February 19, 2008 - July 27, 2008

@60.art.israel.world: Recent Art from Israel at the Magnes

The exhibition will survey recent work by contemporary Israeli artists. On loan from important private Bay Area collections, the paintings, photographs, and media art in the exhibition demonstrate the progressiveness and internationalism of the art world in Israel during the past decade. Sixty years after the establishment of the state, Israeli art is truly integrated into the global cultural landscape. Artists bring their own diverse cultural backgrounds (Morocco, Iraq, former Soviet Union) to bear on their experiences of working in the world capitals (Berlin, New York, London) and making art about life in Israel as well as such places on the world map as Bosnia and Kazakhstan. 

The names of artists in the exhibition have become familiar to American public and collectors from international biennials and museum exhibitions, including Adi Nes, Yehudit Sasportas, Sigalit Landau, and Michal Rovner.

The exhibition establishes a dialogue with the historical memory preserved by the collection of the Museum, which is strong in Israeli Fine Arts of the decades following the formation of the state of Israel in 1948.

Exhibit Press Release (PDF)

Image: Tal Shochat "Almond Tree", 2003.
Color Photograph. Private Collection.
Image Couresty of The Andrea Meislin Gallery. 

September 10, 2007 - July 6, 2008

REVISIONS Shahrokh Yadegari: Through Music
Guest Curated by Lawrence Rinder

Continuing a centuries-old dialogue between Jewish and Islamic musical traditions, guest curator Lawrence Rinder stages a multichannel sound installation incorporating a new musical composition by Shahrokh Yadegari. Extending the work of Rinder's grandfather, Cantor Reuben R. Rinder (1887–1966), the composition blends singing in Hebrew, Farsi and English with classical Persian and electronic music. The piece incorporates such diverse elements as the melody from one of Cantor Rinder’s scores, text from the ancient Jewish priestly benediction, and two poems by the Sufi philosopher Rumi.

REVISIONS is a series of exhibitions where artists, curators and scholars are invited to create experimental installations inspired by the museum’s permanent collections. For this exhibit, Rinder highlights a pair of visual objects selected to underscore the show’s themes, including an engraved brass bowl from 18th–19th century Russia and a rotating selection of Persian miniatures on paper.

>>View 10 Minute Documentary Online

An Interview with Shahrokh Yadegari (pdf)
An Interview with Lawrence Rinder (pdf)
Press Release - REVISIONS Shahrokh Yadegari: Through Music (pdf)

REVISIONS Shahrokh Yadegari: Through Music has been made possible through a grant from the Ira and Leonore Gershwin Trusts, along with generous support from Congregation Emanu-El, San Francisco.

Image:
Cantor Reuben R. Rinder at Congregation Emanu-El
Photo courtesy the Western Jewish History Center
at the Judah L. Magnes Museum