Street of the Prophets

Gracing the heart of Jerusalem are two historical buildings erected in the second half of the nineteenth century, both of which later became artistic institutions: Ticho House and the Jerusalem Print Workshop. Both retain memories of earlier incarnations. Ticho House, with its large, luxurious façade, was one of the first homes to be built outside the walls of the Old City. The Print Workshop, situated near Damascus Gate, occupies a two-floor stone house with a balcony and a dug well on the corner of HaNevi’im (the Street of the Prophets) and Shivtei Israel Street. The Street of the Prophets, which lies between the workshop and Ticho House, was a major, elegant Jerusalem thoroughfare in the late nineteenth century, lined by religious and medical complexes alongside the homes of Ottoman officials, Arab businessmen, and diplomats. About a hundred years later, the same historical pathway served Arik Kilemnik, founder and director of the Print Workshop, to reach the home of artist Anna Ticho. Under his arm were plates on which she would etch images; later, he would carry the etched plates back to the workshop for printing.

Kilemnik’s route up the street was our point of departure for reflection on the neighborly relations and mutual ties between the buildings and the people inhabiting them. The home of Anna Ticho and her husband, renowned ophthalmologist Dr. Abraham Ticho, hosted intellectuals who arrived in the country in the early twentieth century, particularly artists from Germany, for whom it offered a social and cultural haven. Similarly, the Jerusalem Print Workshop is an inspirational hub for artists, cultivating creativity and offering a wealth of professional knowledge. These small, unique communities – Ticho House and its artists past and present, and the Workshop with its resident printers and artists – give rise to entire creative worlds, relevant to the present day and attuned to their surroundings.

This year, as the Print Workshop marks fifty years since its founding and Ticho House celebrates forty years since its opening as a branch of the Israel Museum, we present the works of four artists whose connections with both institutions are robust and significant: Larry Abramson, Asaf Ben Zvi, Avital Cnaani, and Sharon Poliakine all created print series at the Workshop that were central to their artistic development. All four conducted a fruitful dialogue with the artist-printers on the Workshop’s staff and have displayed their works at the Israel Museum. They have a keen affinity for the Israeli landscape and local vegetation and care deeply about the country’s historical and political reality. The exhibition presents works they created at the Workshop with reference to the tumultuous space surrounding both buildings, alongside new works that offer a different perspective on this environment and on their connections with the works of Anna Ticho.

 

Exhibition made possible by the Ticho House Fund