Munch in Tel Aviv, Israeli art in Washington Art Roundup

Film screening in Tel Aviv of the film Munch (2023) about the artist to be screened in Tel Aviv.

 MUNCH’ DEPICTS the life of Norwegian painter Edvard Munch. (photo credit: Oskar Dahlsbakken)
MUNCH’ DEPICTS the life of Norwegian painter Edvard Munch.
(photo credit: Oskar Dahlsbakken)

The film Munch (2023), directed by Henrik Martin Dahlsbakken, depicts the life of Norwegian painter Edvard Munch (The Scream, 1893), with four different actors in the role of the artist at various stages of his life.

The film will be screened on Thursday, April 25, at 8:30 p.m., as part of the Epos Film Festival, shown thanks to the support of the Norwegian Embassy.

Other art-related screenings include the 2023 film Painting, Smoking, Eating – The Painter Philip Guston (Saturday, April 27, 2 p.m.) and Thomas Schuette – I am not alone. The latter focuses on German artist Thomas Schuette as he builds his Nixe, a 3-meter-high mermaid.

The German-language film is an excellent introduction to the artist’s oeuvre. It will be screened on Friday, April 26, at 2:30 p.m. NIS 48 per ticket.

All films are shown with Hebrew subtitles. Call 073-374-4807 to book. The films mentioned are screened at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, 27 Shaul HaMelech Blvd. Visit https://www.filmart.co.il/?lang=en for more.

Painted goldfinch. On Saturday, April 20, join a guided graffiti tour (9 a.m.-12:30 p.m.) in the neighborhood of Silwan, offered in Hebrew.

 ORIT HOFSHI  discusses her work with shelly Langdale at the National Gallery in Washington  (credit: Nittai Hofshi/Netta Hofshi)
ORIT HOFSHI discusses her work with shelly Langdale at the National Gallery in Washington (credit: Nittai Hofshi/Netta Hofshi)

Many murals bordering the walls of the Old City were painted in the former village by local artists working with the US-based Art Forces. The images include A Bird for Freedom, Our Youth Our Future, and the eyes of various noted people (from Freud to George Floyd) watching the lives of Arabs living there.

The goldfinch was painted alongside a quote by poet Mahmoud Darwish, “My homeland is not a suitcase and I am not a passenger.”

NIS 125 per person. The tour is roughly three-and-a-half hours of easy walking. Register online at https://eventbuzz.co.il/lp/event/20042024.

Kumalak. Inspired by the premodern practice of geomancy (earth divination), trying to tell the future by casting, Elham Rokni created a series of works titled Kumalak that draw on the four centuries of Ottoman Empire rule in this region.

Avital Barak curated the group exhibition at the Center for Digital Art (CDA), which includes works by Ella Littwitz, Mark Yashaev, Miki Kratsman, Sigal Barnier, Keren Benbenisty, Amnon Bar Or, Hagit Keysar, Ariel Caine.The works created are the product of the Tracing the Ottoman Empire work group, which began meeting in October 2022 under Tali Konas, Michal BarOr, and Barak.

The various discoveries made by the group were featured in Maarav, an online journal of art and culture (August 2023, Hebrew; October 2023, English).

“What Do You Face?” Shown until Wednesday, June 26. Hours: Tuesday, 4 p.m.-8 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday, 2 p.m.-6 p.m. Saturday, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. 4 Ha’amoraim Street. Call (03) 556-8792 for more.

“The Garden Keeper,” curated by Avi Lubin, is a new exhibition of paintings by Boaz Noy that deepens his meditations on empty gardens and the streets of Jerusalem, Haifa, and Tel Aviv. Noy develops an artistic tradition brought here by Liliane Klapisch but takes it in the figurative direction of loaded dread.

At the Mishkan Museum of Art, the exhibition is shown alongside Meir Agassi’s “Halon Lehalom al Yoffi” (A Window to a Dream About Beauty), curated by Yaniv Shapira, and “The Concert in the Quarry and Plains of Unconformity” by Relli De Vries, curated by Galia Bar Or.

It is shown until Saturday, August 31. Learn more by calling (04) 648-6038.

Attend the grand opening of “Memories from an Imagined Space” on Sunday, April 13, at noon. The group exhibition includes works by ten artists who just finished a three-month residency at AIR Givat Haviva.

Curated by Dahlia Manor, the artists featured are Aviv Keshet, Iram Agbariya, Ashuak Mari, Bilsan M. Karim, Ben Alon, Hadas Almagor, Jonathan David, Malak Mansur, Noa Kornik, and Ovaida Dahla. Shown until Saturday, May 25.

Hours: Sunday-Thursday, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Friday, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Call (04) 637-2824 for more.

ART NEWS

Baga art. African art collector Michael Weiss will open his home for a special 11 a.m. tour of his private Baga art collection on Thursday, May 30. The tour will be held as part of the “Awakening Africa, Past and Present African Art and its Impact on Israeli Artists” course now offered by the Institute for Israeli Art.

The tour follows the 2019 “Nimba” exhibition at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, curated by Dorit Shafir, who will lead this course.

The Israel Museum exhibition focused on the Katako horde, buried in the earth by the Baga community in 1957, to prevent these artworks from being destroyed by the regime of Ahmed Sékou Touré. Touré led Guinea after it gained independence from the French in 1958 and was from the Mandinka ethnic group.

The Baga (People of the Sea) hold spiritual beliefs that reflect pre-Islamic West African concepts expressed in the artworks. This is why the items were buried, to protect them from being destroyed by the new Muslim ruling elite of the new, independent Guinea. Traditional Muslims perceive Baga artworks as a form of idolatry.

Weiss received these treasures from the Baga people in 2019, which led to their showing in Jerusalem.

“It took me time to understand what a nonmaterialistic culture is,” Weiss confessed to art writer Naama Riba.Those who wish to take the course might enjoy picking up a copy of a forthcoming book by art historian Frederick John Lamp, Python Spirit on the Baga Coast, to be released on April 18.

The tour costs NIS 80 per ticket. The nine-session course begins on Sunday, May 19, and will be held weekly on Sundays. It is in Hebrew only and costs NIS 890. For more information, call the institute at 052-646-0880.

In the context of the exhibition “The Anxious Eye: German Expressionism and Its Legacy” at the National Gallery in Washington, DC, Orit Hofshi discussed her work with Shelley Langdale, the National Gallery’s curator and head of modern and contemporary prints and drawings, on Saturday, March 23.

The exhibition, which is on display until Monday, May 27, links German expressionists such as Emil Nolde and Erich Heckel to current artists such as Rashid Johnson, Nicole Eisenman, and Hofshi. The National Gallery is currently working on a short film on Hofshi’s work.

West Building, 6th Street and Constitution Avenue, NW, ground floor, West Outer Tier.

Art Roundup is a monthly glance at some of the finest art exhibitions and events currently shown across the country. Artists, curators, and collectors are welcome to send pitches to hagayhacohen@yahoo.com with “Art Roundup” in the email subject.