Material Imagination: Center of Gravity / Israeli Art from the Museum’s Collection
The exhibition Material Imagination departs from the story of Israeli art as a chronological narrative running parallel to the national story. Material Imagination is a model of thinking conceived by philosopher Gaston Bachelard during years of delving into the four elements—earth, air, water, and fire—and their incarnations in the imagination and in art. The material imagination thrives in the dialogue between the materials of the world and archaic images—archetypes accumulated and etched in human consciousness.
The model formulated by Bachelard is the organizing principle underpinning the current collection exhibition. The three galleries of Israeli art unfold three chapters: Promised Land, Airship, and Blazing Movement. Each chapter examines the works through a host of associations arising from the artworks' materials or elemental images. This distinction returns the gaze to the materiality of the artwork as an act and an object, requiring an attentive gaze, free of preconceptions regarding the art created here from the beginning of the previous century to the present day.
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Participating artists:
Abed Abdi, Etti Abergel, David Adika, Zvi Aldouby, Alima, Dalia Amotz, Meir Appelfeld, Michael Argov, Arie Aroch, Samuel Bak, Ido Bar-El, Joav BarEl, Michal BarOr, Arnon Ben-David, Avner Ben-Gal, Eitan Ben Moshe, Asaf Ben Zvi, Deganit Berest, Adam Berg, "Bezalel", Naftali Bezem, Ludwig Blum, Joshua (Shuky) Borkovsky, Joseph Budko, Yael Burstein, Moshe Castel, Zoya Cherkassky-Nnadi, Chen Cohen, Pinchas Cohen Gan, Roy Cohen, Nurit David, Yoav Efrati, Smadar Eliasaf, Asaf Elkalai, Maayan Elyakim, Leon Engelsberg, Nir Evron, Belu-Simion Fainaru, Eliyahu Fatal, Yair Garbuz, Eliyahu Gat, Moshe Gat, Gideon Gechtman, Moshe Gershuni, Tsibi Geva, David Ginton, Pesi Girsch, Michael Gitlin, Aharon Gluska, Yitzhak (Itche) Golombek, Yehoshua Grossbard, Nahum Gutman, Shoshana Heimann, Michal Helfman, Irit Hemmo, Tamar Hirschfeld, Samuel Hirszenberg, Eti Jacobi, Chaim Kiewe, Liliane Klapisch, Olga Kundina, Raffi Lavie, Yudith Levin, Maryan, Moshe Matusowski, Abraham Melnikov, Uriel Miron, Michal Na’aman, Efrat Natan, Joshua Neustein, Lea Nikel, Nora and Naomi, Ibrahim Nubani, Avraham Ofek, Avshalom Okashi, Chana Orloff, Shabtai Pinchevsky, Shimon Pinto, Mordecai Pitkin, Sigal Primor, Moshe Props, Ze’ev Raban, David Reeb, Reuven Rubin, Avi Sabah, Hanna Sahar, Maria Saleh Mahameed, Porat Salomon, Benno Schotz, Michael Sgan Cohen, Fatma Shanan, Rachel Shavit, , Yehiel Shemi, Naomi Siman-Tov, Pesach Slabosky, Jakob Steinhardt, Moshe Sternschuss, Sionah Tagger, Igael Tumarkin, Lihi Turjeman, Micha Ullman, Aviva Uri, Yocheved Weinfeld, Sharon Ya’ari, Shahar Yahalom, Yosef Zaritsky, Ben Zion
Shimon Pinto, Crow, 2013
Oil on canvas
Purchased through the Bruce and Ruth Rappaport Foundation in Support of Israeli Art during the COVID-19 Pandemic, 2021
The exhibition is generously supported by
Zila and Giora Yaron
Hava and Alfred Akirov
Tova and Sami Sagol
& Anonymous donation