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Israeli Art Is In The Eye Of The Beholder, Good Taste Is Not
By Ariel Natan Pasko
If you've wondered lately what's wrong with Israel, just look at the recent
winner of the prestigious 2004 Israel Prize for sculpture. It was the
proverbial "bad boy" of the Israeli art world, Yigal Tumarkin. He
was recognized for his long career and "diverse artistic
vocabulary." The Prize Committee called his work, "a central
contribution to Israeli art." The judges who decided to grant him the
prize wrote, "Tumarkin's monumental works are exhibited at many sites
in Israel." The prize is always awarded on Israeli Independence Day.
Presumably long years of work, juvenile style, and wide distribution alone
entitle him to the prize. As an article in an Israeli newspaper - reviewing
the prize offer - commented recently, "Tumarkin already deserved the
prize 30 years ago due to his innovation and audaciousness in the Israeli
art scene."
But not everyone agrees. Three petitions to Israel's Supreme Court were
filed against awarding Tumarkin the prize, but were ultimately turned down.
National Religious Party, Member of Knesset Shaul Yahalom - one of the
petitioners - called Tumarkin, an "embarrassment to the nation,"
and unfit to become a recipient of the prestigious prize.
"It is unreasonable that a man, as an artist and as a sculptor, whose
actions bordered on criminal activity, who acted violently towards his
family, disrespected people and the values of the Jewish people and made
racist and anti-Semitic remarks, will receive in a democratic Jewish state
the Israel Prize," MK Yahalom wrote in his petition to the court.
After the Supreme Court announcement that Tumarkin could be awarded the
Israel Prize for Sculpture, Shas Party head, MK Eli Yishai said, "The
Supreme Court approved, through its decision this morning, the honoring of a
man who, by his expressions, intentionally and inexplicably runs roughshod
over sectors of society, with the exception of [those holding] his racist
worldview." Referring to Yigal Tumarkin as an "artist of
racism," MK Yishai then called on President Moshe Katzav to avoid
shaking Tumarkin's hand at the Israel Prize ceremony.
Some of his most famous or should I say infamous pieces, include a pig
wearing "Tefilin" (phylacteries worn by Jewish men during prayer),
and a lithograph of an aerial view of Jerusalem's Old City, with a huge
thumbprint superimposed over it. Written in pen on the top is, "From
June 1967 Jerusalem started to turn ugly. Why? It's a fact."
How profound!
As for the "praying pig," back in January 1998, Israeli artist
Tatiana Susskin received a two-year prison sentence for drawing a picture
depicting the founder of Islam, Muhammad, as a pig. The court considered it
an act of racial incitement against Islam and the Arabs. But in Israel,
putting a pig - the most disgusting animal by Jewish standards - in
"Tefilin" - Jewish ritual objects - isn't incitement, it isn't
criminal, it's "art," and worthy of a prize.
These themes of degrading the Jewish religion, and all that Jews hold dear,
such as Jerusalem, run throughout Tumarkin's work. Among his other
"famous" works are "Hu Halach Basadot" - He Walked in
the Fields - from 1967, a bronze statue of a torn figure whose innards are
exposed and pants are rolled up. It symbolizes the complete opposite of
post-Six Day War Israeli self-confidence, and the joy of victory.
Evidently he likes to disgust.
His troubled personal background is evident in his work and public
statements. Tumarkin was born in Germany in 1933, to a Jewish mother and
Christian father. His father, Martin Helburg, was an actor. While Tumarkin
and his mother fled Nazi Germany to the Palestine Mandate during the
pre-state period, Tumarkin's father became a culture officer in the Nazi SS
during World War II. Tumarkin spent the 1950s in Europe, mostly Paris and
Berlin. He broke the post-Holocaust Israeli taboo of moving back to Germany.
When Tumarkin found out about his father's death during a newspaper
interview in 1966, he told the reporter that he had no feelings toward his
parents, and was sorry that he did not drop his sister when she was a baby.
Outrageous statements like this have helped gain him the spotlight
throughout his career.
Tumarkin returned to Israel from Europe in 1960 to exhibit his works at
Jerusalem's Bezalel Museum, the predecessor to the Israel Museum. He
exhibited polyester reliefs for the first time in Israel and was hailed as
an innovator. The pieces that he created - with screws, forks, junk
and bottles - and his combination of painting and sculpture were considered
unique and thought provoking at the time in Israel. In the 1960s and 1970s,
he was considered to have personified the spirit of modern art, according to
many art critics. He became very "prolific" throwing together
combinations of junk, and giving them offensive interpretations.
In 1992, a comprehensive retrospective of his works was held at the Tel Aviv
Museum.
Tumarkin, who is very prolific, exhibited a great number of pieces, 120
sculptures and about 150 prints. But Tumarkin has been criticized for
shallowness. He has made a name for himself, some say, thanks to works that
are considered innovative only to those who don't know about the history of
art. He puts out art in a mechanized way. Yet, the cultural supremacy that
he radiates, as one of the leading representatives of European Art in the
Middle East, allows him to bully the Israeli art world. Tumarkin frequently
attacks other artists and has been known to send scathing letters to
critics. He's been involved in several court cases and has also been known
to threaten lawsuits to shut up criticism of his work.
Although he has received many prizes and critical acclaim, and has exhibited
in Israel's major museums, Tumarkin claims to be persecuted by the
establishment, and has never missed an opportunity to say so, even while
accepting the prize. It is no secret that Tumarkin wanted to receive the
Israel Prize. In an interview that appeared in Yediot Ahronot in 1997, he
said, "The Israel Prize is important to me for one reason, to say what
I am now saying from their stage. When I see the Rafi Lavies and the Moshe
Gershunis [other Israeli artists], how they sit there so full of themselves,
of their art, so politically correct, then either I am too young, or I will
die as someone who throws rocks at windows."
One only need listen to him, to ask, who really is "full of
himself"?
Since the 1980s, Tumarkin hasn't gained his reputation for works of art, but
for his habit of lashing out at religious Jews, right-wingers, and
Sephardim, whoever he dislikes. He once said, he wished he had gunned down
Israeli politicians on the right, Raphael Eitan and Rechavam Ze'evi.
Tumarkin has also remarked that his "true contribution will be the
taking of a submachine gun instead of pen and pencil, and killing the
religious settlers on the West Bank."
When Shas MK Eli Yishai reminded the public of Tumarkin's slurs against
Sephardim. Tumarkin shot back that; "Moroccan Jews are indeed
crybabies" and "ought to stop burdening us with so many poor
children."
In a November 1988 interview with "Tel Aviv Magazine," Tumarkin
said, "When you see the "Haredim" - ultra-Orthodox Jews - you
can understand why there was a Holocaust." And in response to
criticism, he wrote in "Hadashot" later, "The outward
strangeness of the Jew and the pretentiousness of the notion that God chose
us...caused violent surrounding cultures to clash...with this arrogant
minority...The image of the cunning, ambitious scoundrel, lending money at
exorbitant interest, turned the bent, hook-nosed bearded Jew into the enemy
of civilization...which didn't help belatedly enlightened Jews."
Look who's calling other Jews, "arrogant and ambitious"?
He's been known to comment that, "The Jewish Holocaust wasn't the only
holocaust." Imagine what Israel's response would have been, if an
international artist had expressed similar sentiments? Yet Yad VaShem in
1998 almost gave him the Zussman Prize, until there was a public outcry, and
they retracted the offer.
How is it that they would consider giving it to him in the first place?
But this is the sickness of the cultural elites in Israel today. One only
has to be disgusting, perverse, degrade all that is holy and beautiful, and
have the artistic talent of a four-year-old to get noticed. Become
self-promoting, attack the competition, cry foul, attack Haredim and
"settlers," and they drown you in accolade.
Israeli art is in the eye of the beholder, good taste is not!