Boris Lekar

Ukrainian–Israeli • 1932–2010

Boris Lekar was born in 1932 in Kharkiv, Ukraine, and trained as an architect before becoming a full-time painter. He graduated in 1956 from the Department of Architecture at the Kharkiv Engineer Constructional Institute and later earned a PhD in Architecture in Kyiv in 1963. After moving to Kyiv in 1959 and working for several years as an architect, Lekar shifted his focus entirely to the visual arts, developing a multidisciplinary practice that included watercolor, oil, tempera, mixed media, monumental art, and sculpture.

In February 1990, Lekar immigrated to Jerusalem, where he lived and worked for the remainder of his life. Over more than two decades of active artistic production, he created hundreds of paintings and participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Israel and abroad, including shows in major galleries and cultural institutions. Known for fostering artistic community, he hosted nearly fifty exhibitions of Israeli, Ukrainian, and Russian artists in his own Jerusalem home in the Gilo neighborhood. In his later years, he worked closely with the artist-run gallery “Agripas 12.”

Between the 1990s and 2000s, Lekar was commissioned by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem to document ancient synagogues across India, Turkey, and other regions, producing a significant body of architectural and cultural studies in painted form. In 2004–2005, he held a prestigious residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, where he continued to create and exhibit new work.

Lekar received wide recognition for his contributions to Jewish and Israeli art. His awards include the Mordechai Narkiss Prize for the Development of Jewish Art (1997), the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption Prize (1998), the Ish-Shalom Prize (Jerusalem, 2001), the Julia Edelstein Prize, and the title “Israeli Painter of the Year” (2004). His works are held in private collections worldwide, including Israel, Ukraine, the United States, Japan, and France, and in institutional collections such as the Israel Museum.

Boris Lekar died on October 30, 2010, in Jerusalem, leaving behind a rich and varied artistic legacy spanning architecture, fine art, and cultural preservation.