ISRAEL: Unusual architecture of newly added wing steals the thunder from exhibitions in Tel Aviv's Museum of Art

Record ID: 397309

  • Title: ISRAEL: Unusual architecture of newly added wing steals the thunder from exhibitions in Tel Aviv's Museum of Art
  • Date: 25th November 2011
  • Summary: TEL AVIV, ISRAEL (NOVEMBER 23, 2011) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF EXTERIORS OF NEW BUILDING ADDED TO THE TEL AVIV MUSEUM OF ART VISITOR EXAMINING UNUSUAL ARCHITECTURE OF THE NEW BUILDING'S INTERIORS VISITORS LOOKING DOWN AT LOWER FLOOR VARIOUS OF NEW MUSEUM WING'S INTERIORS TEL AVIV ART MUSEUM'S ACTING DIRECTOR SHULI KISLEV SPEAKING WITH REPORTER (SOUNDBITE) (Hebrew) TEL AV
  • Embargoed: 10th December 2011 12:00
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  • Location: Israel, Israel
  • Country: Israel
  • Reuters ID: LVA21RMXM0DDYAB7G5ETQOBUYS77
  • Story Text: Tel Aviv's recently expanded modern art museum, with its dazzling new building no less an attraction than art showcased inside, has given a home to hundreds of displaced Israeli works and helped boost the city's cultural scene.
    The new wing, designed by U.S.-based architect Preston Scott Cohen, doubled the size of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art with 19,000 square meters (200,000 square feet) of gallery space.
    Art enthusiasts have passed through the new, triangular concrete and glass complex in numbers unheard of before the Nov. 3 opening.
    "In principle, what we asked for was contemporary architecture with a message, but that it won't interrupt the exhibition spaces, the galleries, that should resemble white boxes. Those will allow the curators to exhibit any type of show they can imagine," explained the museum's acting director Shuli Kislev. "This is how we reached the final result that you can see now, that we are delighted with."
    The reason for the four-year, 50 million U.S. dollar building project, she said, was to provide a space for the collection of Israeli art work that was growing in the museum's storage rooms.
    "This is the first time that a person actually walks into a museum in Israel and can see what is Israeli art from its early days and until the present, Kislev told Reuters.
    Many of the newly displayed pieces include elements of Israeli society, from the conscript military to agricultural communes known as kibbutzim.
    And alongside the locals, works by renown German artist Anselm Kiefer, which were inspired by Jewish faith and mysticism, are on special exhibit for the new wing's opening.
    But perhaps as much a pull as the artwork is the building itself.
    Individual, rectangular galleries are levelled around an 87-foot-tall, spiralling atrium known as the "lightfall", where sunlight is reflected against angled walls from top to bottom. Visitors can see through the atrium to other floors and halls.
    The museum is next door to Israel's opera house and a short walk from both the Tel Aviv cinematheque and the national theatre -- which reopened this month after years of renovation, adding another spark to the country's cultural hub.
    Israeli video artist Shahar Marcus said the museum's addition brings tremendous exposure for him and his peers.
    A four-and-a-half minute video of him driving through his hometown of Petah Tikva, waving like a celebrity from a convertible to indifferent pedestrians, is on display in the new wing.
    "It's a very good exposure. For example, the exhibition that I am having tomorrow in Moscow is due to the fact that a lot of curators and art dealers came to this museum, to the opening, and saw my work here, saw my work in Petah Tikva, and took my work all over the world," Marcus said.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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