Efrat Natan / Nahum Tevet

The Museum Villa Stuck is the first institution to show the works of artists Efrat Natan and Nahum Tevet, two protagonists of the Israeli art world, side by side. The exhibition and the publication present key works from their artistic careers spanning more than fifty years. The 1970s marked the starting point for the work of Natan (b. 1947) and Tevet (b. 1946). Despite sharing a similar background, the work of the two artists display quite different thematic focus areas, which nonetheless complement one another in their examination of social values.

In sophisticated works they combine approaches of conceptual art with a novel, simple aesthetics of material. While Efrat Natan condenses biographical memories into a poetic language of images and forms, Nahum Tevet examines contents of modern art as well as of personal experiences involving the significance of space and everyday objects in sometimes vast works. The exhibition presents early works and documents of early joint actions along with more recent works.

In the work of both artists, the expansion of the artwork through the shift of functions or the use of materi­als charged with meaning is combined with plain, basic forms and a powerful visual vocabulary. This goes hand in hand with an artistic stance that rejects ideological positions and encourages, if not demands, dialogue and the exchange of ideas. Both artists have, in fact, been active in the field of com­munication and education: Nahum Tevet as professor at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design and Efrat Natan as cur­ator at the Youth Wing of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

Publication A bilingual catalogue will accompany the exhibition featuring essays by Aya Miron, Raphael Rubinstein, Nicola Trezzi and a conversation between the artists and Verena Hein. The book will be published by Hatje Cantz, available from mid November 2017.

An exhibition organized by Museum Villa Stuck, curated by Dr. Verena Hein.