Yigal Zalmona

Yigal Zalmona

Yigal Zalmona (Hebrew: יגאל צלמונה‎) is an Israeli curator, art critic and historian.^[1] He was the chief interdisciplinary curator of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, Israel.^[2]

Biography[]

Yigal Zalmona was born in Tel Aviv. He grew up in the city's Neve Shaanan neighborhood. His father was a dentist. At the age of 20, Zalmona enrolled in art studies at the Sorbonne in Paris, completing a bachelor's degree and a master's degree. He wrote his master's thesis on Jean Dubuffet, a French painter and sculptor who pioneered the theory of "low art" and what is now called outsider art. Zalmona was offered a job as a teaching assistant at the Sorbonne, but chose to return to Israel.^[2]

Zalmona wrote his doctorate on the Eastern influences on Israeli art in the early 20th century.^[3]

In 1996, he was promoted from Curator of Israeli Art at the Israel Museum to Senior Curator and deputy director of the museum, until his retirement from the museum in 2012.^[4]

He teaches at the art department of the Shenkar College of Engineering and Design in Ramat Gan.^[2]

Published works in English[]

• Art about art: Two texts and one interview with Osvaldo Romberg, Delson-Richter Galleries, Old Jaffa, 1978
• Creation and Involvement in Israeli Art: a Sketch, in: The Shadow of Conflict: Israeli art 1980–1989, The Jewish Museum, New York, p. 15–19, 1989
• Ali Baba's Cave, Philip Rantzer: I love Art and Art Loves Me, Museum Moderne Kunst, Passau
• On the Exhibition 'Kadima': Orientalism in Israeli art, The Jerusalem Review, p. 51–55, 1997
• Landscape of the Bible: Sacred Scenes in European Master Paintings, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 2000
• Uri Katzenstein, Home, Israeli Pavilion, Venice Biennale, 2001
• New Jew, Old Orient: Reflections on Art, Place and Identity, in: Israele Arte e Vita 1906–2006, Palazzo Reale, Milano
• Treasures from the Holy Land, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, 2009
• A Century of Israeli Art

See also[]

• Visual arts in Israel

References[]