JERUSALEM.- The new exhibition The Artist and the Studio reveals the personal, and professional world of famous artists through works that immortalize them.

The exhibition explores the intimate surroundings in which great artists – painters, sculptors, and photographers – create their works. Spanning a broad range of periods, it focuses on the means and environments that foster the creative process, featuring representations of the artist’s tools, portraits of fellow artists, and self-portraits. On display are works from the 16th and 17th centuries by such Baroque masters as Annibale Carracci and Anthony van Dyck, alongside works by modern artists like Edgar Degas and Max Libermann and by Israeli artist Avigdor Arikha.

Interview with curator Shlomit Steinberg
The exhibition The Artist and the Studio includes the works of two great artists: one a nude Picasso - a smooth, and shiny bronze sculpture depicting the artist with an ideal body comparable to a Greek god - sculpted by Picasso’s friend and fan, Pablo Emilio Gargallo (1927); the other a Van Gogh, a rough, textured work sculpted in an unpolished, square-shaped form by Ossip Zadkine, (1952-3).

"These two works underlie the premise of the exhibition," explains exhibition curator Shlomit Steinberg. "You can see here the differences in the artists’ lives, as reflected in their imagery and portraiture. On the one hand, the quasi-classical statue of Picasso seems fit for the image of a popular mega-star; a wealthy artist, admired both in the art world as well as beyond. The rough work of Van Gogh in contrast takes into account what we know about his personality: a man who lived in abject poverty, suffering from depression, and whose body acts as an extension of his art."

The Artist and the Studio reveals the intimate professional world of famous artists through works that immortalize them, their creative processes, and their work environment. The artists' attention to their lives, to their self-image, and even to their moods are evident in the range of works in the exhibition coverning some 500 years of creativity presented together with portraits of Renaissance and Baroque artists such as Rubens, Rembrandt and van Dyck; works by the leading modern artists including Picasso, Lieberman, and the photographer Brassai as well as Israeli artists Ofer Lellouche, David Wakstein, David Ginton and Avigdor Arikha.

Steinberg says the idea to curate The Artist and the Studio already had occurred to her while she was working on her previous exhibition Making an Entrance: Jewish Artists in the 19th Century. “There were many intriguing self-portraits of Jewish artists that I could not bring into this exhibition. That led me to search the Museum’s collections for additional portraits. I discovered that the collections were full of portraits of artists, with works of painters, and photographers who documented their fellow artists. From the first half of the 20th century an in-depth discourse took place in the art world dealing with the identity of the artist -- How did they work? What did their lives look like? What did their studios look like? We've all heard about the artists who sat in the famous Parisian cafés and running the world - falling in love, getting disappointed, and drinking. I was curious to find out how these artists and other artists saw themselves.“

How has documenting artists changed over the years?
"The popularity of self-portraits greatly increased with the invention of the mirror, in the 15th century. This was a time when Leonardo da Vinci sought to improve the social status of artists, through his essay Comparison, from the status of workshop laborers to that of artisans, once painting and sculpture was elevated to the art form. Portrait painting, which previously only members of the upper classes could afford, made this shift possible. Following da Vinci’s lead, artists began to present themselves as people to whom God had granted a heavenly gift. In the 17th century, Dutch and Flemish artists such as Rubens and van Dyke continued in this manner, presenting their portrait subjects as elegantly groomed, and depicted as rulers and generals.

"That all changed in the late 19th century, when artists thought it possible to ‘reinvent themselves.’ They chose a bohemian lifestyle, independent from a patron, academia, or the dictates of the Salon, abandoned their elegant style for that of a work smock and a beret cap, and turned to documenting themselves and their friends at work in the studio.

Finally, there is a very interesting division between the two types of artists: those for whom it was important to shed their status as craftsmen, living off their art, leaning on their fame and connections to the wealthy and, in contrast, the bohemians who said: “I have no home, God, ruler, nor responsibility. I live in the land of freedom; of creativity, and love."

Exhibited in The Artist and the Studio
▪ Lovis Corinth self portrait on his 36th birthday next to a skeleton – hinting that his way of life - heavy drinking, smoking and debauchery - brings him closer to death (1896,on loan from a private collection)

▪ A demonic, mysterious and bohemian portrait of the painter Abraham Neumann (Samuel Hirszenberg, 1904)

▪ Portraits of French painters and cousins, Charles Beaubrun and Henri Beaubrun as members of the nobility in the King's court (Martin Lambert, 17th century)

▪ In Self-Portrait by Avigdor Arikha, he sees himself and his art as a a single organism (1976)

▪ Picasso nude sculpture with the artist depicted as a Greek god (Pablo Emilio Gargallo, 1927)