Sami Zilkha

Sami was born in Baghdad in 1936 and immigrated to Israel in 1951.  His first introduction to the world of art was through his work with Jan Gilon, the painter, in the Do Re Mi Theatre.  He graduated from the Tel Aviv College for art teachers in 1970.  

Over a period of two years, Sami taught himself the goldsmith’s craft and for many years was principal goldsmith in the workshop of the late Eli Gera in which capacity he produced jewelry for the actresses Maria Schell, Anna Magnani and Elizabeth Taylor, the actors Peter Ustinov and Jean Mare and the singer Adamo.  In addition to jewelry, Sami started to design Judaica and then gradually to translate these designs into the medium of painting. 

For the last 15 years, he has worked in his own independent way to develop the still life.  His technique is unique and in fact he is the founder of this mixed media technique.  He starts by taking cardboard and fabric, mixing them in a liquid and creating a mold.  He then etches the image he wants to create into the mold and glues it to a canvas board.  He lets it dry and then etches the image more.  He then paints 3 layers of oil, not acrylic, because oil painting is from the beginning of time.  Each work can take from 5 to 15 days to complete.  His work has been studied all over the world and featured in several museums and only exclusive galleries in Israel. 

In his own words, “All my paintings are taken from statements from the Torah.  They float in space like a wandering soul.  They are imaginary and surrealistic.  The mystery in these statements and in my artwork is that we do not know who wrote these yet we believe in them because we get them as fact.”
 

Back