Joseph Zaritsky was born in 1891 in Ukraine. He studied painting at The Academy of Art in Kiev between 1910 to 1914. In 1923 he immigrated to Israel and settled in Jerusalem. Between 1927- 1928 Zaritsky lived in Paris and after he returned to Israel he moved to Tel Aviv, where he became involved in the city's cultural life while documenting its scenes in his paintings.
For over 20 years he worked in watercolors, which he first exhibited, at an exhibition jointly with the sculptor Avraham Milkov, at the Tower of David in Jerusalem in 1923, making a notable impact and evoking great interest.
Joseph Zaritsky, one of the greatest Israeli painters, had an extensive influence over the succeeding generations of Israeli artists.
Above all, Zaritsky preoccupied himself with the landscapes in the places where he lived or which he visited. He was among the first of the local artists to experiment by setting light against darkness. He sensed that the local light sharpens the contrast between light and darkness, from absolute clarity to absolute obscurity. He emphasized the fact that the Near-Eastern light is utterly unlike its European counterpart.
From the mid 1940s into the early 1950s, Zaritsky evolved an abstract language, and switched to painting in oils. He was the leader and moving spirit of the ‘New Horizons’ movement, whose members’ aspiration was to dissociate painting from the anecdotal and narrative elements hitherto overshadowing Israeli art, by adopting the ‘lyrical abstract’ trend. His manner of treating landscape, notably the way in which he succeeded in transforming fields into abstract compositions, made him the patron of ‘lyrical’ abstraction.
From 1970 until his death in 1985, Zaritsky lived on kibbutz Tzova, on the outskirts of Jerusalem.

    Prizes and Awards
    1942    Dizengoff Prize from Tel Aviv Municipality
    1959    Received the Israel Prize
    1968    The first artist to win the Sandberg Prize of Israeli Art From the Israel Museum,     Jerusalem

    Solo Exhibitions
    1924    Technicum (Technion), Haifa
    1925    “Menorah” Club, Jerusalem
    1941    Habimah, Tel Aviv – Held on the occasion of the artist’s 50th birthday
    1949    Bezalel National Museum, Jerusalem
    1951    Joseph Zaritsky – Retrospective Exposition, Tel Aviv Museum of Art
    1952    Joseph Zaritsky – Retrospective Exposition, Bezalel National Museum, Jerusalem
    1955    Joseph Zaritsky, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
    1956    Joseph Zaritsky, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels
    1976    Zaritsky-Watercolours 1920-1975, Gordon Gallery, Tel Aviv
    1981    Homage to Zaritsky, Israel Museum, Jerusalem
    1984    Zaritsky, Tzuba – Summer 1983, Israel Museum, Jerusalem
        Views of Tel Aviv from the Roof and the Window, University Art Gallery, Tel Aviv
        Zaritsky – Retrospective, Tel Aviv Museum
        Zaritsky – Recent Works, Gordon Gallery, Tel Aviv
    1992    Zaritsky – Watercolours, Gordon Gallery, Tel Aviv????????½
   
    Selected Group Exhibitions
    1924     The Citadel, Jewish Artists Association, Jerusalem
    1927    Modern Artists, “Ohel”, Tel Aviv
    1930    Bezalel National Museum, Jerusalem
    1932     The 11, Tel Aviv Museum of Art
    1936     General Exhibition of Palestine Artists, Tel Aviv Museum of Art
    1947     The Seven, Tel Aviv Museum of Art
    1948     Venice Biennale????????½New Horizons, Tel Aviv Museum of Art
    1953     7 Painters of Israel, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston
    1955     Israelische Kunst, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Also exhibited in Palais des     Beaux-Arts, Brussels
    1957     New Horizons, The Museum of Modern Art, Haifa
    1958     Ten Years of Israeli Painting, Tel Aviv Museum of Art
    1963     New Horizons, Ein Harod Museum of Art
    1964    Art Israel, 26 Painters and Sculptors, The Jewish Museum, New York – Circulated in     the U.S.A and Canada 1964-65
    1966    New Horizons – 1949-1963, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem
    1968    Israel a travers les ages, Musee du Petit Palais, Paris
    1969    A Leap of Faith, The Art Gallery, State University of New York at Albany
    1970    3 Israeli Artists, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London????????½Israel on Paper, The High     Museum of Art, Atlanta????????½Selected Collection, 1970, Gordon Gallery, Tel Aviv
    1971    Looking up, Memory Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, Rochester, New York
    1976    Jewish Experience in Twentieth Century Art, The Jewish Museum, New York
    1979    Seven Artist in Israel, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles
    1981    Artists from Israel: 1920-1980, The Jewish Museum, New York