TAGGER (TAJAR), ZIONA
Harlequin.

Harlequin.
Oil on canvas. Signed by the artist in Hebrew and dated lower right. Framed. 36 x 23.25 inches; 90.5 x 59 cm.

Paris, 1925.

The first Israeli-born female artist, Tziona Tagger was born in Jaffa in 1900. She studied at the Bezalel School of Art in Jerusalem, later moving to Paris to attend the Académie de la Grande Chaumière and the Académie Colarossi. Tagger helped establish the Hebrew Artists' Association in 1920 which was composed of artists who sought an alternative approach to modern art, abandoning the sinuous, art nouveau, 'Oriental' approach of Boris Schatz and the early Bezalel School approach. Tagger's style combined Cubist and Naive art as seen in the present lot - the flat planes of bright color comprising the human face.
     
Exhibited: The Jewish Museum, New York, The Batkin Collection of Israeli Art (1985). Catalogue p. 34. Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Sionah Tagger Retrospective (2003).