Mosaic of Dreams

Galia Bar Or- Mordechai Gumpel

“Mordechai Gumpel was born in Germany in 1912 and immigrated to Israel in 1939. He lives and works in Jerusalem. The exhibition “Mosaic of Dreams” embodies a wide variety of his works in the fields of sculpture, mosaic, collage and works on paper.
Mordechai Gumpel was the most important mosaic artist in Israel. He developed his work system, all by hand, concentrated on the shades of local stone, planted movement and expression in the mosaic through the variant cut of the stone, deepened the understanding of the monumental composition through his grasp of the two-dimensionality of the wall and of the fundamentals of form. Like his friends, Shalom Sebba and Rudolph Lehmann, Gumpel distanced himself from the romantic image of the artist, and assimilated within his work art and craftsmanship as an ethical foundation that has social meaning. The deep understanding of the language of art on historical levels was seen as essential for an artist creating in his works a communications bridge (a common language) between different parts of society. Gumpel never asked for fame for himself, and never created art objects for museum exhibition. He believed in art integrated into life, into society, art that effects its surroundings in its own hidden way.. ”
(Galia Baror, from the catalogue “Mosaic of Dreams”)