Tale of Two Museums: Tel Aviv Museum and Israel Museum

In late May when I visited Israel, I had the opportunity to visit two museums: Tel Aviv Museum and Israel Museum. Enjoyed both. This post is a review of those visits, and then some questions for readers about museum visiting.

Tel Aviv Museum

If you like 20th century art and/or you are interested in the history of the modern State of Israel, the Tel Aviv Museum has collections of artists from the pre-State era to contemporary times. When we (I went with Hannah Katsman) visited in late May, there was an exhibit of paintings by Angelica Schatz, the estranged daughter of the founder of the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design. She had a difficult life; she was Boris Schatz’s daughter by his first marriage, and his first wife took Angelica with her when she left Boris for another man. Her paintings were influenced by European painters of the 20th century. Angelica moved to Israel after her father’s death; she never really knew him.

A huge benefit of the Tel Aviv Museum that the Israel Museum did not have was the TA Museum has free wifi. So I was able to read about the exhibits online as we viewed them. Free wifi is a big plus for a museum.

Israel Museum

The Israel Museum is located in the center of west Jerusalem. It has more variety than the Tel Aviv Museum, and it is close to the Knesset (the Israeli Parliament building).

If you like studying prehistoric times or the times of the Tanach (the Jewish bible – stands for Torah – Neviim (Prophets) – Ketuvim (Writings)), the Israel Museum has a lot to offer. I remember seeing the bones of a woman from – how long ago? There are also exhibits of Judaica from around the world, such as the sukkah from Cochin, Southern India that was dis-assembled and re-assembled in the museum. There was a special exhibit about Herod, but as there was so much to see in the regular exhibits, we felt no need to wait online for the special exhibit. As I am using the Israel Museum website to research this post, I will add it could use some better details of regular exhibits and better navigation. It took me a while to find information about the sukkah from Cochin.

The previous time I had been in the Israel Museum was in 1980 – the museum has grown a lot since then. What I remembered from 1980 was the sculpture garden. Unfortunately, the link on the website for the Billy Rose Art Garden gives an error. A big #Fail on this museum website! I had done some drawings in 1980 in the sculpture garden, in particular one of a woman fallen (Isha Nofelet). I can’t find anything about this sculpture in the excellent Wikimedia page on the garden. Here is one photo of part of the sculpture garden:

Batya wrote about the Israel Museum on this post. You can find out what caught the eyes of Mrs. S. and family on their 2012 visit.

What I Would Do Differently

I would probably review the exhibits on the museum’s website the night before, to know what to expect, to make better choices and to get an idea about the details of the exhibits. When you are going to a museum with another person, each of you has your own ideas about what is worth seeing. If you know in advance you want to see or linger in a certain collection, it’s easier to say so if you have more information about the exhibits.

Tell us your experience with museums.

What is your favorite museum? Best features? Why would you recommend a museum?

Review with View of Galil

Elsewhere in the Blogosphere

• That’s my house in Egypt you’re living in: Tahrir Square in history. Wow.
• A new(ish) writing blog by Gabriella: she also writes on Hannah’s Nook (formerly Ilana-Davita).
• Book Review: Hanns and Rudolf: The True Story of the German Jew Who Tracked Down and Caught the Kommandant of Auschwitz on the blog Jewaicious

Modern: Jerusalem Chords Bridge

The Jerusalem Chords Bridge was completed in 2008. It is part of the city’s new lightrail system, located close to the central bus station. The bridge is a modern take on the ancient David’s harp. The bridge was designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava.

Batya photographed the bridge from a different view point here. Called Gesher HaMeitarim in Hebrew, it was quite pricey to build. You can see photos of the bridge crowded with pedestrians in green shirts marching for special needs education on the blog Real Jerusalem Streets.

Thursday Challenge theme is MODERN (Contemporary, Fashionable, Architecture, Interiors, Advanced, Cool,…).

Hard Jerusalem Street with Train Tracks

Jerusalem now has street cars that run through the city. This light rail train system was just being constructed when we visited the city five years ago. You can scroll down on this post of art in Israel to see how the train system was envisioned in a mural. Batya has written about the light rail system on her blog, and Sharon has a post on Real Jerusalem Streets on the day the light rail opened in 2011.

The photo above is near the central bus station in Jerusalem, taken in May 2013. My cousin told me there will soon be a fast train from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem that will stop near here – but unfortunately, it won’t go through Beit Shemesh, where my cousins live (they do have a slow train from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem that stops in Beit Shemesh). I have more photos of the light rail and section of Jerusalem near the central bus station as well as the Ben Yehudah mall. Hope to show you in an upcoming post.

Thursday Challenge is HARD (Stone, Steel, Cement, Glass, Durable, Difficult,…).

Raritan River Watercolor: Boy and Fisherman

Here’s the drawing of the boy and man:

And here’s a colored pencil sketch of the scene:

Finally, this is a Raritan River watercolor I did last summer, of a similar scene by the Raritan River:

I have some ideas for a next watercolor: maybe a combination of an Israeli flag with jacaranda blooms, mabye an illustration of a therapists since I am working on websites for therapists, maybe another Highland Park scene – we shall see.