Art in Israel by Ran Schechori (review)

Books 79 That scholarship is to be found elsewhere than in a substantial monograph is increasingly the case, for, as the 20th century progresses, its characteristic preoccupation with publishing grows. As a result, new techniquesare necessitatedto deal with the sheer quantity of information and comment that, paradoxically,cloudsrather than illuminatesthe history of 20th century art. As Ex Libris 6 reveals, one invaluable tool in this work may be the book catalogue, which can turn critical attention upon the published material itself. Harrison and Winkiield have made of this book cataloguean object that functions simultaneously and with efficiency as a periodicaland an art-historicalwork of reference. Ex Libris 6 is lively,preciseand detailedcollationof informationsupportedby a substantialintroductoryessay and a concise description of the contentsand designofeach of the 792listeditems,most of which are also illustrated in this issue. These texts are mostly Russian and relate to the art, design and architecture of the period 1908-1930. However, useful coverageis includedof related and sympathetic periodicalsfrom, for example, the Ukraine (Nova Generatsiya), Poland (Blok), Rumania (Contimparanul) and Yugoslavia (Zenit).Therecannot be a moreuseful introductory guide to texts on Constructivism published in the 1920s. The complex spread of its ideas and aims is clearly evident in the interchangesof editors,contributors and centresof publication listed here. Ex Libris 6 is itself well-designed, clearly organized and efficiently indexed.The fruit of patient research, it goes far towards filling a long-felt need for an overall view of the publications of this period. Not least among the efforts that lie behind the success of Ex Libris 6 is the collectionby the publisher of a library of crucial importance to the subject.It is ironic that the rarity of many of the texts listed provides at once a reason for bringing them togetherbut alsoforsellingandtherebydispersingthem again.It is unlikely that any library outside of the U.S.S.R. has so comprehensiveacollectionand it isgreatlyto be regrettedthat it shouldhave to be dismantled.To publishin the subsequentissue of Ex Libris (Apollinaire & The Literary Avant-Garde, 1978) a list of purchasers, especially libraries, galleries and archives, would appreciably increase the usefulness for scholars of Ex Libris 6. If the series main-tains the degree of thoroughness and usefulness exemplified by Ex Libris 6, the contribution of the book seller to the history of 20th-centuryart history will need to be radically reassessed. Art in Israel. Ran Schechori.SchockenBooks,New York, 1976. 199 pp., illus. 310.00. Reviewed by Meir Ronwn* Art in Israel is the first presentation of the subject in a decade sinceBenyaminTammuz’ book of the samename (published by Massada, Tel Aviv). It is rather more handsome than it is objectiveorcompleteand of ahandy I8 x 20cmformataimedat tourists and the g i f t trade. It is well designed and very well illustrated with 55 colourplatesand 96duotone photographsby Israel Zafrir, who even succeeds in flattering many of the originals. The plates were selected by art critic (‘HJretz’) and teacher Schechori, whose 48-page Introduction traces the history of Israeli art from the arrivalof Boris Schatzin 1911to the rise of conceptual art 60 years later. Schatz founded the Bezalel Museumand BezalelArtsand CraftsSchool,whichhelped ignite the initial infatuation with the ‘oriental’and with biblical and genre scenes and motifs. Schechori deals briefly with the landscapesof the 1930sand the New Horizonsmovement that introduced formalization (and eventually Abstract Expressionism ) at the end of the 1940s. Then follows a parade of symbolists, neo-expressionists,minimalist painters and sculp tors, and semi-popartists,as well as the younger ‘non-painters’. It is a formidable list and constitutes a not inconsiderable national success story. Israeli art has, however, always been internationally a bit behind the times. But Schechori, somewhat inexplicably, complains of ‘the difficulties in absorbing art trends . . . the weaknesses of art education . . . the absence of adequate *11 Maale Haoren, M o m Illit, Jerusalem, Israel. workshopsand craftsmento carryout the instructionsof artists’. In point of fact, Jerusalem has two first class printshops, a gobelin factory and a number of hand-engineering establishments , not to mention the Bezalel, now a fully-fledgedAcademy with its own workshops, kilns and printshops. Tel Aviv has a goodbronzefoundryand Ein Hod,another professionalgobelin establishment. It is the Israeli public and not its leading artists and craftsmenwhoare behindthe...