{"id":383618,"date":"2026-04-17T04:04:34","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T04:04:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/383618\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T04:04:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T04:04:34","slug":"israeli-artist-adopts-classical-motifs-to-frame-contemporary-trauma-in-new-exhibit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/383618\/","title":{"rendered":"Israeli artist adopts classical motifs to frame contemporary trauma in new exhibit"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Israel Museum exhibit that opened shortly before the onset of the ongoing war with Iran underlines how Israeli artists have long been working through trauma.<\/p>\n

\u201cYudith Levin: Break of Dawn\u201d opens by showing visitors that Levin was 7 years old when her older brother was killed in a military plane crash in 1956.<\/p>\n

Aviation, mourning, and trauma all became themes in Levin\u2019s work, as shown in this solo exhibit, which runs through July.<\/p>\n

The exhibit begins with \u201cWings,\u201d a set of photographs created by the now 77-year-old Levin in 1974, as she posed under the wings of a grounded fighter jet, channeling her brother, which is hung next to one of Levin\u2019s 2025 paintings, titled \u201cAirplane.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s 50 years between these two pieces,\u201d said curator Amitai Mendelsohn.<\/p>\n

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The exhibit moves into Levin\u2019s 1970s-era installations, \u201cThe Annunciation,\u201d \u201cPieta,\u201d and others, made from plywood, found pieces and painted wooden slats that often include a blank painted wall.<\/p>\n

They are works inspired by the mythological motifs of Icarus and Daedalus \u2014 the craftsman father who made wings of feathers and wax for his son that melted when he flew too close to the sun \u2014 and Prometheus, who stole fire from Olympus \u2014 and the Christian motifs of \u201cPieta,\u201d Michaelangelo\u2019s sculpture of Jesus in the arms of his mother Mary after being taken off the cross.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tYudith Levin\u2019s \u2018Icarus and Daedalus\u2019 1981 currently on exhibit at the Israel Museum in \u2018Yudith Levin: Break of Dawn,\u2019 through July 2026 (Courtesy)<\/p>\n

\u201cYudith is an artist who isn\u2019t afraid of the most difficult things,\u201d said Mendelsohn.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer whole life, she was laden by the trauma of her brother,\u201d said Mendelsohn. \u201cAnd then this whole issue of work goes from something very personal to something collective \u2014 the situation in Israel and loss and war. It\u2019s a trio of references, personal and Israeli war and security, and those ancient myths.\u201d<\/p>\n

The solo exhibit moves from Levin\u2019s bare, collage-like installations to canvases she painted with acrylics starting in the 1980s through the present.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tArtist Yudith Levin in her photo installation \u2018Wings\u2019 1974, currently on exhibit at the Israel Museum through July 2026 (Courtesy)<\/p>\n

A canvas of black-painted shapes clearly delineates Theodor Herzl leaning on his balcony in \u201cMissing Herzl,\u201d alongside the unexpected strokes that form the unmistakable shape of a woman in a dress in \u201cRed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\t\u2018Airplane\u2019 by Yudith Levin, currently on exhibit at the Israel Museum in \u2018Yudith Levin: Break of Dawn,\u2019 through July 2026 (Courtesy)<\/p>\n

Finally, there are Levin\u2019s more recent works reacting to the bloody October 7, 2023, Hamas terror onslaught, when some 1,200 people were brutally slaughtered in the communities bordering the Gaza Strip and at the Nova desert rave, and another 251 people taken hostage in the coastal enclave.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tThe 2011 work \u2018Icarus\u2019 is currently on exhibit at the Israel Museum in \u2018Yudith Levin: Break of Dawn,\u2019 through July 2026 (Courtesy)<\/p>\n

There are the twin orange orbs that represent the red hair of the young Bibas boys, abducted with their mother, Shiri Bibas, and killed in Hamas captivity, in \u201cToys for the Boys,\u201d which mirrors the same orange circle from Levin\u2019s 2011 \u201cIcarus,\u201d an orange streak of hair in \u201cMother,\u201d and two redheads above a green orb in \u201cRedheads.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the end, Yudith is telling you a kind of feeling, it could be anxiety or sorrow or horror,\u201d said Mendelsohn. \u201cShe\u2019s often trying to show the horror, especially in her works of the last two years, through the power of the paint, of the artistic gesture, the way art can try to contain these horrible events, but in a way that isn\u2019t obscene.\u201d<\/p>\n


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