Born in Buenos Aires in 1945. He trained in violin, with Ljerko Spiller and, in painting, attending the
Mutual de Estudiantes y Egresados de Bellas Artes. At the age of 18, he received the 1st prize for
painting from the Argentine Hebrew Society. During a long period, from 1959 to 1963, he worked
together with surrealist master Juan Batlle Planes, with whom he created various murals. His arrival
in Europe occurred in an unusual way for an artist: thanksto a job on a cargo ship.
Paul Klee’s paintings and Ali Baba’s cave have strongly influenced his artistic career. Perhaps in these
references one may find the origin of that particular phosphorescence that illuminates his paintings.
The atmosphere of his paintings is wrapped in a dance of mystery and veils of light. Gurfein works
slowly, with materials from other times. The homemade tempera used is transparent glue derived
from milk. The evanescent and intangible of his images oscillates between presence and
reminiscence. In his work, we observe infinite worlds, houses illuminated by vast skies and solitary
trees lost in dreamy deserts.
Based in Paris since 1980, his work belongs to private collections in Germany, Argentina, Belgium,
Colombia, Spain, United States, France, Holland, Italy, Switzerland, Uruguay and Venezuela. He
exhibited in the Modern Art Museum (1968), Paris; the Grand Palais (1982), Paris; the Salon d’Art
(1984), Brussels, Belgium; the Na�onal Museum of Fine Arts (2004), Buenos Aires; the UNESCO
(2006), Paris and most recently at the Maison of L’Amérique Latine in Paris in 2023.