Aba Bayefsky
(1923–)
(–2001)
Aba Bayefsky
1923–2001
Aba Bayefsky (1923–2001) was a Jewish-Canadian painter and teacher from Toronto. Bayefsky studied at Central Technical School from 1937 to 1942. During his teens, he was encouraged by such artists as Arthur Lismer, Erma Sutcliffe, Dorothy Medhurst, and A. Y. Jackson. Bayefsky was an instructor at the Ontario College of Art from 1957 to 1988. In 1979, he was appointed to the Order of Canada.
Bayefsky enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force and was commissioned as a war artist in 1944. During this time, he produced a visual record of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and subsequently produced a large body of work related to that subject. In his later years, Bayefsky was also known for artwork that depicted tattooed people from Toronto and Japan.
Bayefsky has had more than 42 solo exhibitions, and his work can be found in major public and private collections across Canada and internationally.