Israeli Painter and Satirist Yair Garbuz Dies at Age 80

Yair Garbuz, a painter, writer, and satirist from Israel, died on Wednesday at the age of 80, according to a report from @Jerusalem_Post. Garbuz was born in 1945 in Givatayim to parents who immigrated from Poland. He was a member of Kibbutz Kfar HaHoresh. His brothers included the late former MK Aharon Harel and Alon Garbuz, who ran the Tel Aviv Cinematheque for years.

Garbuz began studying painting with Raffi Lavie and at the Avni Institute. He opened his first solo exhibition in 1967 at the age of 22. He also participated in “The Nude Exhibition” of the Tel Aviv group Ten Plus, which was founded by Lavie and operated in the 1960s.

Garbuz showed his work at dozens of exhibitions in Israel and around the world. His artwork from the late 1960s onward combined influences from American pop art with local imagery.

Garbuz headed the Midrasha Faculty of Arts at Beit Berl College. He wrote satirical works for the Davar Acher column in the newspaper Davar under the pen name Y. Polani. He received the Sokolov Prize for Journalism in 1993, and his humorous writings were collected in several books.

In 2004, Garbuz won the Emet Prize in the field of painting, awarded under the auspices of the prime minister to those with achievements in art, science, and culture. In 2015, he won the Rappaport Prize from the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.

During the 2015 election campaign, Garbuz spoke at a rally in Rabin Square. In his speech, he referred to a minority of “amulet kissers, idol worshipers, and those who bow down and prostrate themselves on the graves of righteous men” in relation to control of Israel.

The speech received criticism from various political perspectives. Critics stated that the remarks showed condescension, racism, and contempt for other worldviews, and compared them to Dudu Topaz’s 1981 speech for the Labor Party, which included derogatory remarks against Likud voters of Mizrahi origins.

>"I am not one of the cowards and not one of those who fall silent," Garbuz said in an interview. Garbuz stated in the interview that he did not regret his remarks.