An important exhibition of new Israeli art will be presented by The Jewish Museum to commemorate Israel's 50th anniversary from September 13, 1998 through January 3, 1999. After Rabin: New Art from Israel will demonstrate the extraordinary diversity, energy and creativity of Israeli art as it reflects the complexity of Israel today. The 72 works on view - paintings, photography, installation art, video and artists' books - have been created by 35 artists including Aya & Gal Middle East, Ido Bar-El, Barry Frydlender, Gideon Gechtman, Moshe Gershuni, Pesi Girsch, Israel Hershberg, Moshe Kupferman, Lea Nikel, Ibrahim Nubani, David Reeb, Uri Tzaig and Micha Ullman. While tension, conflict and personal concerns are thematic threads that run throughout the art, what emerges is the rigor and energy that - despite the swift and difficult challenges of moving from the Zionist dream to the realities of a complex modern society - are characteristic of Israel today.

The focus in this exhibition and its accompanying catalogue is primarily on new art created during the three years since the death of Yitzhak Rabin in 1995, presenting the work of both established and emerging artists working in Israel. All of the artists have lived outside of Israel, many for protracted periods. Although they are highly visible at home, and a number have been recognized internationally, the majority will be new to American audiences. The careers of these diverse artistic personalities span four generations, ranging from the work of Lea Nikel, who was born in 1918 in Zhitomir, the Ukraine, and immigrated to Palestine when she was very young, to that of Nir Hod, who was born in Tel Aviv in 1970. The variety of styles, perspectives, and range of innovation encompassed by all of the artists demonstrates how decisively their work undermines any monolithic cultural or aesthetic point of view.

The works in the exhibition represent cultural perspectives and concerns ranging from political and social critiques to the most intimate concerns. Prominent themes include reactions to the death of Yitzhak Rabin, evocations of social transition and stress, confrontations with environmental concerns, and issues relating to personal identity.

The assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, the ensuing change of government, and the slowing down of the peace process negotiated in Oslo are events that have had a decisive influence not only on the political life of the country, but also on its cultural development. The shock and sadness that gripped Israeli society following Rabin's assassination gave rise to artistic expressions unprecedented in their scope and volume. Powerful paintings by some of the older and more established artists in the exhibition -- Lea Nikel, Moshe Kupferman, Igael Tumarkin, Raffi Lavie, and Pinchas Cohen Gan -- utilize an abstract vocabulary which effectively transmits their profound sense of loss.

Other artists focus on a society under stress by capturing and illuminating its pervasive anxiety, tension and disquiet. Works of art can be used to comment on specific social or political situations or to convey a particular message. They may also employ the more explicit rhetoric of shock that overturns conventional expectations, revealing widespread concerns about security, military service, war, terrorism, occupation, and the ongoing battle for territory. In the Limbus Group's Embroideries of Generals (1997), the mythic Israeli war hero and leader - and the cult of the macho male - is deconstructed by displaying portraits of former Israeli Army chiefs of staff printed on needlepoint canvas, a material traditionally associated with domestic life and women's decorative crafts.

A distinct body of work reveals a shift away from the explicit preoccupation and physical engagement with the land, geography, and territorial issues, prevalent in the 1970s and 1980s, to the use of objects as metaphors for different perceptions of reality. By using images of structures such as buildings and roads - or real objects like road signs - as the focal points of paintings, sculpture, installations, and photographs, Israeli artists identify the hazards lurking in a modern technological society. A discarded road sign by Ido Bar-El symbolizes the loss of its public authority and meaning through the act of being defaced by the artist.

In a culture in which the sanctity of the land has been ingrained as a central concept of the collective Zionist myth, much recent art in Israel has been affected by ideas about the natural environment. Deliberately stripped of their traditional associations by inserting subversive elements, Uri Tzaig's postcards of forests and Moshe Ninio's honey jar transform this promised land of blooming desert and milk and honey, revealing how these cultural myths have been replaced by an endangered landscape.

Many artists have turned away from the conflict and tragedy of national life to explore personal realities such as gender identity, religion, ethnicity, and their own autobiographies. This art questions the nature of identity - real, assumed, invented, cultural, national, and personal. Nir Hod's constructed works and the photographs of Adi Nes explore identity issues - such as the macho male role - in a specifically Israeli context, that of the military. The viewer must decide if these men are the rugged, tough, invincible Israeli soldiers of 1967 legend or pretty boys posing and letting off steam, with a touch of irony. Ethnic identity issues are examined in the paintings of Ibrahim Nubani, which combine identifiable images and abstract patterns to convey an uneasy synthesis of East and West derived from his experience as an Arab Israeli living in two worlds. Pesi Girsch's photographs reveal the insular atmosphere of an Orthodox neighborhood in Jerusalem where life is portrayed as untouched by the rules or customs of the modern city.

"In After Rabin: New Art from Israel, one will find not only as broad a range of styles as can be found in any international art setting, but also a cumulative intensity that emerges from work reflecting daily discourse with the politics, dreams, personal issues and social realities of this ancient, yet remarkably young country," explained Susan T. Goodman, the exhibition curator and Chief Curator of The Jewish Museum, who has been visiting artists' studios and exhibitions in Israel for more than 20 years. "Whether the works are highly personal in motivation, or they reveal a turbulent, splintered period in Israel, the art is without nostalgia, expressing an intellectual liveliness, confidence and clarity of vision," she also noted.

The accompanying 112 page catalogue with 35 color and 46 black and white illustrations will include texts in which prominent Israeli curators Adam Baruch and Tali Tamir and cultural and social critic Yaron Ezrahi look at Israel now, addressing the major themes that emerge in the art, as well as the role of Israeli art in the context of the broader culture of the nation. A foreword by Joan Rosenbaum, Helen Goldsmith Menschel Director, The Jewish Museum, and an introductory essay by Susan T. Goodman are also included. Published by The Jewish Museum, New York, it will be available from The Jewish Museum's Cooper Shop for $29.95 paperback.

After Rabin: New Art from Israel is made possible through major gifts from The Judy and Michael Steinhardt Foundation, and Marcia Riklis and Meshulam Riklis. Additional support is provided by The Robert M. Beren Foundation, Inc. Transportation assistance is provided by EL AL Israel Airlines.