Arie Aroch (b. Russia 1908 - 1974) was a seminal figure in bringing Israel from the modern to the contemporary art scene. He was an intellectual and Israel's ambassador to Brazil and Sweden. Aroch was a founder of the New Horizons group, but went on to create art works influenced by Rauschenberg and Twombly. He created a small but incredibly influential body of works which raised the level of art in Israel significantly - taking it from a provincial maker of semi-abstract works to a world class creator of contemporary art. His are among the rarest and most sought after Israeli art works. During the 1920s, Aroch studied at the conservative Bezalel but was drawn to modern painting as taught by ltzhak Frenkel in Tel Aviv. In the 1930s he continued his studies in Paris, and the influence of French painting was to linger in his art until the 1950s. In the course of the 1940s his style underwent a change: no more copying from nature, but rather a cerebral analysis of the essence of the painting. According to Aroch, "The painter [is involved in] the analysis of the forms around him... when he strips them of their content and creates new forms invested with an inner tension and existence... he may not be fully aware of what these forms will be..." Aroch did not advocate total abstraction, and the figure and objects remained important elements of his work. For the most part, the painterly combinations in his pictures offer an analysis of geometric structures and abstract colored planes, and sometimes the artist's "innocently childlike" reaction to what goes on around him. Besides working with brush on canvas, Aroch drew profusely with colored waxy crayons on paper. He deliberately chose a restricted range of color in order to direct the eye to the qualities of the line. Aroch was awarded the Israel Prize for Painting in recognition of his artistic lifework. (Israel-discount-bank)
