WestviewPress is proud to announce a landmark publication in honor of Israel’s 50th Anniversary Celebration... One Hundred Years of Art in Israel brings the rich legacy of Israeli art to a Western audience for the first time. Gideon Ofrat, Israel’s preeminent curator, art critic, and art historian, traces the complete history of art in Israel, from the nineteenth-century Jewish folk art in Ottoman Palestine to the kaleidoscopic postmodern patterns of Israeli art today.Gathered together here for the first time is the definitive collection of Israeli masterpieces--ranging from traditional paintings and sculpture to war memorials and environmental installations--reproduced beautifully in this handsome volume. With over 350 illustrations, including 185 in full color, this collection will long be the authoritative guide to art in Israel and the perfect gift for the collector or the curious.Ofrat’s expert commentary accompanies the collection, as he weaves his knowledge of every major movement and artist in Israel--including previously under-recognized works--into an engrossing narrative of themes, styles, trends, and influences.Readers will discover how Israeli artists have mixed outside influences with the atmosphere of the times--often ideologically charged--to create works of freshness and ingenuity characteristic of the national ethos. In the early part of this century, it took dedicated Zionists to protect and nurture what few expressions of native Jewish folk art existed in Palestine. In the 1930s the school of Paris exercised a strong influence among the growing artistic community. After the birth of the Israeli state in 1948, a wave of optimistic social realism swept through many artists’ works. And the 1970s saw an outpouring of radical, politically charged pieces. Only in One Hundred Years of Art in Israel do we learn how Israeli art has grown and will continue to evolve.Published in cooperation with the Mizel Museum of Judaica, this book is a priceless testament to the outstanding brand of cultural expression that has emerged from a unique land and a unique state.