The life, thought, and work of Boris Schatz - artist, visionary, and man of action - are inseparably intertwined with Jewish and Zionist cultural history of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. In fact, Schatz had a unique influence on the emergence of Israeli culture. He founded the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts, opened in Jerusalem in 1906 and later to become the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, as well as the Bezalel National Museum, forerunner of the Israel Museum, and thus set a formal starting point for Israeli art. He dreamed of nothing less than creating a center in Jerusalem for the birth of a new Hebraic art, a center that would gather students from near and far, from the budding Zionist immigration and from the Jewish Diaspora, and would attract artists from all over the world. He saw this center, with a great museum as one of its pillars, as a contemporary Third Temple - a powerhouse of spiritual energy that would radiate its ideals to the entire Jewish people and inspire a renewed national identity.

It is now one hundred years since Schatz opened the Bezalel School, and the timing of this exhibition holds a special significance for us at the Israel Museum. It follows on our 40th Anniversary series of exhibitions on the themes of Beauty and Sanctity, a fitting context for honoring a man who was the Museum’s founding father and who aspired to be "a high priest of art." At the same time the exhibition inaugurates the Bezalel centenary celebrations, underscoring the historic connection between Israel's leading cultural institution and its largest school of art - both offspring of the vision of Boris Schatz.

The exhibition presents the two key aspects of Schatz's oeuvre: his personal creative output of sculptures, reliefs, and paintings; together with works inspired by his activities in the public sphere - a selection of important objects created in the Bezalel workshops according to Schatz's concept of art and design.