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Press Releases Liquid Spaces: Digital Works by Five Israelis An encompassing view of new media, providing an opportunity to interact with the works and become an actor on the electronic stage December 26, 2003 - June 2004
Interactive and mediated art, embracing such fields as digital video art, did not arrive in a sudden flurry of electronic pixel dust. Interactive art incorporates in it's artistic gesture the passive language of television, the dynamic language of computer and video games, and the typographic and verbal encoding established by such avant garde artistic movements as Dada, Fluxus, and the Situationists. Beginning in the 1960's with the proliferation of computers and the development of new digital interfaces, new media have collapsed the boundaries between art and design, science and technology. Liquid Spaces artists come from diverse backgrounds including industrial design, literature, film, classical jazz, architecture, and photography. Industrial designer Daniel Rozin's works, Wooden Trash and Shiny Balls Mirror, entice the visitor to reflect on and be reflected by their transformative surfaces. Video artist and documentary film maker Tirtza Even invites the visitor to navigate her liquid landscapes through digital intervention, a transforming agency granted by the artist to the user to produce new variations across non-linear pathways. Amit Pitaru, an artist, Jazz musician and software engineer, plays with animated drawings and painted images through computer coding, while architect Ruth Ron and interaction designer Inbar Barak collaborate on an installation that allows gallery visitors to see through walls with Superman-like X-ray vision, into the Museum's hidden spaces. The exhibition is curated by Alex Ward, curator of Design and Architecture at the Israel Museum. Exhibition made possible by the donors to the Museum's 2003 exhibition Fund: Melva Bucksbaum and Raymond J. Learsy, Aspen Colerado; Ruth and Leon Davidoff, Paris and Mexico City; Hanno D. Mott, New York; The Nash Family Foundation, New York; Intel Israel; Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem
Victor Brauner Centenary
Born in the Carpathian Mountains of Romania, Brauner was exposed to a range of folkloric traditions, attending the School of Fine Arts in Bucharest in 1921. A decade later Brauner settled in Paris, where he was introduced to the Surrealists by Yves Tanguy, joining the group by 1933. Following the artist's first Parisian solo show at the Galerie Pierre in 1934, which was not well received, Brauner left Paris, returning only in 1938. Several months later he lost his left eye while trying to break up a fight between Oscar Dominguez and Estaban Frances in Dominguez's studio. Prophetically, several years earlier, Brauner began painting works featuring human figures with mutilated eyes, including a self-portrait with a bleeding eye. At the outbreak of World War II, unable to obtain suitable painting materials, Brauner improvised with candle wax and developed the encaustic technique, incising and coloring the wax, favoring organic coloring materials such as coffee or walnut. This technique proved particularly apt for articulating his esoteric visions, as seen in Woman, Mountain, and The Object Gives Life, displayed in this special exhibit. Brauner focused on developing his personal style, incorporating elements from Near Eastern art, such as the flattening and heraldic figures in Oppression of the Object, Kabbala, Biblical magic and alchemy, and other mystical texts, such as Novalis in The Object Gives Life. Special exhibit curated by Adina Kamien-Kazhdan, Associate Curator, The Stella Fischbach Department of Modern Art. The Israel Museum, Jerusalem A Movable Feast: Sukkahs
from Around the World September 25, 2003 - February 2004 A Program of Events for the Family Accompanies the Exhibition throughout the Sukkot Festival, October 11 through 18
"A Movable Feast" continues a series of annual exhibitions
organized by the Museum's Judaica and Jewish Ethnography Department
and dedicated to highlighting festivals of the Jewish calendar.
The festival of Sukkot is the last of the High Holidays, following
Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. During Sukkot, Jews worldwide eat
and sleep in sukkahs built adjacent to their homes. According to
Jewish law, these structures must consist of at least three walls
and a roof composed of branches. Traditionally, Sukkot commemorates
the desert wanderings of the Israelites following the exodus from
Egypt. As a major agricultural festival, Sukkot is also called Hag
Ha'Asif, "the festival of ingathering," marking the end
of the long harvest when farmers finish their work. Sukkot is one
of three pilgrimage holidays, the others being Passover and Shavuot,
when Jews customarily traveled to the Temple in Jerusalem; and the
exhibition features a unique ancient gold glass fragment from the
3rd/4th century CE depicting sukkahs in the courtyard of the Temple,
on loan from the collection of the Vatican Museums. Since sukkahs are recycled each year, many have been preserved over long periods of time, enabling the Museum to present in this exhibition an overview of the evolution of the sukkah tradition throughout the centuries. The exhibition opens with a sukkah modeled after Bedouin tents in the Sinai desert, which are believed to resemble the sukkahs used by the ancient Israelites in the desert. Sukkahs dating from the 18th through the 20th centuries comprise the core of the exhibition and are distinguished by the unique customs and folk motifs of their countries of origin. For example, sukkahs from Italy, Holland, and Hungary are made out of wooden panels which provide protection from cool autumn climates, while sukkahs from Bukhara, Kurdistan, and Turkey are enclosed only with elaborate rugs. The exhibition also illustrates how Jews have celebrated the Sukkot
festival throughout the modern history of the State of Israel, including
a sukkah used in Tel Aviv in the 1960's and a sukkah used today
by Orthodox Jews in Jerusalem - together with photographs by Yosaif
Cohain documenting Sukkot celebrations in Israel during the past
two decades. A sukkah ornament given to the first Prime Minister
of Israel, David Ben-Gurion, on the occasion of his 80th birthday
is also on display. The exhibition has been made possible by the Aaron Beare Foundation;
the Forchheimer Foundation; the Joseph Alexander Foundation: Helen
Mackler and Robert Weintraub, Trustees; and the Weisbord Foundation;
and by the Donors to the Museum's 2003 Exhibition Fund: Melva Bucksbaum
and Raymond J. Learsy, Aspen, Colorado; Ruth and Leon Davidoff,
Paris and Mexico City; Hanno D. Mott, New York; and The Nash Family
Foundation, New York.
Old-New Land: From the Early
Days of Israeli Art October 9, 2003 - January 2004 Old-New Land: From the Early Days of Israeli Art "If you will it, it is not a dream. "These are the legendary words of founding father of the State of Israel, Theodore Herzl. The title for this exhibition series is drawn from Herzl's novel "Altneuland," (Old-New Land), a visionary depiction of the State of Israel decades after its establishment, in a time when Jews would live freely in a land so familiar to them, yet ripe with new possibilities. At the turn of the last century, the vision of the Jewish homeland prompted many Jewish artists to create powerful images that gave visual form to this dream and provided spiritual fuel for the pioneers. It was the beginning of an heroic era in Israeli history - a very demanding yet romantic period when Jews freed themselves from the cultural, political, and religious restraints of the Diaspora and discovered a latent creative spirit. Old-New Land: From the Early Days of Israeli Art comprises
three exhibitions: While each exhibition presents its own subject, collectively they survey the development of artistic trends in the first half of the 20th Century at the time of the rebirth of Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel. Works in the series evoke an aura of nostalgia and romance - with the Jewish artists at the time finding inspiration in Jewish texts and traditions and adapting the new artistic initiative of the European avant-garde to set forth in their art a highly individualistic, optimistic vision for the future. "After a century of the development of visual trends in Israeli art, it is revelatory to reflect on the sources which formed the foundations for modern art in Israel and on the vision which inspired that early work - in painting and sculpture, as well as in the graphic arts and in photography," remarks James Snyder, director of the Israel Museum. "This series of exhibitions provides an enlightening opportunity to appreciate what has become, after one hundred years, a unique artistic tradition for Israel in modern times.” Old-New Land: Abel Pann Paints the Bible
In the course of his life, Abel Pann (1883-1963) made his way from a Lithuanian heder to the Bezalel School of Art and Crafts in Jerusalem, with crucial stops along the way that included Odessa's Academy of Art and the Academie Julian in Paris. Abel Pann saw himself as a witness to and recorder of Jewish history, but the story he set down in his paintings, prints, and drawings was, at the same time, profoundly universal. Before he arrived in Palestine, where he first embarked on his Biblical series, his work documented the sufferings of Eastern European Jewry, daily life in Paris, and the atrocities of the First World War. As with his paintings of Jewish persecution in Russia, Pann sought to depict Biblical scenes as if he were there, much like a photojournalist. His Biblical works are characterized by renderings of Biblical heroes as contemporary Near Eastern types, using Eastern dress and local surroundings. The Zionist vision embedded in these works signals the Jew's return to his Eastern roots, and Pann used as his models the closest anthropological remnants from those times: Bedouin and Arabs living in Israel and the Eastern Jews living in Jerusalem. His depictions of Biblical heroes as deeply human men and women were well recognized at the forefront of artistic achievement in the Land of Israel prior to the creation of the State.
Today too Israeli artists engage with floral motifs, conducting
a dialogue with their precursors. Some of them express a yearning
for the innocent world of their childhood - for their lessons on
natural history, camping trips, dried-flower albums, and naive drawings.
Others cast a critical eye on the subject, depicting a reality rife
with contradictions: between florescence and war, beauty and destruction,
nature and culture.
It is to the credit of these early Zionist photographers that they combined truth and fantasy with great skill, conveying ideals and sentiments that would also serve the national cause. These photographs mark the dramatic transition from objective tourist photography to subjectively engaged photography in the Holy Land - the moment when the perspective, intention, and motivation of the photographer underwent a drastic change. When considered in their local, social, and historical contexts, these images were in their time, and are still today, extremely powerful, evocative, and often self-explanatory dramatizations of the spirit of their time. These exhibitions have been made possible by the Gottesman Family Foundation and by the donors to the Museum's 2003 Exhibition Fund - Melva Bucksbaum and Raymond J. Learsy, Aspen, Colorado; Ruth and Leon Davidoff, Paris and Mexico City; Hanno D. Mott, New York; and The Nash Family Foundation, New York.
Nedko Solakov: Visiting
Artist
Solakov takes the world of art - works of art and the spaces that house them - as his subject matter, dealing with the experiences and roles of the artist, the art connoisseur, and the critic. Many of his works consist of inscriptions and drawings scrawled on gallery walls or installation works incorporated into gallery spaces; sometimes they comprise the galleries themselves. His installation works and poetic musings evoke hidden messages which Solakov derives from his selected subjects. In this way, Solakov becomes a storyteller and critic, exciting the viewer’s imagination while at the same time subtly satirizing the settings he encounters. Solakov works intuitively and spontaneously. There is no way to predict how he will respond to the Museum’s collection or to the physical character of the Museum itself. Upon completion of his stay at the Israel Museum, visitors may find themselves hunting throughout the Museum campus for the fruits of his creative efforts. Born in Cherven Briag (Bulgaria) in 1957, Solakov studied mural painting at the Academy of Fine Arts of Sofia, graduating in 1981. He represented Bulgaria in the Venice Biennale in 1999 and also exhibited there in 2003. He has had many solo and group exhibitions in museums worldwide, among them at the Center for Contemporary Art, Kitakyushu, Japan; Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt; PS1 in New York; Sofia City Art Gallery, Sofia; and Stichting De Appel, Amsterdam. The Lindy and Ed Bergman Visiting Artist Fund The Lindy and Ed Bergman Visiting Artist Fund was established in 1977 as part of the Museum’s mission to be in the forefront of developments in contemporary art and to develop relationships with contemporary artists. The program invites artists - from those who are at the very start of their careers to those who have already reached the peak of international recognition - to engage in dialogue with the Israel Museum and to produce works that respond to the Museum’s collections and character. The encounter between international artists and Jerusalem in particular, with its layers of history, culture, and religions, has produced rich and thought-provoking works, mutually contributing to the artists’ experiences - and to the Museum’s richness. Past participants include Christian Boltanski, Jonathan Borofsky, Kiki Smith, James Turrell, and other prominent contemporary artists. Project Curator: Suzanne Landau, Chief Curator of the Arts
Rubin Masterpiece Returns
Home
The Sea of Galilee disappeared in Israel in 1982, during its return transit to the Israel Museum from an exhibition in New York. Under the terms of U.S. Government Indemnity, which provided indemnity for the loan of the work in lieu of commercial insurance, the U.S. Government compensated the Israel Museum for its full insurance value. In 1987 the painting mysteriously reappeared in a Tel Aviv flea market and was subsequently subject to an ownership suit, which was resolved in Israel’s Supreme Court earlier this year, in a ruling in favor of the U.S. Government. By the terms of U.S. Indemnity, the Israel Museum was given the opportunity to re-purchase the painting for the insurance amount paid at the time of its loss. The re-acquisition of The Sea of Galilee has been made possible through an anonymous gift to the Museum. It is now on display alongside Rubin’s 1923 Self-Portrait, which was acquired by the Museum in 1984 with the original compensation received after the painting’s loss. “We are delighted to be able to restore The Sea of Galilee to our collection after its near twenty-year absence,” remarks James Snyder, director of the Israel Museum. “It is an exceptional masterpiece, highlighting Rubin’s achievement in capturing the aura of the landscape of the land of Israel and in a distinctive modernist vocabulary which was so important to the development of the language of 20th century Israeli art. The restoration of its ownership is a story of art loss, but with a happy ending, and we are deeply grateful.” The Sea of Galilee is one of Rubin’s early renditions of the northern city of Tiberias and the Sea of Galilee, with the mountains of the Galilee and the Golan Heights towering in the background. The style and subject of the work are representative of Rubin’s style in the 1920s. It juxtaposes the old with the new, emphasizing the dialectic of East and West in the local scenery and reflecting the developing landscape of the Land of Israel during the early Jewish settlement of pre-State of Israel Palestine. New houses of the colony and the agricultural settlement are set against the black basalt houses of the Old City of Tiberias, which is surrounded by the city’s basalt wall reconstructed by the Ottomans. Camels trail along the foreground, flanked by electricity wires and water pipes, hinting at the technology that was rapidly changing the landscape. About the Exhibition Views II Views II is the second exhibition in a series dedicated to the Israeli landscape, featuring paintings that reflect different ways of looking at the local landscape and various styles in Israeli art - the “Bezalel” period of the early 20th century, the affinity for the East of the 1920s, the lyrical abstraction of the 1950s, conceptual art of the 1970s, and finally younger contemporary art of today. The exhibition has been curated by Amitai Mendelsohn, associate curator of the David Orgler Department of Israeli Art, and is on view through September 20, 2003. Israeli Art Collection The Israel Museum’s commitment to Israeli art is central
to the Museum’s mission. As Israel’s national museum,
it plays a major role in preserving Israel’s artistic heritage
by collecting works by Israeli artists - in Israel and abroad -
and by encouraging Israel’s artists to develop in their careers.
The Museum’s Israeli Art collection spans the late 19th century
through today, and it reflects the evolution of Israel’s cultural
history in the visual arts. The Gabriel Sherover Information Center
for Israeli Art provides scholars and the interested public with
comprehensive archival information on several thousand Israeli artists,
including biographical notes, press materials, videos, photographs
and other forms of documentation.
Alice in the Holy Land: Paintings from the Oliphant Circle August 1, 2003 - April 2004 July 15, 2003 - Lady Alice Oliphant, painter and photographer,
came to the Lady Alice was born in 1846 to Henry Styleman Le Strange and his
wife The Oliphants arrived in Palestine in October 1882 and settled
in the
In November 1885, Jamesina Waller, Lady Alice's sister and a talented Hundreds of mourners attended her funeral, conducted in pouring
rain. The Exhibition Curator: Irit Salmon, Curator of the Ticho House Ticho House 9 HaRav Kook Street Tel. (02) 624-5068, 624-1138 Sun, Mon, Wed, Thurs: 10 am - 5 pm; Tues: 10 am - 10 pm; Fri: 10 am - 2 pm; Sat night: after Shabbat until 11 pm
First Exhibition
to Examine Christian Imagery in Photography Revelation Spans 160 Years of Photography 
May 14, 2003 - Jerusalem, Israel - Revelation: Representations of Christ in Photography opens at The Israel Museum, Jerusalem on May 22, offering the first comprehensive survey devoted exclusively to the subject of Christian imagery in the history of photography. Organized by the Israel Museum, the exhibition and accompanying catalogue examine the influence of other traditional art forms on photography’s treatment of these subjects, while also documenting the independent evolution of photography’s tradition in portraying them. The exhibiton includes over 150 photographs relating to the life of Jesus and to Christianity, drawn from the Israel Museum's collection and from public and private collections worldwide. Following its presentation in Israel, the exhibition will travel to the Deichtorhallen, Hamburg from January through April 2004. The exhibition tour premiered in France at the Hôtel de Sully under the auspices of the Patrimoine photographique, Minist're de la Culture et de la Communication, from October 4, 2002 through January 5, 2003. Additional tour dates and venues will be announced. Revelation explores a range of approaches and perspectives on its subject throughout the history of photography, from early camera practitioners to contemporary artists, each motivated by varying historical, artistic, religious, or sociological influences. Works in the exhibition include photographs by such 19th century masters as Julia Margaret Cameron and Eugene Durieu; works by early 20th century photographers, among them Charles I. Berg, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, and František Drtikol; and works by contemporary artists such as Andre Serrano and John Dugdale. Also represented in the exhibition are numerous Israeli photographers, including Deganit Berest, Pesi Girsch, Joel Kantor, Micha Kirshner, Miki Kratzman, Adi Nes, and Pavel Wolberg.
"Revelation is a pioneering effort to research a subject that has not previously been addressed in such depth," states Israel Museum Director James Snyder. "Given our unique perspective from Jerusalem and the Holy Land, which witnessed the birth of Christianity some 2,000 years ago, we are an important and appropriate venue to initiate work in this field." From the earliest days of photography, religious themes have been an integral part of the genre, with many images depicting events from the New Testament relating to the life of Jesus. In order to illustrate these events, artists would re-create scenes in the form of tableau vivant - a technique also used in historical or allegorical paintings. Subjects range from self-portraits depicting photographers as Jesus or saints, as seen in F. Holland Day's It's Finished, 1898, to entire casts acting out scenes of the Passion, to the use of signs and symbols suggesting attributes of Christ, as in Jan Saudek's Target, Death of a Soldier, 1948/1988. Later artists abandoned traditional renderings to represent Christian symbols as metaphors to convey social, political, or commercial messages, as seen in Manuel Alvarez Bravo's Striking Worker, Murdered, 1942 and Annie Leibovitz's The Sopranos, 1999. "Revelation explores the photographic tradition from its very beginning and highlights thematic trends that have not previously been examined in art history," states Nissan N. Perez, Horace and Grace Goldsmith Curator of Photography and curator of the exhibition. "This exhibition is a visual survey referencing the representation of Jesus as a universal symbol and extending the treatment of religious subjects in art to embrace the history of photography." The illustrated publication, published by Merrell Publishers, London in association with the Israel Museum, includes an introductory essay by Nissan Perez and an additional essay by Adele Reinhartz, Professor of New Testament, Department of Religious Studies, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario. The exhibition has been made possible by Carla Emil and Richard Silverstein, San Francisco; Hans Dichand, Vienna; and the donors to the Museum's 2003 Exhibition Fund: Melva Bucksbaum and Raymond J. Learsy, Aspen, Colorado; Ruth and Leon Davidoff, Paris and Mexico City; Hanno D. Mott, New York; and The Nash Family Foundation, New York. Photography Collection at The Israel Museum The Israel Museum, Jerusalem For more information, please contact:
An Electrifying Summer
at the Israel Museum Program of Events (excluding Youth Wing activities) JULY Mon-Wed, July 14, 15, 16, 8:30 pm Every Mon-Thurs, July 10-29 and Aug 11-21, 8-10 pm Tues, July 22, 8 pm, the Sculpture Garden *Entrance to Museum galleries closed on Mon, Wed evenings. AUGUST Thurs, Aug 14, 8 pm Aug 5-26, Mon-Thurs: 10am-2pm, 4-7pm, Fri: 10am-2pm Aug 13-14, 18-19 SUMMER EXHIBITION HIGHLIGHTS Envisioning the Temple: Scrolls, Stones, and Symbols Mordecai Ardon: Landscapes of Infinity (through Aug. 2) Food in Art: A Matter of Taste Revelation: Representations of Christ in Photography Weegee's Story: A Photojournalist in the 1940s Spirit Hunters: Central African Art from the Lawrence Gussman Collection
HEBREW BOOK WEEK AT THE
ISRAEL MUSEUM For the second year in a row, the Israel Museum is hosting the
Hebrew Book Week from June 11-21, Sunday-Thursday, 6-11 pm, and
Saturday night, sundown to midnight. During Book Fair hours, the
Museum is open free to the public from 6-9 pm, and on Saturday night
from sundown to midnight. The Museum is also offering a variety
of children activities on Sunday-Thursday, 5:30-8 pm, including
a reading corner, street theater, and special workshops (at extra
charge), as well as rich program of free gallery talks and lectures
with authors, poets, and curators.
Envisioning the Temple:
Scrolls, Stones, and Symbols Opening Friday, May 30, 2003, 12 noon May 19, 2003, Jerusalem - Envisioning the Temple: Scrolls, Stones,
and Symbols is the first major multidisciplinary exhibition to highlight
the Dead Sea Scrolls in the context of a cornerstone of Jewish tradition
- the Holy Temple. The Temple Scroll, the longest and among the
most fascinating of the Dead Sea Scrolls, serves as the centerpiece
of this interpretive presentation which surveys the history of the
Temple in Jewish civilization from biblical times, while also revealing
new insights into the Scrolls and the historical context from which
they emerged. The exhibition features Scrolls never before shown,
such as the New Jerusalem Scroll; archeological finds from Qumran
where the Scrolls were discovered; and other objects of Judaica
and fine art drawn from the Museum's collections and from the Shrine
of the Book, which is currently closed while undergoing its first
major restoration and renewal since its opening in 1965. While almost 2,000 years have passed since its destruction, the Holy Temple remains a central theme and focal point in Jewish tradition. Jewish religious practice preserves the memory of the Temple and the longing for its restoration through ritual and prayer and through a range of images interpreted throughout time in objects of ritual art, fine art, mosaics, and coins. Nicolas Poussin's The Destruction and Sack of the Temple of Jerusalem, 1625-26, which entered the collection of the Israel Museum in 1998, introduces the section of the exhibition devoted to Temple iconography in Jewish tradition, art, and culture from the time of the destruction of the Second Temple to the present day. The Temple also furnished one of the favorite motifs for artists of the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts, founded in Jerusalem in 1906. Works by these artists demonstrate the transformation of the idea of the Temple from a religious dream into a symbol of the new Jewish creative imagination prior to the birth of the State of Israel. "The Dead Sea Scrolls are a wellspring of knowledge not only for the history of the Hebrew canon, but also for the history of the period of the Second Temple,"states Israel Museum Director James Snyder. "Since their discovery, the Dead Sea Scrolls have been researched and examined primarily as singular texts. This exhibition and its accompanying publication seek to present them in an historical context and to derive from them new insights into Jewish history, Jewish tradition, and even fine art." The exhibition concludes with the story of the Shrine of the Book and its role as a home to perhaps the most important patrimonial treasures of the State of Israel and the Jewish people. Built in 1965, The Shrine of the Book was designed by Austrian-born American architect Frederick Kiesler and American architect Armand Bartos especially for the display and preservation of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Shrine is considered a milestone of modern architecture and an international landmark, and the current project will restore the Shrine as an architectural monument, ensuring the optimal environment for the preservation of the and enhancing its display facilities to improve the experience of viewing them. Construction began on April 1, 2003, with expected completion in the spring of 2004, providing this unique opportunity to present the Scrolls in the context of Envisioning the Temple. "We view the Shrine of the Book as a modern day 'temple' dedicated to the Hebrew texts that have helped to shape the Jewish people and modern mankind," remarks exhibition curator Dr. Adolfo Roitman, Head of the Shrine of the Book and Curator of the Dead Sea Scrolls. "It is appropriate that the exhibition conclude with a tribute to this historic monument at the time of its renewal." The exhibition is accompanied by a fully-illustrated publication written by Dr. Roitman and is the occasion for the companion publication, Mystery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, a children's journey through the Dead Sea Scrolls written by Hagit Alon, Youth Wing exhibition curator, and Lena Zahavi, Youth Wing curator of family programs. The exhibition has been made possible by Paul and Herta Amir, Los Angeles; Nahum and Alice Lainer, Los Angeles; The Association of Friends of the Israel Museum in Germany; Die Schweizer Vereinigung der Frende des Israel Museums in Jerusalem; and donors to the Museum’s 2003 Exhibition Fund: Melva Bucksbaum and Raymond J. Learsy, Aspen, Colorado; Ruth and Leon Davidoff, Paris and Mexico City; Hanno D. Mott, New York; and The Nash Family Foundation, New York. The restoration of the Shrine of the Book is made possible through the generosity of Herta and Paul Amir, Los Angeles, and the D.S. and R.H. Gottesman Foundation, New York. The Dead Sea Scrolls Most of the scrolls were written in Hebrew, with a small number in Aramaic and Greek. The majority of the scrolls were written on parchment, with rare examples on papyrus - and, although a few scrolls were discovered intact, the majority survive as fragments. The contents of the Scrolls fall into three major categories: biblical, apocryphal, and sectarian, with the biblical manuscripts comprising some two hundred copies of biblical books, representing the world's earliest evidence of biblical texts; sectarian manuscripts covering a wide variety of literary genres, including biblical commentary, religious-legal writings, and liturgical texts; and apocryphal manuscripts comprising works that had previously been known only in translation or that had not been known at all. The Israel Museum, Jerusalem
Israel Museum Celebrates International
Museum Day Lag Ba'Omer, May 20, 2003, 10 am - 9 pm May 2003 - Since 1977, International Museum Day has been celebrated
by museums worldwide as an opportunity for museum professionals
to meet the public and enrich its museum experience through special
programs and gallery talks. For the first time, the Israel Museum,
among the great encyclopedic museums of the world, will join the
Metropolitan, the Louvre, the British Museum, and other major museums
in this tradition. International Museum Day at the Israel Museum
coincides with Lag B'Omer, May 20, 2003, with extended hours, 10
am - 9 pm. SUNSET TOUR OF THE ART GARDEN Every hour from 4 pm FILM 11 am- 4 pm, consecutively, in the Springer Auditorium ART WORKSHOPS FOR CHILDREN 11 am - 1 pm, 4- 6 pm, Youth Wing
On View From from April 16, 2002
April 2003 - Beads have always been an integral part of Africa's history and cultural tradition. While in the West beads are generally associated with adornment, in Africa they also possess power, functioning as money, status symbols, and spiritual and magical talismans. Talking Beads exhibits a collection of traditional beadwork from East, West, Central, and South Africa, including beaded masks, crowns, corsets, and ritual ornaments used in a variety of settings, drawn from the collection of African Art at the Israel Museum. In Africa beads are worn by both men and women for adornment and also to signify their age, marital status, and social station. Beaded objects distinguish rulers from ordinary people. Thus the ornate beadwork produced for the Yoruba king and his court by specialized craftsmen is far more complex than that produced by the East African pastoral tribes, for whom beads are an essential component of everyday dress. Like all African art, in which the artist and wearer do not express their individual feelings or creative needs, beaded ornament unifies the community by conveying and strengthening communal ties and understandings. The majority of glass beads exhibited here originated in Venice, the Netherlands, and Bohemia and Moravia, and they were traded in Africa during the 18th, 19th, and very early 20th centuries. Glass is only one of the materials used by African tribes to signify cultural values. Other materials on exhibit are seeds, roots, cowrie shells, ivory, bone, animal vertebrae, teeth, eggshells, stone (such as carnelian and jasper), amber, and coral. Beads were regularly used as a means of exchange in the age of exploration and in the subsequent colonization of Africa. Beads became a part of a complex trading cycle: rum, cloth, guns and beads were sent from Europe to Africa; slaves from Africa were taken to the New World; sugar, tobacco, and gold bullion from the New World were shipped to Europe. These beads made it possible for European merchants to become rich at a low cost, and in 1632 they were making a 1000 percent profit. Success depended on identifying local bead tastes. As tastes varied from one ethnic group to another it was necessary to create a greater diversity of beads. Between 200,000 to 300,000 different variations of beads were produced for trade. The exhibit is curated by Dorit Shafir, Associate Curator for the Arts of Africa and Oceania. It has been made possible by the Maremont Foundation; the Weiss Fund; the Ellen and Jerome Stern Fund; and the Wright Family Fund. The exhibition is on view through March 2004.
Opening April 8, 2003 April 2003 - The landscape has been an integral subject of Israeli art since its earliest days: the landscape with which man longs to achieve harmony, the landscape as a basis for abstraction, and the landscape as the expression of political and environmental concerns. Views II is the second exhibition in a series dedicated to the Israeli landscape, and it features paintings that reflect different ways of looking at the local landscape and various styles in Israeli art - the "Bezalel" period, the affinity for the East of the 1920s, the lyrical abstraction of the 1950s, conceptual art of the 1970s, and finally younger contemporary art of today. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Bezalel Academy of Art produced Judaica and other objects with landscape as their central theme. Religious and secular sites were depicted in these works in light of their Scriptural connotations and as symbols of the longing for Zion. By contrast, the artists of the 1920s adopted the modernistic approach then popular in Europe, with most of the landscape art of this period focusing on pictorial rather than religious content. In many of the works, the image of the Arab symbolized the mythical connection to the land and the inextricable link between man and the soil. Artists like Reuven Rubin and Nachum Gutman tried to capture the light of the Land of Israel by using a bright, primary palette, while others, like Anna Ticho, expressed the bond with nature through expressive linear representation. Israeli artists who lived in Paris during the 1930s painted the landscape in dark tones under the influence of the Jewish School of Paris. In 1939 Izhak Danziger created his sculpture of the biblical hunter "Nimrod" from local Nubian sandstone, expressing the fusion of man and the soil. A different approach to this connection was later adopted by Micha Ullman, who dealt with excavation as a means of defense (digging trenches) or search (man digging for his roots). For the New Horizons artists of the 1950s, landscape was also the starting point. While striving for an international style, the lyric abstraction developed by Zaritsky and his fellow artists possessed a local flavor. In the 1970s the relation to place was further laden with political connotations and symbols of de-mythologization by artists such as Pinhas Cohen-Gan, David Reeb, Tamar Getter, and others. Landscape remains a central motif in art today, with some artists venturing into imaginary and sometimes threatening spheres, while others finding expression in realistic representation. Alongside the landscapes in the exhibition are seascapes, in which views of the sea suggest routes of escape, voyages and wanderings, the passageway between cultures, and the journey to the Land of Israel. The exhibition has been curated by Amitai Mendelsohn, Associate Curator of the David Orgler Department of Israeli Art. It has been made possible by the donors to the Museum's 2003 Exhibition Fund: Melva Bucksbaum and Raymond J. Learsy, Aspen, Colorado; Ruth and Leon Davidoff, Paris and Mexico City; Hanno D. Mott, New York; and The Nash Family Foundation, New York. The exhibition is on view through September 2003.
March 28, 2003 Works by Leading Artists Including Hausman,
Schwarz's deep involvement in the Surrealist movement as a publisher and gallery owner, and his personal acquaintance with many of its members, has given him a singular connection to this historical movement. A longtime friend of the Israel Museum, Schwarz has made significant contributions to the Israel Museum both as a collector and as a scholar, particularly in the fields of modern and Israeli art. He recently authored Mordecai Ardon: The Colors of Time, published by the Israel Museum and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art in conjunction with the exhibition Mordecai Ardon: Landscapes of Infinity, on view in Jerusalem from February 20 through August 31, 2003. Schwarz states: "I take great pride in the Museum's achievements and in having the opportunity to donate my Dada and Surrealist collection in 1998. My latest gift of additional works underscores my commitment to the Israel Museum and my admiration of its dedication to the cultural enrichment of the State of Israel during these challenging times." All 17 works from this recent gift are now on display in the Museum's Sam and Ayala Zacks Gallery for Modern Art. Several of the works were included in the first comprehensive exhibition of the Vera and Arturo Schwarz Collection of Dada and Surrealist Art, Dreaming with Open Eyes, organized by the Israel Museum and shown there from December 2000 through June 2001. Following its debut in Israel, the exhibition traveled to the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, and The Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; it travels to the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro in December 2003. The Vera and Arturo Schwarz Collection at The Israel Museum
March 2003 During Renovation Dead Sea Scrolls will be on Display
Israel, Jerusalem, March 2003 - The Israel Museum, Jerusalem today
announced plans to restore its Shrine of the Book, the building
which houses the Dead Sea Scrolls, which are considered to be among
the most important archeological treasures uncovered in the last
century and perhaps the most important patrimonial treasures of
the State of Israel and the Jewish people. The renovation project
will refurbish the Shrine, ensuring an optimal environment for the
preservation of the Dead Sea Scrolls and enhancing its display facilities
to improve the experience of viewing the Scrolls. Construction begins
on April 1, 2003, and will require that the Shrine remain closed
to the public for approximately one year. During this time, treasures
from the Shrine will be on display in a comprehensive exhibition,
Envisioning the Temple: Scrolls, Stones, and Symbols, which opens
on May 30, 2003, at the Israel Museum. The Shrine's original design incorporates a variety of forms, colors, and materials that seek to evoke the experience of the discovery of the Scrolls and the spiritual messages conveyed in the writings of the Scrolls themselves. The stark contrast between its signature white-tiled dome, bathed in a continuous fountain-spray of water, and its free-standing black basalt wall, originally topped with a crown of fire, recalls the tension between the worlds of the "Sons of Light" and the "Sons of Darkness," a popular theme in the literature of the Qumran sect considered by scholars to be the authors of some of the Scrolls. "The Dead Sea Scrolls are among the greatest treasures held in the Israel Museum's collections, and the Shrine where they are preserved and displayed is also one of the truly distinctive architectural jewels of the last century," said James Snyder, director of the Israel Museum. "The restoration of the Shrine and the renewed display of the Scrolls will ensure their preservation for generations to come, reinforcing our commitment to the ongoing renewal and development of our campus as a home to some of the most important artifacts of ancient and modern civilization." The current project will preserve fully the original architecture of the Shrine. The surface tiles of the Shrine's distinctive dome, likened to the lid of the jars in which the Scrolls were first discovered in 1947, have lost their original color and integrity and will be replaced. The black stone of the wall opposite the dome, which forms a sculptural whole with the dome and its surrounding plaza, has similarly lost its original color and integrity and will be replaced, as will be the original limestone of the plaza. New exterior illumination will also be provided to highlight the fountains which continuously bathe the dome and to evoke the fire originally intended atop the black wall. Inside the Shrine, the main exhibition spaces will preserve their original architectural integrity, alluding to the route traveled by the discoverers of the Scrolls and the cave-like sanctuary where they were found. The design of the remaining interior spaces will be adapted to maximize their use for educational and research purposes. New state-of-the-art display technologies will make the Scrolls more accessible to the public. A new permanent display will also be created to illuminate the history of the Hebrew Bible, fulfilling the Shrine’s expanded role as a center for the study of canonical Hebrew texts. A former bookshop will be re-designed as a special exhibition space, where changing interdisciplinary exhibitions will allow visitors to study different dimensions of the Scrolls and their history. Spaces previously devoted to storage will be re-fitted to provide an on-site laboratory for professional research and technical analysis of the Scrolls and a seminar room for formal and informal educational programming. The $3 million renovation project is made possible through the generosity of Herta and Paul Amir, Los Angeles, and the D.S. and R.H. Gottesman Foundation, New York. Project Team Envisioning the Temple: Scrolls, Stones, and Symbols "Envisioning the Temple will examine models for the ideal Holy Temple and provide audiences with an opportunity to explore a new interpretation of the Scrolls," remarks Dr. Roitman. "It will also allow us to re-examine the Scrolls in a comprehensive and contextual way, deepening our understanding of the historic literature that has shaped the Jewish people and modern mankind." The Dead Sea Scrolls Most of the scrolls were written in Hebrew, with a small number in Aramaic and Greek. The majority of the scrolls were written on parchment, with rare examples on papyrus - and, although a few scrolls were discovered intact, the majority survive as fragments. The contents of the Scrolls fall into three major categories: biblical, apocryphal, and sectarian, with the biblical manuscripts comprising some two hundred copies of biblical books, representing the world's earliest evidence of biblical texts; sectarian manuscripts covering a wide variety of literary genres, including biblical commentary, religious-legal writings, and liturgical texts; and apocryphal manuscripts comprising works that had previously been known only in translation or that had not been known at all. The Israel Museum, Jerusalem For more information, please contact: Allison M. Derusha
Opening Thursday, March 27, 2003, 5:30 pm In the presence of Joseph I. Paritzky, Minister of Infrastructures
Jerusalem, March 2003 - "First Light: Power Stations in Palestine 1920 - 1939," traces the history of the visionary architecture and planning of the Palestine Electric Company (the forerunner of Israel Electric), the brainchild of industrial pioneer Pinhas Rutenberg. Through original sketches, plans, models, historical documents, photographs, and original film footage, all from the Israel Electric Archive in Haifa and with additional material from the Central Zionist Archives in Jerusalem, the exhibition provides a rare look at the architecture of the early power stations in Mandatory Palestine - as a mirror of the political, social, and technological developments of the time, both locally and abroad. The exhibition, which opens in the Palevsky Design Pavilion on March 28, 2003, celebrates 80 years since the founding of the Palestine Electric Company on March 29, 1923, and represents a collaboration between the Israel Museum and Israel Electric.
Pinhas Rutenberg (1879-1942), a Russian engineer, immigrated to Palestine in 1919 with a bold vision of the electrification of Palestine as a major vehicle for the development of a modern Jewish state. In 1921 he succeeded in obtaining a concession from the British Government to use water sources to generate electrical power in Palestine, and in 1926 he secured final permission to build on the Jordan River, which was central to the success of his overall plan. The Jordan Power Station at Naharaim, completed in 1932, is among his most important and most impressive successes - a massive undertaking, which included construction of a power station, an artificial lake, dams, and sluice gates, as well as community housing for employees.
The early power stations built in the 1920's and 1930's by Rutenberg and his team of independent architects, including Erich Mendelsohn, Alexander Baerwald, Joseph Berlin, Richard Kauffmann, and Clifford Holliday, started the 'modern' architecture movement in Palestine, comparable in quality to Europe, and in some cases, ahead by a decade. The first, the Tel Aviv/Jaffa Power Station (1921-1923), is an example of eclectic design built in Neo-Classical style. It was then followed by the first power stations built in Haifa and Tiberias (1925), which are among the earliest examples of modern architecture in Palestine. Rutenberg's house in Naharaim, built in 1929 as part of the community housing plan there and later called the "White House, was more advanced than any other structure in Palestine at that time, and it was in step with the European avant-garde. Later power stations, Haifa 'Alef' (1934-1935) and Reading (1936-1938), employed a more conservative approach to design, but with interior design elements which demonstrated a sensitive and sophisticated underscoring of modernist developments in architecture and design.
Israel Museum Director James Snyder states: "The early history of Israel Electric offers a striking example of how modernism in architecture captures the visionary spirit of its time - and with no greater force than in Mandatory Palestine, in the time before the founding of the modern State of Israel." The exhibition is accompanied by a book on the history of Israel Electric, In Search of Excellence: The Architecture and Building Projects of the Electric Industry in the Land of Israel (1921-1942), published in Hebrew and English by Israel Electric. The exhibition is curated by Alex Ward, curator of Design and Architecture at the Israel Museum, and made possible by Israel Electric and the donors to the Israel Museum's 2003 Exhibition Fund: Melva Bucksbaum and Raymond J. Learsy, Aspen, Colorado; Ruth and Leon Davidoff, Paris and Mexico City; Hanno D. Mott, New York; and The Nash Family Foundation, New York.
March 2003 March 2003 - In 1993 archeologists Dror Barshad and Idan Shaked excavated a series of caves overlooking Jericho on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Staff Officer of Archaeology for the Civil Administration of Judea and Samaria, in search of more Dead Sea Scrolls. Instead they discovered an extraordinary nobleman’s burial site dating from 3912-3777 BCE in the Chalcolithic period, including a complete skeleton and a selection of textiles, leather sandals, weapons, and other objects. After ten years of research and conservation, these rare finds are now on display for the first time in Israel in the Bronfman Archeology Wing of the Israel Museum. The discovery of these finds in what is now called “The Cave of the Warrior” has afforded scholars an uprecedented opportunity to study objects rarely encountered in archeology, which also represent an important addition to the discoveries unearthed in this region. The dry climate preserved remarkably the skeleton, including remnants of cartilage, skin, and tendons; the shrouds in which he was wrapped, a kilt, and sash; and funerary gifts intended to accompany him into the afterlife. In addition to providing a glimpse into the world of ancient fibercraft, these finds have also enabled scholars to reconstruct burial rites, customs, and aspects of social stratification in the period before the invention of writing. The objects found and the elevated location of the burial site attest to the distinguished status of the interred - a nobleman, brave warrior, hunter, ruler, or religious authority. Studies of the skeleton, among the best-preserved human remains from the region, suggest that the nobleman was 40-50 years old and 168 cm tall, an age and height remarkable for the period. The other objects found in the cave, including textiles, sandals, knife, bow, and walking stick, all show traces of red ocher, which was apparently associated with procreative and regenerative powers and thus played an important role in ceremonies, burial rites, and other aspects of spiritual life. The textiles are innovative in their size, texture, and decoration and unique both from an aesthetic and technological standpoint; the knife, bow, and arrows exhibit a high level of technological expertise in every aspect of their manufacture, from the choice of the raw materials to the finishing touches. From these finds, it appears that the craftsmen of the fourth millennium BCE, already known for their proficiency in working with metals, ivory, and shell, also excelled in fibercraft and woodwork. While the original skeleton remains designated for ongoing conservation and research, an exact replica is on display, and replicas of the bows, arrows, and leather sandals are displayed alongside the originals to demonstrate more effectively the scale and original appearance of these ancient objects. The exhibit is accompanied by a Hebrew/English booklet. The exhibition was prepared by Osnat Misch-Brandl, Curator of Chalcolithic and Canaanite Periods. The exhibition and booklet are dedicated to the memory of Ornit Ilan, Curator of the Rockefeller Museum from 1992 to 2001. They were made possible by the generosity of her family and friends: Sybil and Leon Goldenblank, Torrance, California; Deborah and Stuart Kirschbaum, Mission Viejo, California; Mark Sommer, Torrance, California; Daniel and Gusti Frankel, Yadkinsville, North Carolina; Lydie Shufro, New York; and by the Museum’s 2003 Exhibition Fund: Melva Bucksbaum and Raymond J. Learsy, Aspen, Colorado; Ruth and Leon Davidoff, Paris and Mexico City; Hanno D. Mott, New York; and The Nash Family Foundation, New York.
February 20, 2003 Opening February 20, 2003 at 6 pm February 2003 - As an immigrant to Palestine in 1933, Mordecai Ardon (1896-1992), one of Israel’s most celebrated modern artists, captured his reverence for and connection to the land of Israel through his portrayals of its landscapes – from the hills of Judea to the gates of Jerusalem. This exhibition traces Ardon’s spiritual and artistic development as embodied in his changing landscapes – their themes, palette, and texture. From his early canvases portraying Jersualem to his famous tryptichs, his works reveal an affinity for mysticism and kabbalah and a spiritual union with the land he painted. Born Mordecai Bronstein to a hassidic family in Turchow, Poland, Ardon travelled a path common to many twentieth century Jewish artists. He studied at the Bauhaus in Weimar, Germany from 1920-1926, the leading European avant-garde center at the time, where he befriended Paul Klee and other prominent artists of the period. He then moved to Berlin and came to Palestine in 1933 with the first wave of immigration of the German intellectual elite. In Palestine he found refuge from growing persecution in Germany, but as a Marxist, he had little interest in Zionism. However, when he arrived in Jerusalem, the landscape infused his art with new subject matter and new meaning; and throughout his career, the physical reality of the landscapes he painted was of great importance to him. Concurrently, Ardon searched for the hidden and the beyond, breaking through the boundaries of landscape into the celestial. Stars and cosmic explosions populate many of his later works, which nevertheless maintain their likeness to the landscape. Ardon exerted considerable influence on Israeli art both as an artist and as a teacher, and in recognition, he was awarded the Israel Prize in 1964. He served as director of the Bezalel Academy of the Arts from 1940-1952 and then as advisor to the Education Ministry, where he sought to promote professional training for artists and greater appreciation for the arts among the Israeli public. In addition to the Israel Museum, his works are represented in the Tate Gallery, London; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; and The Tel Aviv Museum of Art. “This exhibition completes a quartet of exhibitions in 2002-2003 devoted to the life acheivements of four artists whose contributions to the history of modern art in Israel have been tremendous,” states Museum director James Snyder. “We are honored | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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