Friends of Bezalel

The New York Times, December 14, 2011

rebecca.tobin — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 21:36:53 +0000

Top Photographers Try Looking at Israel From New Angles, By Isabel Kershner
“The image is both idyllic and carefully staged: nearly a dozen foreign photographers, some of them celebrated on the international art scene, posing for a collective portrait on a sunny November morning against a startling green pool in this lush park in northern Israel….Israel’s Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design provided each of the artists with local assistants, and almost all are working in film, donated by Kodak. Several of the photographers lectured at Bezalel; a thousand people attended Mr. Wall’s lecture, which was taped and then screened four times.”
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The Jerusalem Post, December 14, 2011

rebecca.tobin — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 21:34:05 +0000

The Light of Inspiration, by Brian Blondy
“For lifelong Jerusalem resident Iris Tutnauer, a silversmith designer by trade, the city has not only been her eternal capital but also her ever-constant artistic muse. Tutnauer, a mixed-media artist, specializes in integrating contemporary design and craftsmanship to convey traditional Jewish concepts and values in Judaic and Jerusalem-inspired art….From an early age, she realized that her creativity was enriched and stimulated by the city. Working with the colors, textures and materials of Jerusalem throughout her childhood, Tutnauer was motivated and eventually wanted to galvanize her talents by studying in the silversmith department of Jerusalem’s Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design.”
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Haaretz, December 1, 2011

rebecca.tobin — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 18:56:42 +0000

Grand Designs, By Yuval Saar
“A show of works from the ceramics and glass department of Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, at the Yaffo 23 Gallery, chooses to “show off the rich range of work in a department nurtured by the encounter between tradition and innovation, and to call attention to the openness of tradition to innovation,” says Eran Erlich, who curated the exhibition with Lena Dubinsky.”
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The Jerusalem Post, December 1, 2011

rebecca.tobin — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 18:43:59 +0000

All Things Design, By Loren Minsky
“The second annual Jerusalem Design Week takes place from Sunday with almost double last year’s events and exhibitions and more of an international presence. Run by the Jerusalem Center of Design and produced by the Ariel Municipal Company, the event gives designers new ideas, knowledge and inspiration and displays the extensive design work that takes place in Israel….Tal Gur, a well-known industrial designer and lecturer at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, curates the Time 02 exhibition at the Compound.”
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The Jerusalem Post, November 18, 2011

rebecca.tobin — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 20:42:09 +0000

If the walls could speak, By Ori J. Lenkinski
“In the promotional video for Sahar Azimi and Tamara Erde’s new work, a heavily accented voice-over tells a disturbing tale of a dinner party….A graduate of Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Erde has taken part in projects in New York, Israel and across Europe.”
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Haaretz, November 18, 2011

rebecca.tobin — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 20:33:49 +0000

Gray rights, By Tal Niv
“The subject of this wonderful photograph by Omer Yair is the color gray….Art does not have any particular need for buildings. The buildings need it. Yair’s photograph – his study in gray – will be on display in the exhibition “Bezalel in Ashdod” at the shopping mall in Rova A on November 23-24, as part of a long-standing cooperative arrangement between the Jerusalem art and design academy and the Ashdod municipality.”
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Haaretz, October 21, 2011

rebecca.tobin — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 16:19:19 +0000

An engine for homegrown creativity, By Shachar Atwan
“Photographer Gavra Mandil did a great deal to promote and advance the advertising industry in Israel….As one of the few photographers in Israel to have acquired formal education in the profession, he was asked to teach photography at schools of higher learning throughout the country. He taught at Bezalel and at Hadassah College in Jerusalem and at Kiryat Ono College. In these latter roles, he made a significant contribution toward the education of new generations of photographers, and to a shift in the nature of the sector in Israel.”
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The Jerusalem Post, October 11, 2011

rebecca.tobin — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 20:10:09 +0000

‘These are my people’, By Rachel Marder
“In 1981, Yosaif Cohain set out to tell the visual story of the Jewish people in their homeland celebrating Succot. He asked God to grant him 15 years for the massive undertaking. That plan didn’t quite pan out, as 30 years later Cohain’s project is still going strong. He continues nearly every year to spend the intermediate days of Succot photographing citizens from every corner and walk of life celebrating the holiday. Cohain, a senior photography lecturer at Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, has captured thousands of angles of the Jewish people; playful neighborhood children in Netivot in 1990, a proud mother in Gush Katif standing steadfast beside her family’s succa in 2004, soldiers on reserve duty – all with the backdrop of Succot.”
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Haaretz, October 6, 2011

rebecca.tobin — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 21:11:37 +0000

Environment / From utopia to suburbia, By Esther Zandberg
“It’s easy to eulogize the kibbutz, but could it still create a unique spatial reality, asks the author of a new history of kibbutz planning and architecture….Dr. Galia Bar Or and architect Yuval Yasky, curators of the exhibition “Kibbutz: unprecedented architecture,” faced a dilemma….The curators chose to show renewed interest in the kibbutz, not as a eulogy nor as nostalgia, “but as a presentation of what we have and still exists,” as Bar Or, herself a kibbutz member, said ahead of the exhibition. When Yasky started to become interested in kibbutz planning in the middle of the last decade as part of the architecture classes he taught at the Bezalel Academy of Design, “the kibbutz was already a thing of the past,” he says.”
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The Jerusalem Post, October 2, 2011

rebecca.tobin — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 19:38:11 +0000

Eye of the Beholder, By Rachel Marder
“South African-born artist Debbie Kampel puts to canvas the varied interactions she witnesses while sitting at Gush Etzion junction….At Bezalel, she studied lithography with David Ben-Shaul and drawing with Michael Kovner and Pinchas Cohen-Garden. She taught painting at Kay College in Beersheba and elsewhere. Kampel’s works are displayed at the Israel Museum, Yeshiva University Museum in New York, Olympia Museum of Art in Beijing and public and private collections in Israel and the United States, Canada, South Africa, Australia, France and Croatia.”
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