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| Grand Opening of the Herta and Paul Amir Building | |||||||||||||
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Shimon Peres, President of the State of Israel, and Ron Huldai, Mayor of Tel Aviv, will preside over the inaugural fes-tivities of the new building on October 30, 2011. Dignitaries and Museum friends from around the world will wit-ness the beginning of an exciting new chapter in the Museum’s history.
The powerful, startlingly beautiful build-ing has been hailed as one of the most important pieces of architecture of its time. The structure wraps around a monumental 87 foot high spiraling sculp-ture, the “Lightfall”. Winding around it are ramps and stairs which gives access to the galleries, art library and ancillary spaces above and below. The “Lightfall” reaches toward a skylight that sends natural light into the deepest recesses of the building’s interior. The 195,000 square foot building dou-bles the Museum’s exhibition space and provides a unique setting for the display of the best of contemporary art, a center for Architecture and Design, a 400-seat auditorium and a huge multi-purpose gallery. The Art Library occupies a prominent position in the new building. Unusually large glass-paned windows let in natural light while ensuring that the back of the building is as stunning as the front. A staircase, ascending a soaring double-height space connects the Library’s upper and lower levels. The 80-seat Giacometti Restaurant in-cludes additional outdoor seating for 40 on a terrace overlooking the sculpture garden. The building itself cantilevers over the terrace, forming a canopy that serves as a shelter for the diners. |
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 Exterior of the Herta and Paul Amir Building |
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This historic moment for the Tel Aviv Mu-seum of Art would not be possible without the extraordinary generosity of Herta and Paul Amir for whom the building is named. Honored at the American Friends of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art’s Gala at the Pi-erre on April 13th, 2011, their vision and commitment were key to helping make the dream of a new building a reality. They, along with the late Mordechai Omer, Di-rector and Chief Curator of TAMA, were the driving forces behind the conception and ultimate realization of the new building. There will be a week of festivities from Thursday, October 27 through Tuesday, November 1, 2011 at the Museum. Cele-brations include cocktails and an exclusive preview of the Anselm Kiefer Exhibition: The Hidden Light within the Broken Vessels in the presence of the artist; a beautiful Shabbat dinner and concert; a symposium on Contemporary Architecture of Museums with the architect of the new building, Pre-ston Scott Cohen, Gerald M. McCue Pro-fessor in Architecture and Chair of the Department of Architecture at Harvard University Graduate School of Design. AFTAM and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art extend a warm invitation to join us in Tel Aviv for opening celebrations. To make a reservation please call the AFTAM office at 212-319-0555. |
Tel Aviv Museum of Art Program Selection 2011 |
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Anselm Kiefer Exhibition: The Hidden Light within the Broken Vessels A site-specific exhibition created by the artist for the open-ing of the Herta and Paul Amir Building Five Moments of Architecture: an exhibition docu-menting the design of the five buildings of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, from the original Dizengoff House to the Amir Building, organized by guest cura-tors Jascha Grobman and Ariel Blonder An installation of Israeli photography of the past twenty years |
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Chagall and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art The dream of creating a Jewish art museum was shared by Marc Chagall, one of the most important and influential Jewish artists of the 20th century and Meyer Dizengoff, the first Mayor of Tel Aviv. Mayor Dizengoff had a vision of Tel Aviv becoming a great commercial and cultural center. After building houses, a movie theater, hospital, synagogue and slaughterhouse, bath houses and other structures the Mayor began to feel the need to foster beauty—which meant art and an art museum. Dizengoff visited Paris in 1930, met Chagall and asked his help in establish-ing a museum. The 70 year old artist readily accepted. In a letter to Dizengoff after meeting him in Paris and prior to his first visit to Israel, Chagall stated: “. . . we are prepared to help you. I am happy that finally a Jew has emerged who wants to establish a Jewish museum, and who understands how indispensable it is (not only as a useful element of tourism) . . . in the major cen-ters of Europe and America, societies of friends of the Jewish museum should be established . . . to collect money and artistic material fit for a museum.” Chagall visited Tel Aviv a year later. Tel Aviv had a population of 50,000 people and three repertory theaters. Mayor Dizengoff had donated his home as the future Tel Aviv Museum of Art. The Mayor met Chagall, his wife and daughter at the head of the city’s fire brigade. Horse races on the seashore were organized in Chagall’s honor. At a reception in Tel Aviv Chagall said “I am amazed how a handful of people, surrounded by hatred, rather than love, builds and creates a new land. I am jealous of your idealism, and I wish you from the bottom of my heart to continue what you started. And for me I wish to come and wallow among you, and maybe I shall be able as an artist to do something for your future Jewish museum as well . . .” Chagall advised Mayor Dizengoff as to what works should be included in the Museum’s collection. Chagall’s work “Jew with Torah” was the very first work to enter the Museum. The Museum has thirteen masterworks by Marc Chagall. Three works were a gift of the artist, the remaining ten works and many others were donated by friends from around the world. Marc Chagall visited Israel eight times. He died at the age of 97 in Saint-Paul de Vence, France. A Case Study of Art Conservation and Restoration Art conservation and restoration consists of the preservation of structurally sound works of art, the halting of processes that lead to the damage of works of art and the repair of already damaged works of art. The circumstances surrounding conserva-tion efforts can be quite dramatic in nature. In the early hours of December 13, 2007, fire erupted in a gallery in Miami, Florida. The fire was believed to have started when an advertising balloon attached to the gallery came in contact with electrical wires overhead. Despite the intensity of the fire and the collapse of the ceiling, 178 Pop-Surrealist paintings, including works by Skot Olsen, Scharf and Niagara, were res-cued from the building. 108 of the works were deemed potentially salvageable and were transported to the Florida branch of Rustin Levenson Art Conservation Associates. The initial treatment of the works had to be undertaken outdoors because of health concerns and the risk of contaminating other works in the studio. The frames and the backing boards were removed from the paintings and discarded. Then the paint-ings were vacuumed several times and the reverse sides of the works, tacking margins, and stretchers were cleaned with clean-ing sponges. During these procedures the conservators wore air purifying respirators, nitrile gloves and disposable overalls. Once the loose particulate matter was removed from the paintings, they were moved indoors into a space especially pre-pared for further treatment. One room was set up for storage, and an adjacent room prepared where the treatments took place. Both rooms had individual wall air conditioning units and HEPA air purifying units. Conservators soon found that any pressure on the paint surfaces, such as from a dry cleaning sponge, drove soot deeper into the paint, leaving little hope of removal. There were a few varnished paintings where these dry methods successfully removed soot without affecting the paint layer. Traditional wet cleaning mixtures for soot removal were tested. Combinations of these solutions were successful on 24 oil paintings. For the acrylic paintings other commonly used solvent mixtures were formulated and, in one case, an emulsion was effective. Ultimately 85 paintings were successfully cleaned. Important research was carried out throughout the process and was published in the professional literature of the American Institute of Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works. - Courtesy of Rustin Levenson Art Conservation Associates, New York & Miami A Message from AFTAM’s Chairman It is with a mixture of excitement and sadness that I write to you today. Excitement about the opening of the Herta and Paul Amir Building, and sadness that the late Professor Omer will not be present on this auspicious occasion. Motti was the visionary behind the creation of the Museum’s new building. He was involved in every aspect of its planning, financing and construction. Its innovative design will enable visitors to experience art in a new way and draw hundreds of thou-sands of visitors to Tel Aviv each year. Director and Chief Curator of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art for the past fifteen years, Motti shaped the character of the Mu-seum and devoted nearly every waking moment to its betterment. He cared deeply about every aspect of the Museum and provided leadership and guidance to its staff. The death of Professor Omer is a great loss to both the Museum and the art world in Israel. He leaves behind a rich legacy as a teacher, researcher and writer. AFTAM has established a memorial fund in his honor: The Professor Mordechai Omer Memorial Fund for the New Building. We invite you all to participate, no matter how large or small your gift will be. Please make out your checks to the American Friends of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art and indicate it is for the Memorial Fund. We wish you a happy and healthy and prosperous New Year and I look forward to seeing many of you in Tel Aviv at the opening of the Herta and Paul Amir Building at the end of October. - David Genser Selected Special Events Hosted by AFTAM 2010-2011
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Tel Aviv Museum of Art |
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