Itzchak Tarkay was born in 1935 in Subotica on the Yugoslav Hungarian border. When he was only nine years old, the Nazis sent Tarkay to Mathausen concentration camp. After the war, he returned home and developed an interest in art. While still at school in Subotica, he won a prize for excellence in painting.

In 1949 he and his family immigrated to Israel and were sent to a transit camp for new arrivals at Beer Ya'akov. Their next two years were spent in a Kibbutz.

In 1951, Tarkay received a scholarship to the Bezalel Art Academy in Jerusalem, where he studied for a year before having to leave due to difficult financial circumstances at home. In order to continue his scholarship, h...