黑料不打烊

The artist Issachar Ber Ryback (1935鈥�1987) never visited Bat Yam. His estate reached the city in the 1950s, when its first mayor, David Ben Ari, invited Ryback鈥檚 widow Sonia to move to Bat Yam. Her house was built in the vicinity of the art museum, at the heart of the Ramat Yoself neighborhood 鈥� the city鈥檚 cultural quarter. The museum itself dedicated a special exhibition space to Ryback鈥檚 works. After Sonia鈥檚 death in the 1970s, due to a range of complex processes occurring in Bat Yam, the Ryback house was abandoned. As a result, the collection of his works fell into a state of neglect, and they have never since been put on display. In recent years, the house has been transformed into an art education center, briefly also serving as a vaccination center during the COVID-19 pandemic. During this same period, the collection, which is still stored in the house, underwent a comprehensive restoration process. The current exhibition, which revolves around Ryback鈥檚 body of works, is part of a re-exploration of the museum鈥檚 history in conjunction with its 60th  anniversary, as well as a consideration of its current symbolic and real  function 鈥� serving as a home for local culture that is currently in a state of crisis. 

The exhibition 鈥淎 Storm in a Teacup: Issachar Ber Ryback in Dialogue鈥� looks at Ryback鈥檚 body of works from a contemporary viewpoint.  At its heart is the shtetl, with its countless manifestations, both then and now. The exhibition is divided between two venues, which are both part of the MoBY  cluster: the first  venue, the Museum of Contemporary Art, features the works created by Ryback himself during three different periods. Displayed alongside them are sculptures by Bianca Eshel Gershuni, who passed away in 2020 鈥� hybrids expressing a symbiotic relationship between body and object; also on display is a series of photographs by Anna Yam, which capture the life of the Russian community in Israel, as well as a selection of Biedermeier furniture.  Included as well are works by Noa Glazer, Yael Efrati and Shy Lee Uziel. In this context we are thinking  of the museum as a microcosm of objects that have migrated from different places and times, coming together in a circular space. The museum鈥檚 entrance floor  can be seen as  a city square, whereas the top floor functions as an internal space, suspended between the private realm of the home and the public realm of the museum. 

Strolling  through the streets of Bat Yam, visitors are invited to walk to the exhibition鈥檚 second focal point, in the Shalom Asch House 鈥� the former home of the avant-garde Yiddish writer who, invited by Mayor Ben Ari, moved to the city during the 1950s. Asch was a collector of art, Judaica, and antiquarian books. He planned the house himself, and lived there for two years with his wife, Mathilde, prior to his death. The house, whose permanent display features Asch鈥檚 collection, is now hosting a contemporary art exhibition that celebrates the domestic sphere. The works included in this exhibition explore  everyday life in a humorous, experimental language, offering a light, spontaneous depiction of a bourgeois lifestyle more closely resembling that of aristocrats who have lost their fortune than that of a cultural elite. 

Interestingly enough, Ryback鈥檚 works and Asch鈥檚 collections eventually  arrived in the same shtetl 鈥� Bat Yam. One could argue that if the museum functions as a mausoleum featuring Ryback鈥檚 estate, which was forgotten and neglected for many years, the Shalom Asch House is a place where we can all gather, drink a cup of tea, and mourn the loss of cultural treasures.