Published: 8 March 2022
Last updated: 4 March 2024
Exhibited artists cover up their work in protest after piece portraying ultra-Orthodox Jewish man is removed
FOUR OVERLAPPING BLACK and white rectangles make up Israeli artist David Reeb’s painting Jerusalem. On two, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish man is portrayed praying at the Western Wall from two different angles, his hands pressed against the stone.
Opposite the images, thick brushstrokes spell out phrases in Hebrew: “Jerusalem of gold”, the title of a nationalistic song – and “Jerusalem of shit”.
The work was among several explicitly political, daring pieces featured in an exhibition that opened in December at the newly renovated Ramat Gan Museum of Israeli Art near Tel Aviv.
Because of its depiction of an ultra-Orthodox man, however, it was the only artwork in the show which drew the ire of the mayor of the city of Ramat Gan. Carmel Shama-Hacohen took to Facebook after visiting the exhibition, posting a picture of Reeb’s piece in which he said he found it racist and antisemitic.
“It was ridiculous. If I am antisemitic then I’ve picked a strange place to live all my life,” said Reeb. “I didn’t take it too seriously at first. But it progressed from there into something crazy.”
The show, called The Institution: the museum and Israeliness, was the first to be held at the museum after a four-year renovation, and the reopening was supposed to celebrate Ramat Gan’s growing reputation as an affluent and thriving city.
Instead, the controversy over Reeb’s piece escalated into a standoff between many of the artists featured in the exhibition and the museum’s board of directors over its decision to take the painting down.
The debate instantly turned political, as the deputy of the board is one of the mayor’s political rivals, and several other members are municipality officials on Shama-Hacohen’s payroll.
FULL STORY Feud over ‘antisemitic’ Wailing Wall painting closes Israel museum (Guardian)
