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>Behold the Man
More details
Publisher:
Collaborators:
  • Israel Museum, Jerusalem
Year:
2017
Catalog number :
45-481013
ISBN:
0-465-278-965-978
Language:
Weight:
1300 gr.
Cover:
Hardcover

Behold the Man

Jesus in Israeli Art

Synopsis
Dr. Amitai Mendelsohn investigates the various appearances of the figure of Jesus in Israeli art as a significant, multifaceted and ever-present phenomenon. Through works by prominent artists from different generations, it discusses in depth the evolving attitudes of Jewish, Zionist pre-state, and Israeli art towards Jesus, from the second half of the nineteenth century until today: from artists laboring "In the shadow of the Cross" to artists who saw Jesus as a symbol of the rebirth of the Jewish people in the land of Israel, and artists whose engagement with Jesus is detached from the complex and fraught relations between Christianity and Judaism, and who see him as symbolizing the suffering artist. The book examines the different directions taken by Israeli artists in portraying the figure of Jesus, and proves the extent of this phenomena and its ever present importance.
Reviews

"[...] Behold the Man: Jesus in Israeli Art fills a crucial void in recent scholarship about the Jewish engagement with Christianity. Its comprehensive consideration of the topic, as well as the generally complex and innovative analyses of the art, make this a definitive volume for the study of the diversity and depth of not just Israeli, but Jewish visual culture as a whole." - Hebrew Higher Education, Melissa Weininger, April 2018

Nederlands Israëlitisch Weekblad, by Dikla Zohar, August 2017 (Dutch)

"...The research and curatorship of Mendelsohn continue a high-quality trajectory which has characterized the Israel Museum for years. The Museum exhibits important historical research-based exhibitions clearly connecting museological curatorship with academic-historical research. The Museum’s critics often argue that it prefers to research and examine culture over creating it in practice. But this distinction is not at all unambiguous. The exhibition “Behold the Man” opened just before the western date of Christmas during the stormy discourse in Israel on exhibiting “Christian symbols” in the public sphere..." - Religion and the Arts 21, by David Sperber, 2017