And the land is divided into districts of memory and provinces of hope,
And its inhabitants blend with each other
As people returning from a wedding merge with those returning from a funeral.
- Yehuda Amichai, "Love of the Land," 1980 (trans. Benjamin & Barbara Harshav)
Landscape has always been a central theme in local art, depicting the land one yearns for, cultivates, lives on, and eventually returns to. Landscape is also a politically charged subject, touching on belonging, identity, national and religious struggles. In Israel—a country with disputed borders, inhabited by diverse peoples, and situated on a small piece of land with conflicting ownership claims—the artistic gaze at the landscape raises the question: Whose land is it? The gaze reflects the observer, uncovering memories hidden beneath the surface and revealing the perspectives, actions, and passions of those who coexist under the same scorching sun.
The permanent exhibition showcases masterpieces from the Haifa Museum of Art's collection, which encompasses over 8,000 works, charting major trends in the history of local art. It spans works from the late 19th century to the present, where face and topography are mutually reflected, indicating affinities between the furrows of plowed earth and furrowed faces, between sun-scorched soil and tanned skin, between cracked asphalt and wounded flesh.
Exhibition curator
Dr. Kobi Ben־Meir
Participating artists
Farid Abu Shakra / Alima / Ron Amir / Mark (Mordecai) Antokolsky / Mordecai Ardon / Asad Azi / Itzhak Danziger / Michael Gross / Yehoshua Grossbard / Hedwig Grossmann-Lehmann / Nahum Gutman / Miriam Gumpel / Hanna Harag Zunz / Zvi Heichman / Michal Heiman / Oded Hirsch / Marcel Janco / Micha Kirshner / Liliane Klapisch / Raffi Lavie / Rudi Lehmann / Hannah Levi / Yudith Levin / Uri Lifschitz / Zvi Mairovich / Hava Mehutan / Michal Na'aman / Avshalom Okashi / Israel Paldi / Ori Reisman / Reuven Rubin / Yehiel Shemi / Menachem Shemi / Yohanan Simon / Nardeen Srouji / Yehezkel Streichman / Igael Tumarkin / Micha Ullman / Yocheved Weinfeld
