Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design

Coordinates: 31°46′54″N 35°13′24″E / 31.7818°N 35.2234°E / 31.7818; 35.2234
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Not to be confused with Bezalel school.
Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design
בצלאל, אקדמיה לאמנות ועיצוב‎
President
Adi Stern
Students2,500
Undergraduates2,200
Postgraduates300
Location
Jerusalem, Israel

31°46′54″N 35°13′24″E / 31.7818°N 35.2234°E / 31.7818; 35.2234
CampusUrban
Websitebezalel.ac.il

Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design (

Jewish painter and sculptor Boris Schatz, Bezalel is Israel's oldest institution of higher education and is considered the most prestigious art school in the country. It is named for the Biblical figure Bezalel, son of Uri (Hebrew: בְּצַלְאֵל בֶּן־אוּרִי), who was appointed by Moses to oversee the design and construction of the Tabernacle (Exodus 35:30). The art created by Bezalel's students and professors in the early 1900s is considered the springboard for Israeli visual arts
in the 20th century.

Bezalel's 460,000 sq ft main campus is located adjacent to the Russian Compound in the city center.[1][2] The architecture department remains at Bezalel's nearby historic campus.[3]

As of 2023, Bezalel offers ten bachelor's departments and five masters programs; it employs more than 500 lecturers and enrolls 2,500 students (2,200 undergraduate; 300 graduate).[4]

The school has received numerous honors including 14 Israel Prizes and 3 EMET Prizes.[4]

History

Main article: Bezalel school
Boris Schatz, founder of Bezalel
Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, professor of Hebrew at Bezalel
Boris Schatz outside the Bezalel campus, Jerusalem, 1913
Bezalel drawing class under direction of Abel Pann, 1912

In 1903

Hebrew to the students, who hailed from various countries and had no common language.[9] His wife, Hemda Ben-Yehuda, worked as Boris Schatz's secretary.[10]

In addition to traditional sculpture and painting, the school offered workshops that produced

metal smithing was a traditional Jewish occupation in Yemen. Yemenite immigrants
were also frequent subjects of Bezalel artists.

Many students went on to become well-known artists, among them Meir Gur Aryeh,

Ya'ackov Ben-Dov, Zeev Ben-Zvi, Jacob Eisenberg, Jacob Pins, Jacob Steinhardt and Hermann Struck.[11]

In 1912, Bezalel had one female student, Marousia (Miriam) Nissenholtz, who used the pseudonym Chad Gadya.[12]

Bezalel closed in 1929 in the wake of financial difficulties. After

Jakob Steinhardt and Mordecai Ardon to teach at the school, and both succeeded him as directors.[13]

In 1958, the first year that the prize was awarded to an organization, Bezalel won the Israel Prize for painting and sculpture.[15]

In 1969, Bezalel became a state-supported institution. In 1975 it was recognized by the Council for Higher Education in Israel as an institute of higher education.[16] It relocated to Mount Scopus in 1990.[17]

In 2009 Bezalel announced plans to relocate to a new campus adjacent to the Russian Compound, as part of a municipal plan to revive Jerusalem's downtown. The new campus—officially named the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel campus—opened in 2023.[2] It was designed by Tokyo-based award-winning architectural firm SANAA in collaboration with Israeli firms Nir Kutz Architects and HQ Architects.[1]

Bezalel pavilion

Bezalel Pavilion near Jaffa Gate

Bezalel pavilion was a tin-plated wooden structure with a crenelated roof and tower built outside Jaffa Gate in 1912. It was a shop and showroom for Bezalel souvenirs. The pavilion was demolished by the British authorities six years later.

Bezalel style

Bezalel developed a distinctive style of art, known as the

art nouveau) and traditional Persian and Syrian art. The artists blended "varied strands of surroundings, tradition and innovation," in paintings and craft objects that invokes "biblical themes, Islamic design and European traditions," in their effort to "carve out a distinctive style of Jewish art" for the new nation they intended to build in the ancient Jewish homeland.[18]

Ceramic tiles

Further information: Israeli ceramics § The ceramics of Bezalel, and Bezalel school
Bezalel tile scene, Lederberg House

Decorative ceramic tiles with figurative motives with both biblical and Zionist scenes were created in the 1920s at the Bezalel School, with some surviving until today. In Tel Aviv some of the best known examples are the following:

There are Bezalel-made ceramic street signs surviving in Jerusalem.

Today

Old Bezalel campus on Mount Scopus in Jerusalem

In 2006, the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design celebrated its 100th anniversary. Faculties include

Hebrew University, two different Master of Design
(M.des) degrees and Theory and Policy of art (M.A.)

In 2011, the Bezalel student show at the Milan Furniture Fair was described as a "lively runner-up" for the best exhibit.[19]

Notable faculty

Notable alumni

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "The New Campus". Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem. Retrieved 2023-12-17.
  2. ^ a b "Bezalel opens the semester at the new campus: The President of the Academy addresses the celebration alongside recent events in the country". Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem. 2023-03-21. Retrieved 2023-12-17.
  3. ^ "Bezalel Academy's triumphant return to downtown Jerusalem". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com. 2023-08-04. Retrieved 2023-12-17.
  4. ^ a b "Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem". Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem. Retrieved 2023-12-17.
  5. ^ "History". Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem. Retrieved 2022-05-24.
  6. ^ "E. M. Lilien: Jugendstil Artist and Book Illustrator". Leo Baeck Institute. Retrieved 2023-12-17.
  7. ^ D. Flisiak, JAKOB STEINHARDT (1887-1968). Życie i działalność. Chrzan 2022, s. 55, 124-126.
  8. ^ "The Bezalel artistic legacy flourishes in Jerusalem". The Times of Israel.
  9. ^ "Albert Rubin catalogue" (PDF). mmuseumeinharod.org.il. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-08-18. Retrieved 2014-11-25.
  10. ^ "The long-lost daughter of the father of Israeli art". Haaretz.com. 12 January 2013.
  11. ^ Ze'ev Raban, A Hebrew Symbolist, by Batsheva Goldman Ida, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, 2001
  12. ^ "I lived life to the fullest". haaretz.com.
  13. ^ a b "When Budko met Bialik". The Jerusalem Post | Jpost.com.
  14. ^ "Israeli Art On Its Way to Somewhere Else". azure.org.il.
  15. ^ "Israel Prize recipients in 1958 (in Hebrew)". Israel Prize Official Site. Archived from the original on February 8, 2012.
  16. ^ המועצה להשכלה גבוהה - מאגר מוסדות [Council for Higher Education Registry of Institutes]. che.org.il (in Hebrew). Archived from the original on February 7, 2009. Retrieved August 4, 2010.
  17. ^ Zandberg, Esther (2010-12-09). "No Way Home". Haaretz. Retrieved 2024-01-01.
  18. ^ Rothstein, Edward (June 10, 2009). "MUSEUM REVIEW - DERFNER JUDAICA MUSEUM, Jewish Art, the Hudson and Bingo in the Bronx". The New York Times.
  19. ^ Rawsthorn, Alice (18 April 2011). "Milan's Furniture Whirlwind". The New York Times – via www.nytimes.com.

Further reading

External links
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