Page 39 - Studio International - August 1965
P. 39
The Israel National Museum
Head of Gudea, the Voss-Hahn collection of Meso Most disappointing. as I have indicated. is the
potamian seals, the Borowski ivories. and extensive inadequate display of contemporary Israeli art. Ardon,
cabinets of coins. Of exceptional beauty and range is the doyen of Israeli painters is present, with Agam,
the Persian collection. including Am/ash ceramics. gold Tumarkin. Zaritsky. Stematsky. Lea Nikel-a very
vessels. sculpture and a magnificent 17th century tiled arbitrary choice. Visitors to Jerusalem will rightly
Prayer Niche. expect the National Museum to provide evidence of
The richest section of the Beza lei collection is devoted the not inconsiderable national talent.
to Jewish religious and ethnographic art. It is probably For the opening of the Museum in May a number of
the finest in the world. including costumes. jewellery, a special exhibitions were mounted. The most impressive
complete early 18th century rococo Synagogue from was a group of fifty drawings and etchings by Rem
Italy, 14th and 15th century illuminated Hebrew manu brandt on Old Testament themes. No Christian artist so
scripts. 11 th century carvings from the Maimonides immersed himself in Jewish thought and character.
Synagogue in Cairo. and hundreds of religious appur Living and working in Amsterdam's Jewish quarter. a
tenances made for ritual and domestic use. free haven for Spanish refugees. Rembrandt's neigh
Inevitably for a new. non-European country, the bours and friends were the models for some of his
Museum is weakest in Western painting and sculpture. greatest masterpieces. In contrast the small group of
One cannot expect to find in Israel the masterpieces Chaga/I paintings and Lipshitz sculpture on Jewish
of the great European or American collections; but a themes seemed thin in content and imaginatively weak.
good start has been made. A strong group of Dutch The main loan exhibition was entitled The Bible in Art.
paintings includes Rembrandt. Ruisdael. Guyp, Van The Old Testament, of course. has been one of the
Goyen. de Witte and Van der Neer. There are works by seminal sources of inspiration for European artists. but
Tintoretto. El Greco. Rubens. Murillo and Magnasco. unfortunately public collections find it difficult to loan
French art of the 19th and 20th centuries is richly repre their greatest treasures. Among the outstanding works
sented by Delacroix. Courbet. Monet, Renoir. Degas; in Jerusalem were Rembrandt's Moses from Berlin.
L'ecole de Paris by Bonnard. Picasso. Matisse. Dufy, Rubens· The Dead Abel. a fine Van Dyke Abraham and
Redon. Leger Jewish artists include Chagall. Soutine. Isaac from Prague. a group of grisaille paintings by
Pascin. Kisling. Oppenheim. Israels. Liebermann, Ury, Mantegna, some magnificent Russian icons from Reck
Janke/ Adler. Mention should also be made of the well linghausen and Poussin's The Finding of Moses from
stocked graphics cabinets. with master drawings from the Louvre.
Durer to contemporary artists. In addition there are Karl Katz. the young, energetic Curator of the Bezalel
good examples of Egon Schiele. Munch. Klee. Magritte. Museum has described its foundation in 1906 as
Feininger, Bissier. Among recent gifts there is a Francis ·a tabernacle in the wilderness·. That is still a good
Bacon portrait of Lucien Freud. and works by Philip description. even though the wilderness has since
Guston. Sou/ages. Stuart Davis. Dubuffet and Vasarely. borne other fruit. ■
Modern Jerusalem from
the Sculpture Garden
69
