A hundred years of art in Israel: Phoenix Group collection

NEW YORK - Christie’s is honoured to announce A Hundred Years of Art in Israel: A Selection of Important Art from the Phoenix Group Collection, an exhibition of more than 70 objects. This exhibition will be open to the public 10 am to 5 pm weekdays and Saturday, and 1 pm to 5 pm Sunday, through 1 March 2024. These works have not been seen outside of Israel. The current exhibition celebrates the 75th anniversary of Phoenix Group, a leading Israeli financial services firm that has sold important works with Christie’s in London and New York. The Phoenix Group show is among a number of non-selling exhibitions that Christie’s hosts as part of its mission to celebrate artistic expression in all of its many forms. This includes non-selling exhibitions in collaboration with 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair of mixed media works with a Caribbean focus at Christie’s London in October, and upcoming, a showcase of African art at Christie’s Hong Kong, 26-30 March.

Christie’s is also pleased to announce that two of the works in the exhibition will be offered for sale in the May 21st Century Art sales in New York. Phoenix will dedicate proceeds from this sale to support young Israeli artists.

A Hundred Years of Art in Israel includes painting, drawing, sculpture, and video works that trace the past century of Israeli culture. The pieces are grouped thematically, creating connections among periods, movements, ideologies, and media. The resulting juxtapositions enable us to see a repeated swinging back and forth between engagement with ancient Jewish culture and the reborn Hebrew one; between yearning and fulfillment; abstract ideas and their realization; sanctity and secularity; Jewish tradition and artistic avant-garde.

The Chairman of Christie’s Americas, Marc Porter, said: “We are honored to bring this important exhibition to New York City, an event that is the culmination of a year of planning and more than two decades of work with the Phoenix Group, which began with the sale of its American Art Collection. I have worked in Israel my entire career, including decades on the board of the American Friends of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art and I am deeply moved and gratified to be part of this notable occasion.” 

The CEO of Phoenix Group, Eyal Ben Simon, said: “Our art collection is an expression of the pride we take in our nation’s history, culture, and creativity. This exhibition of a century of Israeli art is an opportunity to share works we love with the world at the crossroads of the world, New York City. We are also thrilled to announce that Phoenix Group will be offering two works at Christie’s in May to help us fund ongoing support for young, Israeli artists.”  

Exhibition highlights:

On exhibition and offered for sale in May:

Phoenix Group’s collection of Israeli art, comprised of nearly 1,400 works, is one of the finest and most comprehensive in its field. This treasury of artworks has played a major role in the construction and preservation of the Israeli artistic canon and has earned its place alongside the collections of Israel’s leading museums. Established in the early 1980s at the instigation of Joseph Hackmey, the owner and CEO of the Phoenix up to 2002, the collection chronicles the significant pinnacles and shifts of Israeli art from its inception to today. The collection includes a large number of key works by many of Israel’s leading twentieth century artists, making it possible to track their development throughout their careers. Large parts of the collection have featured in exhibitions at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art (1998) and the Ashdod Art Museum (2006). It has not been comprehensively displayed since then, but individual works have been on loan to various venues, including the permanent exhibition of Israeli art at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.  

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