Arie Aroch

Arie Aroch
Photograph of Arie Aroch
Born	1908 Kharkov, Ukraine
Died	1974 Jerusalem
Nationality	Israeli
Education	Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design
Known for	Painting
Movement	Israeli art

Arie Aroch (in Hebrew אריה ארוך; born 1908, in Russia – October 15, 1974, in Israel) was an Israeli painter and diplomat born in Kharkov, which was part of the Russian Empire (today part of Ukraine). Aroch’s work was a mixture of Pop Art and abstract art, along with elements from his biography. In addition, many scholars of the history of Israeli art have pointed out Aroch’s pioneering use of Jewish themes in his works. His painting style included unstructured scribbling and drawing, and it influenced a broad range of artists, including Raffi Lavie, Aviva Uri, etc. Sarah Breitberg Semel, in her article, Agrippa versus Nimrod (1988), suggested Aroch as a model for the new Israeli concept of design in art, and suggested his painting, Agrippas Street was the representative of Jewish identity. In 1971, Aroch was awarded the Israel Prize in Painting for his work.

Arie Aroch was born in November 1908 in Kharkov, which was then part of the Russian Empire and today is part of the Ukraine. His name was Lyova Nisselvich, the youngest of the three children of Rivka-Shulamit and Haim Nisselvich. At the time of his birth, Kharkov was outside the Jewish Pale of Settlement of the Russian Empire.

His father was a wealthy merchant active in Zionist political circles in Tzarist Russia. Among other things, his father was one of the founders of the “Tarbut” Gymnasium in Russia. At home he received a secular education that included music lessons and exposure to literature and poetry. During his childhood, he drew all the time. In an interview years later he said that by age 6 he was making charcoal drawings of whoever was in the house. In addition Nisselvich was exposed to art exhibitions in Kharkov. Among the exhibitions that he is known to have seen is an exhibition of Emmanuel Mane-Katz.

In 1924, Nisselvich made aliyah to Palestine with his parents and his sister, while his older brother remained in the Soviet Union. During 1925 and 1926 he studied art at “Bezalel.” Among his classmates were Avigdor Stematsky, Moshe Castel, Sionah Tagger, Yehezkel Streichman, etc. His teachers included the painter Shmuel Ben David, the enamel artist Aaron Shaul Schur, and Jacob Eisenberg, in whose workshops he made ornamental ceramic tiles, for signs, among other things. In addition, a friendship developed between him and the artist Chaim Gliksberg, who taught him the art of painting with oil paints.