Avigdor Arikha is an Israeli who was born in Romania in 1929. He survived the Nazi labor camps in Central Europe and was repatriated as an orphan to an Israeli kibbutz in 1944. He studied art and philosophy in Paris, where he lived with his wife and two children. Of those who still paint from life, Arikha is one of the few who, while not abandoning some older ways of painting, remains tellingly modern.

At the same time, Arikha knows very well, and at first hand, the devouring doubt of this century. He is a close personal friend of Samuel Becket, whom he had portrayed many times; he knew Giacometti well and once also sketched him. In short, Arikha bears the curse of knowingness. He is an intellectua...