Now residing in Montreal where he continues to paint and draw, Yehouda Chaki (1936-) was born in Athens, went to school at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris, and lived from 1945 to 1960 in Tel Aviv.
Chaki’s work has been described as a collision of the outside world with the artist’s innermost visceral perceptions. His landscapes and still-lifes are created by selecting and assembling commonly known elements of nature so as to present us with a newly ordered vision of the world. Although no element in his artworks can be traced to actual places and plants, he presents us with a believable reality entirely of his own making. The essence of the painting is to be found in their execution. Shapes are defined by forceful lines or clashes of colour, distance is conveyed by subtle shadings contrasting with brutal overlaps, and light and mood proceed from chromatic interplays laced with telling brushwork. (Excerpted from “Chaki: A Language of Passion”, by Leo Rosshandler).