TEL AVIV.- The members of the Acquisition Group of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art "Choosing Art", purchased 21 works by 11 contemporary Israeli artists for the art collections of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. As every year, the selection of works reflects a set of emphasis placed on multi-generational representation, medium diversity, support for the development of female artists and senior artists during their artistic trajectory and first entry of artists, whose work has not yet been represented in the collection.

The works were purchased for a total of half a million shekels.

The works purchased by the group in 2023: Maya Attoun - "The Red Series", a comprehensive purchase of a wide body of work executed prior to her untimely death, in the prime of her life. 33 drawings that hold and center the qualities that characterized her diverse oeuvre in installation, drawing and sculpture. The choice to purchase the series in its entirety recognizes and appreciates the artist's work and the importance of her legacy for future generations.

Elie Shamir - "As the Custom of the Place" a monumental and epic painting by one of Israel’s leading artists. The burial status depicted in the painting fuses the work of the earth with the work of mourning. The land of the valley and its people, the real and imagined story of this land and the picturesque space created by the artist, fade in the monochromatic colors and brushstrokes of the present moment - the moment of dismantling the material and ideological dimensions. Dor Guez - "Samira" - an iconic image of Samira, the artist's grandmother and a daughter of the Christian community in Yafo, who was deported in 1948 to the Lod ghetto. The work belongs to the series of scenograms from the Palestinian-Christian Archive (CPA) which was created by the artist and is dedicated to the community scattered throughout the Middle East. The creation of Dor Guez emerges over the years as research, pedagogical and values enterprise in which the testimony emerges as a decisive historical and cultural moment.




Additional artists whose work was purchased for the first time for the museum's collection or are not widely represented in it:

Ronen Zien - "Khan El Akhdar No. 1 and No. 2" a photograph and a video work that question the photographic "frame" for a discussion of the issue of place and borders. Netally Schlosser - "The King's Slice" a bronze sculpture that extracts the humanity inherent in nature through the question of image or digital reproduction, Moshe Roas - "Weeping Willow" - a mobile modular sculpture that connects the modernist tradition and a "tearful" landscape, Said Abu Shakra, “Untitled” four drawings of expressive, wild hyenas from the exhibition "Spirit of Man, Spirit of Place: Artists of the Abu-Shakra Family at Ein Harod."

Alona Rode - "The Juicer (Late Shift)" - a nocturnal video work that evokes the dystopian atmosphere in contemporary reality, Carmel Ben Or - "Fall" a video work that corresponds at the same time with the neo-classical and contemporary traditions and points to the woman-water connection, Elena Rotenberg - "Untitled" - from the series “Crying”, an airbrush painting that creates a portrait of a tearful woman in intense close-up. Nurit Yarden - "Scrabble" a series of color photographs in which the grid and the Hebrew letter work to create a personal language game.

In addition, the Yona Ettinger-Howard Gilman Fund for Acquisition of Art purchased for the photography collection of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art the series "The Black Panthers - 40 Years Later", by the artist David Adika.

The Acquisition Group of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art "Choosing Art", led by chairman Yael Brown, was founded in 2013, with the aim of expanding and updating the museum's collections - the Israeli art collection, the prints and drawings collection and the photography collection - with works of contemporary Israeli art. Every year, the Museum's curators present to the group members a wide selection of potential works and a vote is held to select the works they will purchase for the Museum's collections.

TAMA Director Tania Coen-Uzzielli: "I thank Yael Brown and all the members of the "Choosing Art" group for their cooperation with the Museum's curatorial team in expanding its collections. To Sharon Wallach and Naomi Rodich from the Yona Ettinger-Howard Gilman Fund for Acquisition of Art, for the first series of photographs purchased through the foundation for the photography collection of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. Thank you for choosing art over and over again and enriching the Museum's collections with excellent and diverse contemporary Israeli art, thereby joining the ongoing activity of Tel Aviv Museum of Art in support of its deep commitment to the field of art in Israel."