New TAMA art exhibit offers glimpse into the mind of Alberto Giacometti

The inaugural exhibition of the Eyal Ofer Pavilion at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art (TAMA) will be the first comprehensive retrospective of the work of Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966) – one of the most influential artists of the 20th century.

Featuring works from Fondation Giacometti’s holdings, as well as examples from TAMA’s collection, the exhibition, co-organized by the TAMA and Fondation Giacometti, Paris, will bring together 130 works, spanning the four decades of Giacometti’s career, from the early 1920s to the artist’s death in 1966. It will feature a special selection from the artist’s Surrealist period, as well as a number of iconic plasters and bronzes, paintings, drawings and prints, bringing the full scope of his practice into focus. The show will be accompanied by an extensive catalog in Hebrew and English.

Giacometti’s body of work reflects his investigations of the human figure and his repeated attempts to capture his experience of seeing what he called “the rendering my vision.” Aiming to achieve a sense of liveliness in his work, he wanted his sculptures to possess the same sense of presence as the actual models in his studio. Giacometti was often frustrated by the gap he perceived between what he made and his ambition.

The exhibition, which opens on May 6, follows the evolution of Giacometti’s practice, as he searched for the means to manifest his visual sensations in his artwork. Reworking or discarding his efforts in an ongoing cycle of despair and perseverance, he displayed a fierce and ultimately affirmative commitment that the exhibition’s title, Alberto Giacometti: Beginning, Again, seeks to honor.

The exhibition will inaugurate the renewed Eyal Ofer Pavilion, an extension of TAMA situated in the heart of Tel Aviv’s most dynamic cultural complex. The renovation project strives to restore the pavilion to its former status as one of the most iconic buildings in Tel Aviv. Including the renewal of the 1470-sq.m. building’s infrastructure, lighting, climate control and visitation spaces, this extensive project was made possible by a generous donation from the Eyal and Marilyn Ofer Foundation, a philanthropic foundation that supports education and art institutions worldwide.

The pavilion, renowned for its modernist aesthetic, originally opened in 1959 as the Helena Rubinstein Pavilion for Contemporary Art. It was designed by architects Dov Karmi, Ze’ev Rechter and Ya’akov Rechter (Israel Prize laureate, 1972), whose son, Amnon Rechter, has led the current renovation. The project is already being hailed as a major success and the renewed building is anticipated to be among the most beautiful exhibition spaces in Israel. The exhibition will spread across all four levels of the building.

“Beginning, Again” presents a singular opportunity to experience the full range of Giacometti’s art for the first time in Israel – which itself came of age in the same years of the artist’s most creative period – in the context of the boldly modern, postwar aesthetic of the Eyal Ofer Pavilion.

Opening May 6, at the Eyal Ofer Pavilion, Kikar Hatarbut, Tel Aviv.