Page 38 - Studio International - August 1965

Head of Gudea. Late Sume,,Dn and Haber are more impressively at home in their
c. 2100 BC
native landscape.
One aspect of the sculpture display is echoed in the
small group of contemporary paintings in the Museum.
This I can only describe as the too dominant influence
of William Sandberg, the distinguished former Director
of the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, who has been
acting as special adviser to the Israel Museum. Sand­
berg, it is generally agreed, is one of the most brilliant,
creative museum officials in the world, an educator and
designer of exceptional talent. It is right that his views on
modern art should be reflected in his work, but I hope it
is not churlish to suggest that this influence is too
strongly felt in a new national museum with, as yet,
limited coverage of modern art. Thus the sculpture
garden includes a large group of Dutch sculpture, some
of it good, but including three unworthy efforts by
Appel Similarly the limited display of contemporary
painting includes an unbalancing preponderance of the
Cobra Group and other Dutch artists. In a fuller, more
comprehensive survey these inclusions would be unob­
jectionable. but in Jerusalem, where very little space is
devoted to native Israeli art, they seem overbearing.
In that parenthetic criticism I have forestalled com­
ment on the contents of the Museum proper. The
Archaeological collection is vast and fascinating,
although one must not expect the artistic glories of
Cairo, Athens or the British Museum. Jerusalem offers a
treasure house for the student of the Bible and the pre­
history of Palestine, with illustrations from the Greek,
Roman, Christian and Arab periods. Among the out­
standing items are well preserved Synagogue mosaics,
indicating an early relaxation of the Commandment
forbidding the creation of images, the superb Sumerian

Interior of tho. Modern Pa,nt1ng
Pavil,on. Israel National Museum

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