Sorel Etrog, one of the most honoured and decorated of Canadian artists, was born in Iasi, Romania in 1933. His formal art training began in 1945, and in 1950 his family immigrated to Israel where he studied at the Institute of Painting and Sculpture in Tel Aviv. In 1958, he earned a scholarship at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Etrog met the Toronto art collector and AGO patron Samuel Zacks in 1959, which resulted in his first Canadian solo exhibition at Gallery Moos in Toronto. In 1963, he became a Canadian citizen. Etrog’s prolific artist oeuvre although seemingly abstract often alludes to the figure. His work takes up the theme of the human form in an industrialized world, characterized by interlocking parts that resemble parts of a machine. Etrog had a successful career participating in the Venice Biennale in 1965. He received the Order of Canada and a Cheval of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the Government of France. His work is included within many prestigious private and public collections, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Museum of Modern Art, the National Gallery of Canada, and the Olympic Sculpture Park in Seoul, Korea.