Ziona Tagger is the most important female Israeli artist from the early decades of the 20th century. She was born in Jaffa in 1900 to a Bulgarian family. Between the years 1921-22 she studied at the Bezalel Art Academy in Jerusalem under the guidance of Boris Schatz and Abel Pann. In 1924 she traveled to Paris, where she was tutored by Andre Lhote . In 1925 she returned to Israel and joined a group of Modern painters: Israel Paldi, Reuven Rubin, Arieh Lubin, Joseph Zaritsky and others. She co exhibited with them in the Ohel and the Tower of David. In 1930 she joined the Hebrew Artists Association. In 1937 she was awarded the Dizingoff Prize from the municipality of Tel-aviv, and was among the founders of the Painters' and Sculptures' association's pavilion in Tel-aviv. In World War II she volunteered for the British Army and in 1942 she joined the Haganah. In 1948 she represented Israel in the Venice Biennale. In 1977 she was awarded the title 'honored citizen of Tel-aviv'. She passed away in the spring of 1988. (Ziona Tagger 1900-1988 Retrospective, Catalogue of exhibition of the Open Museum in Tefen, April 1990).
