Eliezer Alcheh is born in Vidin, Bulgaria in 1908, in a jewish sefardic family. He studies painting in Munich’s Fine Arts Academy, taught by prestigious professors as Schinnerer in drawing and Caspar in painting. Afterwards he lives and works for a year in Belgium. The canvas Anvers (1934), painted in this year, is exhibited now in Sofia’s National Gallery.
In 1934 he returns to Bulgaria where his first exhibit takes place, causing a big impression in Bulgarian culture. He joins a group of young Bulgarian painters, called The New Ones, group that leaves a very profound trace in the development of Bulgarian painting. He is part of several collective exhibits in Prague, Munich and Berlin (1935-1936).
In 1936 he travels to Palestine. With what he paints there, a very successful exhibition is organized in Belgrad. He then moves to Paris, showing his works in the Salon d’Automne, Petit Palais and Tuillerie. After his time in Paris, he moves to Venice. Canale Grande and many other works shown in Sofia’s National Gallery date from this period.
In 1938 he moves back to Bulgaria. He starts preparing a new exhibition in Paris, but then World War 2 starts, and almost all artistic activities are interrupted.
In 1947, he marries the Bulgarian painter Bronka Giurova.
After war, though artistic activities are back, Eastern Europe goes through a very complex political moment what makes him decide to leave his country. In 1951 he moves definitely to Buenos Aires, Argentina. In between, he lives in Milan for a year, painting both Milan and Venice. Once he is settled in Buenos Aires, in 1953 he organizes his first exhibition in Gallery Bonino. In 1956 he participates in the 45th Salón Nacional de Artes Plásticas, obtaining the third price in drawing. He takes part in several national exhibitions.
In 1958 he begins to teach at the Manuel Belgrano National School of Fine Arts, which he does until 1973.
In 1975 he is invited to Sofia by the Bulgarian Painters Union, where they organize an exhibition with his Argentinean works. Most of these paintings are acquired by Sofia’s National Gallery, where they are exhibited nowadays.
Alcheh dies in 1983 in Buenos Aires.
In 1990 a personal exhibition is organized by the Museum of Modern Art in Buenos Aires, followed by another one in 2000 at the Sivori Museum.
His figure continues to be a relevant one in Bulgaria. In 2008, Sofia’s National Gallery organizes a large retrospective of his works. In 2018, Sofia’s City Gallery organizes the exhibition “The aesthetics of Disgrace”, a tribute to Alcheh’s life and work.