2023-09-27 06:30:57
It has been 50 years since American pop artist George Segal’s “Sacrifice of Isaac” sculpture was first installed outside Tel Aviv’s Mann Auditorium, and regarding 46 years since it was not seen by the public.
After a long conservation process, the life-size white plaster sculpture depicting the figures of Abraham and Isaac at the pivotal moment of the biblical story is now the centerpiece of a gallery at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art ( TAMA) until January 13, 2024, located next to “ Kippur, War Requiem“, Amos Gitaï’s retrospective on the Yom Kippur War.
The exhibition of the sculpture marks the end of a comprehensive conservation process, which lasted several years, aimed at making it accessible to the public once more. It comes on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, although the initial order had no connection with this war.
Segal was first commissioned by the Tel Aviv Foundation for Literature and Art with a project to install sculptures throughout the city.
The modernist artist, raised in New York by his Eastern European immigrant parents, chose the story of Isaac’s sacrifice as a tribute to his father and his own affinity with the biblical story. The sculpture was first exhibited in May 1973 in the outdoor plaza of the Mann Auditorium in Tel Aviv.
Five months following the sculpture’s installation, the Yom Kippur War broke out, and the events of those weeks of war charged the sculpture with new political and social meanings.
George Segal’s “Sacrifice of Isaac,” recently restored and on display at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art until January 13, 2024. (Credit: TAMA)
Abraham sculpted standing, holding a kitchen knife in his right hand, his left hand clenched, looks at Isaac, lying at his feet.
The realistic image of Isaac’s binding has been compared to families who sacrificed their sons in battle, an analogy that struck a chord with many.
Segal’s models for the sculpture were his friend, the artist Menashe Kadishman, already recognized as a successful artist in Israel and around the world, and Kadishman’s son Ben, who was nine years old at the time.
Segal’s sculpture was eventually transferred to the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, before being put into storage.
Menashe Kadishman’s metal sculptures outside the Tel Aviv Museum of Art offer another perspective on the biblical story of Isaac’s sacrifice. (Credit: TAMA)
Years later, Kadishman ended up creating his own interpretation of the story of Isaac’s sacrifice, connecting it to his own son’s early service in the Israeli army.
During the 1982 Lebanon War, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art received one of Kadishman’s works, the oversized metal sculptures that stand outside the museum and depict a worried couple and, to their left , a large ram’s head symbolizing the sacrifice that replaced Isaac. In the foreground is a solitary disk, the head of Isaac, showing a reversal of the biblical story.
The new exhibition includes a film regarding the history of the sculpture, Kadishman’s involvement and the long conservation process.
Segal was known for works that often captured a contemporary moment in life while respecting the traditions of classical sculpture. He often used plaster, as for the “Sacrifice of Isaac”, a more fragile material – usually used for molds – which decomposes over time.
“The ‘Sacrifice of Isaac’ is extremely heavy. It was merged from two pieces,” explained assistant curator Nathalie Andrijasevic.
It took regarding three years to restore the sculpture, thanks to a grant from the Bank of America Art Conservation Project.
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