This is What Design Looked Like in Israel in 1965
The Israel Museum, Jerusalem celebrates its 50-year anniversary in 2015. To commemorate its history, the museum is hosting an exhibition that looks back at what its founding year, 1965, meant not only for the institution, but for the country's visual culture as a whole. We spoke with museum director James S. Snyder about the pivotal year.
Designed by Russian-born architect Al Mansfeld, the museum is located atop Neveh Sha’anan, the Hill of Tranquility, in Jerusalem. The structure was a cutting-edge example of modular building: it consists of 120-square-foot units that can be grouped together or sit on their own.
Each module is constructed of form-cast concrete clad with Jerusalem stone, and features clerestory windows that surround the perimeter.
The museum’s Upper Entrance Hall was built with four modules, and features a dramatic glass curtain wall.
The Shrine of the Book is a wing of the museum that houses the Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest biblical manuscripts in the world. Also opened in 1965, the wing is a curved dome covered in white ceramic tile that was designed by two American architects, Armand Bartos and Frederick Kiesler.
"Israel at the time was geographically isolated—there was no CNN, no international cell phone communication, no internet—and so its relations with the rest of the world were strong, but were filtered through black and white imagery in newspapers, magazines, and newsreels," Snyder explains. "1965 is a moment where modernism is clearly the message, but it is seen and absorbed through filters that give the Israeli interpretation of modernism a very special character." Pictured is a Formica dining set that was manufactured in the 1960s in Israel.
"In 1965, Israel, like the U.S., was looking to Europe and, in particular to Scandinavia for design inspirations to import products and to adapt designs for production locally," Snyder says. "In essence, craftsmen were both copying international directions in design and creating new designs that would also reflect the unique characteristics of Israel as a new nation." These chairs were designed by Hazorea Factory, which became known in the 1950s for adapting Danish designs.
"The Safsalit was invented by a Jewish immigrant from Romania named Moshe Pitaro, who worked as an upholsterer," says Snyder. "In 1962, he created his very first design: an intelligent and innovative sofa that could be converted into a bed, which responded to the practical needs of apartment life in Israel, where everyone lived in very modest quarters, with only fewer than 10% of all apartments having more than four rooms."
An advertisement from 1965 promotes the new museum.
Pictured is "Staccato" by Yaacov Agam, an Israeli artist who became a leading figure in the op art movement.