Summertime, and the Israel Museum is showcasing the Merzbacher Collection, a superb assembly of paintings by the great 20th century colorists of the German and French Expressionist movements, mostly from key moments in their careers. Among them are Paul Klee, Maurice Vlaminck, Wassily Kandisnksy, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Max Beckmann.
When this collection was first exhibited at the Museum some 14 years ago, Meir Ronnen, the veteran art critic of the Jeruslem Post, described himself as coming away “staggered.” “Dozens of these paintings,” he wrote,” can be considered to be chefs-d-oeuvres. They are simply amazing in conception and quality.”
Oil on board
This new presentation curated by Adina Kamein-Kazhdan is equally impressive. Some personal favorites include Klee’s Moonrise – Sunset (1919). In this dream-like composition houses and plants reduced to flat essential forms act as a frame to capture a magical and transient moment. This work was completed only a few years after Klee returned to Europe from a visit to Tunisia, where, under the influence of his exotic surroundings and the brilliant light, he found solutions to the treatment of color in his paintings.
Oil on linen-finish paper mounted on cardboard
Also of outstanding interest is Savior Face by Alej von Jawlensky(1864–1941), one of a series of small-format paintings he produced on this theme. In this intriguing image, the artist threw aside the century-old tradition of portraying Jesus as a real person, attempting instead to express his divinity through color and form.
Oil on cardboard, 71 x 97 cm
Certainly, all eight works in this collection by Kandinsky (1866–1944) are worthy of close study. All of them were produced between 1911-14, the period that marked his move towards abstraction. Like his friend and colleague Jawlensky, Kandinsky favored the use of non-naturalistic colors and flat areas of color delineated with simple contours. All these features including evidence of stylistic transition can be noted in the brilliantly hued painting Mountain Landscape with Village I, on exhibit in Israel for the first time.
There is a lot of background information to the artists and the paintings that may add to the pleasure of viewing this exhibition. An audio-guide is recommended.
Lotte and Walter Floersheimer Gallery for Impressionist Art (The Impressionist Art has been removed for the period of this exhibition), Israel Museum, Jerusalem
