Artis

Jerusalem, March 8, 2010 - Olafur Eliasson and Anish Kapoor have been commissioned by the Israel Museum to create two new monumental installations on the Museum’s campus, as it nears completion of a comprehensive renewal and expansion, together with a complete reinstallation of all of its collection galleries. These site-specific works will be installed as focal points within the Museum’s newly re-organized campus, opening to the public on July 26, 2010.

These commissions include:

• Olafur Eliasson’s installation, "Whenever the rainbow appears", consisting of 300 individual paintings that represent in paint on canvas the progression of colors in the spectrum of light visible to the human eye. Measuring a total of 15 x 2.4 meters (or nearly 50 x 8 feet), the work reads from afar as an extended continuum of color. It will be installed at the end of the Museum’s newly designed Route of Passage, an enclosed walkway bridging the Museum entrance with a newly centralized Gallery Entrance Pavilion at the heart of the campus.
• Anish Kapoor’s site-specific sculpture of polished stainless steel that takes the shape of a 5-meter-tall (15-foot) hourglass. Anchoring the Museum’s outdoor Crown Plaza, at the highest point on its 20-acre campus, this monumental work responds to the duality of Jerusalem, inverting reflections on its curved and mirrored surface of Jerusalem’s sky and of the Museum’s built landscape.

Both works will be on view at the end of July 2010, when the Museum completes its current expansion and renewal project. Designed jointly by James Carpenter Design Associates and Efrat-Kowalsky Architects, the project is upgrading and unifying facilities on the Museum’s campus to provide visitors with an integrated experience of art, archaeology, landscape, and architecture.

“Eliasson and Kapoor are recognized for creating visually striking works that inspire engagement, interaction, and awe—and we are thrilled to be working with them on two exceptional commissions for our renewed campus,” said James S. Snyder, Anne and Jerome Fisher Director of the Israel Museum. “These new works will enhance the experience of our visitors with our unique site, setting, and architecture, while also continuing our notable history of engaging with contemporary artists.”

Olafur Eliasson’s site-specific installation "Whenever the rainbow appears" recreates the colors of the light spectrum visible to the human eye in a series of 300 hand-painted canvases, each measuring 5 x 240 cm. Extending 15 meters in length, the work is emblematic of Eliasson’s focus on the power of light in its relationship with site and setting.

Known for manipulating elemental and ephemeral materials, Eliasson works in a variety of mediums, including sculpture, photography, and—most notably—large-scale, immersive environments. Whenever the rainbow appears joins another important work by Eliasson already in the Museum’s collection, the light installation Your Activity Horizon (2004). Whenever the rainbow appears is a gift of Alice and Thomas Tisch, New York, on the occasion of the Museum’s 45th anniversary in 2010 and in celebration of the completion of its campus project.

Standing five meters high, Anish Kapoor’s site-specific commission, "Untitled", will occupy a prominent place at the apex of Carter Promenade on the renewed Crown Plaza, the highest outdoor point on the Museum’s campus. The sculpture’s reflective surface captures both the Jerusalem sky and the landscape of the Museum’s campus, heightening awareness of these dual images by inverting them to present the sky below and the built landscape overhead. This contrast of earthly and heavenly forms evokes Jerusalem’s mythical duality, and the sculpture’s curved form resonates with the landmark architecture of the Shrine of the Book at the entrance to the Museum campus.

The sculpture’s mirrored finish and its scale are emblematic of one of the London-based artist’s distinctive styles, using simple, reflective forms to embrace and engage his viewers. It represents the second of Kapoor’s works to enter the Museum’s collection, following Black Earth (1984).

This sculpture is commissioned in memory of Teddy Kollek, longtime Mayor of Jerusalem and the Museum’s founder, in tribute to his vision for the Museum’s site and setting. The commission has been made possible through the generosity of: Charles Bronfman, New York; Richard Goldman, San Francisco; and Lily Safra, Monaco; with additional support from the Museum’s Barbara and Eugene Schwartz Contemporary Art Acquisition Endowment Fund.

The Israel Museum is the largest cultural institution in the State of Israel and is ranked among the leading art and archaeology museums in the world. Founded in 1965, the Museum houses encyclopedic collections ranging from prehistory through contemporary art, and includes the most extensive holdings of Biblical and Holy Land archaeology in the world, among them the Dead Sea Scrolls. In just over 40 years, the Museum has built a far-ranging collection of nearly 500,000 objects through an unparalleled legacy of gifts and support from its circle of patrons worldwide.

As the Museum looks toward the opening of its completed and renewed campus in July 2010, it continues to present programs on-site in the Shrine of the Book and Model of Second Temple Period Jerusalem complex, Billy Rose Art Garden, and Ruth Youth Wing. In addition, the Museum organizes and presents programming at its off-site locations in Jerusalem at the Rockefeller Archaeological Museum, where it presents archaeological artifacts from the Land of Israel, and at its historic Ticho House in downtown Jerusalem, a venue for exhibitions of contemporary Israeli art.

For more information, please the Israel Museum, Jerusalem.

Image: Olafur Eliasson, Whenever the rainbow appears (2010), installation rendering