Aharon Giladi (1907-1993), Figures in a Room. Oil on canvas. Signed 46X54 cm, in a 69.5X77 cm frame. Minor blemishes to paint. Aharon Giladi (1907-1993) was born in Gomel. He acquired his artistic training at the Petrograd Art Academy. As an "HaShomer HaTzair" activist he was arrested, serving time in Siberia; in 1929 he was released and immediately immigrated to Palestine. After spending some time preparing in Kvutzat Kinneret, he and his group founded Kibbutz Afikim. He lived almost two decades in the Kibbutz, working regular shifts and dedicating the evenings to his artistic work. In 1947, he finally left the Kibbutz. Giladi was a member of the Ofakim Hadashim (New Horizons) group, and won the Dizengoff prize for painting twice, in 1948 and 1952. "Giladi is intense and inquisitive; he does not accept life as final, but as an ever-changing process. People and views – sometimes together, at times separately – are the main themes of his work. Both are softly radiant, spiritual… the painter knows how to access subtleties within his own being, and seems to discover them at the same time with his audience. He is one of the first artists to show the unique atmosphere in the Kibbutz dining room and cultural hall, during lunch or dinner…". (Dr. Haim Gamzu: Art Critiques. The Tel Aviv Museum of Art, 2006. pp. 215). Provenance: The Uzi Agassi Collection.