Aba Bayefsky (1923-2001) is a Canadian artist who has painted from his experiences all over the world.

Bayefsky enlisted into the Royal Canadian Air Force and in 1944 he was commissioned as an Official War Artist, assigned to depict airborne operations over north-west Europe. As part of the commission he produced a visual record of Belsen Concentration Camp and subsequently produced a body of work related to that theme. This work was displayed at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa in 1998 titled Reflections on the Holocaust, The Art of Aba Bayefsky.

His work and experiences continued to develop. In 1947 he documented events in a displaced persons camp in Italy and in 1948 he spent a year in Paris, France.

From 1957-1988 he was an instructor at the Ontario College of Art and in 1979 he was made a Member of the Order of Canada. During this time, he traveled abroad to India (1958) and Japan (1960, 1969 & 1982).

​Throughout Bayefsky’s career, the human figure was the basis of his work, but while being mostly known for his watercolours and oil paintings of market scenes and portraits, he also received several commissions for large-scale murals.

From Italy and Paris to India and Japan, Bayefsky has travelled extensively and since 1941 he has had more than 42 solo exhibitions. His work can be found in major public and private collections across Canada and internationally.

https://www.artgalleryofalgoma.com/aba-bayefsky.html