I have just returned from a trip and with a mountain of things to do on my return, this is a bit of a side-track from my usual "artyfacts information" posts...but nevertheless, there is a fair bit of arty content! I would like to share with you some of the fantastic art I was privileged to see during my trip. Sadly I had no time at all to sketch - it was a whistle-stop tour - so the camera HAD to suffice. This is a huge frustration for me....but sometimes, it has its compensations.
One of the places I visited while I was away is the new section of the Museum of Art in Tel Aviv. This is an extraordinary building, the design of which presented a massive challenge. On a tight, triangular site, there was a need for a series of large rectangular galleries. The Tel Aviv Museum of Art Amir building was born, designed by Prof. Preston Scott Cohen, who heads the Harvard Uni Graduate School of Architecture. Individual rectangular galleries are organised around an 87 ft tall "lightfall", a spiraling atrium. For those of you interested in cutting-edge architecture, there are some AMAZING images on this website which show the construction of this building, which, quite simply, took my breath away.
http://telavivartdesign.com/2011/10/tel-aviv-museum-of-art-amir-building-preston-scott-cohen/
the building has five levels – two above ground and three below – which subtly twist to connect the disparate angles between the galleries while refracting natural light into the deepest recesses of the half buried building.
Unfortunately, I was not allowed to photograph the art exhibits but their current major exhibition features the work of Anselm Keifer, a German artist, whose large-scale works incorporate materials such as straw, ash, clay, lead, and shellac. I have talked in this blog about the use of different and unusual materials ....if you would like to see some of this at work in Keifer's images, click the link below, then try to imagine them the size of your entire living room wall!
http://www.tamuseum.org.il/en/about-the-exhibition/anselm-kiefer-shevirat-ha-kelim
I am not a professional photographer by any means, and I rarely go out specifically to photograph for the sake of photography - for me the camera is just another part of my artists' "toolkit" when I am out and about. Any purchase of a camera on my part revolves around how well the camera will function for collecting reference material for later use. (I will talk more about this at a later date). However, I did manage to take some photos of the interior of the building which give me great pleasure purely as photographs, so I hope you might enjoy them too.
To my eye, they are a combination of figurative elements, and marvellous abstract shapes. I cannot take ANY of the credit for this....they were simply a gift! Clearly the architect knew exactly the impact his building would have.
Should you ever find yourself in the vibrant city of Tel Aviv, make sure you don't miss visiting this extraordinary, visually exciting Museum
Outside the museum, in the plaza, there are these amusing pieces...all of them flat grey metal, about one inch thick, depicting people and native birds, some pigeons, some rather larger which I could not identify by name, but saw plenty of them around, large bi-coloured birds, black and beige, in size rather like UK crows, but more colourful. Israel is situated on in intercontinental junction - a bottleneck for migration routes. It is estimated that a BILLION birds pass through Israel in Spring and Autumn!
If you are a bird lover, you will enjoy this gorgeous photo of these two "Little Green Bee Eaters" -
How lovely are they!!!!
Last but not least by any means, here are the Chagal tapestries to be found in the Knesset, the parliament building in Jerusalem.
Chagal made the original paintings the same size as the future tapestries. The painting for the right tapestry was completed 1963, since he had made a similar image for the UN building in different colours for a stained glass window in memory of the last Secretary General Dag hammarskjold . In 1964 the weaving of the tapestries began at the "Atelier de la Manufacture des Gobelins" workshop in Paris. The weaving continued until 1968. They were hung June 18 1969. 144 colours and shades were used in their making.
When there is absolutely no time to sketch, a camera can be a very useful indeed - my photos will always be there to remind me of some very special sights.
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Welcome home. You have been missed.
ReplyDeleteThat looks a really amazing building. Was the resident collection (distinct from the Keifer exhibition) of an equal standard to that of the building it housed?
sadly, we had little time there; it was a true whistle-stop tour, so we were only able to walk thro the building and descend to the lowest level to see the Keifer exhibition. I hope to be able to return one day to see the rest of the museum and its contents.
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