BACON, YEHUDA

BACON, YEHUDA (1929– ), Israel painter. Born in Moravska Ostrava, Czechoslovakia, Bacon spent the years 1942–45 in concentration camps and was later sent on the "death march" to mauthausen , where he was liberated. In 1946 he was taken to Israel by youth aliyah and studied at the bezalel school of art , Jerusalem, and then continued his studies in Italy, London (1956–57 at the Central School of Art), New York, and Paris (1957–58, Beaux Arts). He was the head of the department of etching and lithography at the Bezalel School of Art and taught at Haifa University. Bacon concentrated on graphic work, but turned to a variety of media including oils, watercolors, and inks. The horror of the Holocaust was present in his work, tempered by faith in humanity. His later work, however, had a gentle, romantic quality. He was a witness at the Eichmann Trial in Jerusalem, and the Auschwitz Trial in Frankfurt. He won the Gold Medal of the Academie International in 1972, the Moshe Kol Prize in 1984, and the Sussman Prize for Artists from Yad Vashem for using the Holocaust as a subject. His drawing In Memory of the Czech Transport to the Gas Chambers depicting his father's murder is displayed at the Yad Vashem Museum.