Early one recent Monday morning, while much of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art was just waking up, one expansive room had already come to life. The walls, filled with the work of Israeli artist David Tartakover, were inspiring conversations that ranged from political to personal – just as the artist intended.
Tartakover is perhaps the most famous artist in Israel, something he accomplished by tackling the country’s political history head-on in his minimalist poster design. Born in 1944, before Israel established statehood in 1948, Tartakover has borne witness to his country’s cultural and political evolution and been an active participant – he won the coveted Israel Prize in 2002.
Simply titled 'David Tartakover: The Exhibition', the Tel Aviv retrospective draws from nearly every area of Tartakover’s design work. The artist and curator Irith Hadar did not work chronologically, and six open-plan sections allow Tartakover’s straightforward image and text combinations to reveal the weight of Israel’s history.
Collages of newspaper clippings and photographs illustrating the 1967 war sit alongside Tartakover’s well-known ‘anniversary’ posters, which chronicle the Israeli occupation of the West Bank in the years that have followed. Photographs from the series I’m here – which insert and identify the ‘artist’ himself in news imagery – are found around the corner from a wall dubbed 'Tartakover and Friends', a salon-style hang of cultural imagery that inspires him.
'Tartakover leaves things open for thinking and for rethinking,' Hadar says. 'It’s not that he says "this is the way". He takes phrases we know, images we know and he combines them in a way that you have to think about them.'
The exhibition runs until 24 October, and is sure to keep visitors thinking and rethinking long after they leave the museum.
Tartakover is perhaps the most famous artist in Israel, something he accomplished by tackling the country’s political history head-on in his minimalist poster design
Born in 1944, before Israel established statehood in 1948, Tartakover has borne witness to his country’s cultural and political evolution and been an active participant – he won the coveted Israel Prize in 2002
For this retrospective, curator Irith Hadar did not work chronologically, and six open-plan sections allow Tartakover’s straightforward image and text combinations to reveal the weight of Israel’s history
Collages of newspaper clippings and photographs illustrating the 1967 war sit alongside Tartakover’s well-known ‘anniversary’ posters, which chronicle the Israeli occupation of the West Bank in the years that have followed
'Tartakover leaves things open for thinking and for rethinking,' Hadar says. 'It’s not that he says "this is the way". He takes phrases we know, images we know, and he combines them in a way that you have to think about them'
Installation view
Tartakover's work inspires conversations both political and personal – just as the artist intended
The exhibition runs until 24 October, and is sure to keep visitors thinking and rethinking long after they leave the museum
INFORMATION
’David Tartakover: The Exhibition’ is on view until 24 October. For more information, visit the Tel Aviv Museum of Art’s website
Photography courtesy the artist and Tel Aviv Museum of Art
ADDRESS
Tel Aviv Museum of Art
27 Shaul Hamelech Boulevard
61332012, Tel Aviv
-
Rediscover a classic midcentury hotel in SydneyFender Katsalidis leads a major renovation of the landmark Sofitel Sydney Wentworth hotel, pairing 1960s modernism with an elevated, Australian-minded reset
-
Haute Couture Week A/W 2025: what to expectFive moments to look out for at Haute Couture Week A/W 2025 in Paris (starting Monday 7 July), from Glenn Martens’ debut for Maison Margiela to Demna’s Balenciaga swansong. Plus, ‘new beginnings’ from JW Anderson
-
Inside Frank Lloyd Wright’s Laurent House – a project built with accessibility at its heartThe dwelling, which you can visit in Illinois, is a classic example of Wright’s Usonian architecture, and was also built for a client with a disability long before accessibility was widely considered
-
Out of office: what the Wallpaper* editors have been up to this weekThis week saw the Wallpaper* team jet-setting to Jordan and New York; those of us left in London had to make do with being transported via the power of music at rooftop bars, live sets and hologram performances
-
Miami’s new Museum of Sex is a beacon of open discourseThe Miami outpost of the cult New York destination opened last year, and continues its legacy of presenting and celebrating human sexuality
-
Royal College of Physicians Museum presents its archives in a glowing new lightLondon photography exhibition ‘Unfamiliar’, at the Royal College of Physicians Museum (23 January – 28 July 2023), presents clinical tools as you’ve never seen them before
-
Museum of Sex to open Miami outpost in spring 2023The Museum of Sex will expand with a new Miami outpost in spring 2023, housed in a former warehouse reimagined by Snøhetta and inaugurated with an exhibition by Hajime Sorayama
-
Jenny Holzer curates Louise Bourgeois: ‘She was infinite’The inimitable work of Louise Bourgeois is seen through the eyes of Jenny Holzer in this potent meeting of minds at Kunstmuseum Basel
-
‘A Show About Nothing’: group exhibition in Hangzhou celebrates emptinessThe inaugural exhibition at new Hangzhou cultural centre By Art Matters explores ‘nothingness’ through 30 local and international artists, including Maurizio Cattelan, Ghislaine Leung, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Liu Guoqiang and Yoko Ono
-
Three days in Doha: art, sport, desert, heatIn our three-day Doha diary, we record the fruits of Qatar’s cultural transformation, which involved Jeff Koons, a glass palace of books, and a desert sunset on Richard Serra
-
Hong Kong’s M+ Museum to open with six thematic showsAsia’s first global museum of contemporary visual culture will open on 12 November in Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District, with six themed shows spanning art, design and architecture
