couple separated in 1940, and she supported herself by painting. During World War II she served in the British Army and later joined the Haganah.

She painted portraits of cultural figures such as Avraham Shlonsky and Uri Zvi Greenberg, and many Sephardi women from her own family. In 1948 she represented Israel at the Venice Biennale. In 1952 she helped found the artists' colony in Safed, and in the 1960s she made paintings on glass with biblical themes.

In 1977 she was named Yakir of Tel Aviv-Yafo, and a street was named after her. She died in 1988 and was buried in the Nahalat Yitzhak cemetery in Tel Aviv.