SANCTITY - ART - AESTHETICS

Mané-Katz's collecting is related to the cultural changes that began at the close of the 19th century, when European Jewry became increasingly involved in collecting museum-worthy items of Judaica. This modernist project included a broad spectrum of religious articles and utensils of various kinds appertaining to the development of a new Jewish culture.

The Mané-Katz collection is the focus of the current exhibition, as a representative case of the phenomenon of collecting remnants of traditional Jewish culture in the 20th century. The various sections of the exhibition display the symbols and motifs that have left their impression on the design and decoration of religious implements. They include those that have emerged from the Jewish experience, as well as those that have been integrated with it.

The exhibition traces the early attempts of modern Jewish artists to take the folk-motifs from their original context as decorative religious elements and integrate them with secular items - books, prints, and paintings. Religious items are displayed alongside the works of Ryback, Altman, Chagall, Lissitsky and others. A separate section comprises Mané-Katz's depictions of Judaica.

The exhibition aims to present the influence of traditional Jewish art on the creation of the collective identity of modern Jewry. In this instance, religious items serve as tools that permit us to follow the process of establishing and designing a modern culture, and to study how this culture coped with the crisis of tradition in the 20th century.