About The Building

The building in which the Jerusalem Artists’ House resides today was built by the Ottomans in 1890. It was purchased by the Jewish National Fund several years later along with the adjacent building, for the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts, which opened its doors in 1908. The school occupied the adjoining building, while this building served the Bezalel National Museum.

In addition to Jewish art and local archaeological finds, the Bezalel National Museum featured a collection flora and fauna indigenous of the Land of Israel, used as models for the design of art objects. With the inauguration of Israel Museum in 1965, the collections of the Bezalel National Museum were relocated to the new venue, and the building became home for Jerusalem artists.

Bezalel founder, Boris Schatz (1867–1932) – a Lithuanian-born professor of sculpture – suggested naming the school after Bezalel Ben-Uri, “The first Hebrew master craftsman, who built us a temple in the desert.” The new academy offered instruction in painting, sculpture, and various other art forms, alongside folk crafts such as carpet making, metalworking, and woodcarving.

Schatz’s colleagues at Bezalel (including artist Ephraim Moses Lilien), sought to forge a visual language that would express the Jewish aspirations for national renewal in the Land of Israel. Suffused with romantic idealism, they appropriated sundry influences ranging European artistic trends and practical craft techniques; Islamic art and Jewish motifs; decorative elements and utopian imagery. Typography became a distinctive feature of the Bezalel style: the Hebrew font relied on a combination of Arabic script with cursive German writing style (Jugendstil).

Since 1965, the House has served as home to the Jerusalem Artists Association. In this capacity, it has become the leading public art gallery in Israel, offering a unique blend of diverse Israeli and international art.

The annual exhibition program includes a series of debut exhibitions by prominent young Israeli artists alongside retrospective exhibitions. In addition, the Jerusalem Artists’ House, holds extensive group shows centered on diverse themes, joint projects by Israeli and international artists, and a wide range of additional activities.

Details on display at the permanent exhibition

 Details located outside of the building:

Ze’ev Raban, Cain and Abel,

Circa 1929, stone relief

“Abel became a shepherd, while Cain was a worker of the soil” (Genesis 4:2)

“And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground” (Genesis 4:2)

(Part of the staircase at the entrance of the old Bezalel building, Artists House of today).

 Ze’ev Raban, Adam and Eve,

Circa 1929, stone relief

“She took of the fruit thereof, and did eat; and she gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat” (Genesis 3:3).

“She took some of its fruit and ate [it]. She also gave some to her husband, and he ate [it]” (Genesis 3:3)

(Part of the staircase at the entrance of the old Bezalel building, Artists House of today).

 Ze’ev Raban, The seven-branched candelabrum,

A replica made in the 1980s (the 1913 original is in storage), wood and copper

(Placed on the roof of the old Bezalel building, Artists House of today).

 Ze’ev Raban, Ze’ev Ben-Zvi, From Eden to Exile,

Circa 1929, Incomplete stone relief

“He drove away the man, and stationed the cherubim at the east of Eden, along with the revolving sword blade, to

guard the path of the Tree of Life” (Genesis 3:24)

(Wall adjacent to the staircase to the upper floor)

 Interior:

Ze’ev Raban (executed by Haviv Sasson). A pair of doors to the Bezalel School, 1922,

carved and hammered-out brass mounted on wood, 220X105 cm.

Prepared in commemoration of the night of June 11th, 1922. Decorated the entrance to the old Bezalel building,

Artists House of today.

 Boris Schatz and Arnold Lachovsky at the front of Bezalel School, 1909, black & white photograph / framed by Ze’ev Raban (executed by Haviv Sasson), circa 1928, flatted copper mounted on wood 1928 (executed by Haviv Sasson). The original photograph was taken from a series of postcards made for sale. The postcard was

enlarged in 1982 for the Bezalel exhibition at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, and was put on display in the copper

frame.

Rachel weeping for her children, she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are gone. Thus

says the LORD: Refrain your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears: for your work shall be rewarded, says

the LORD; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy. And there is hope for your future, says the

LORD; and your children shall return to their own border. (Jeremiah 31:15-17)