The revolution in Israeli art inspired by New Horizons, a group set up at the time of Israel’s independence in 1948, gave birth to a generation of artists whose artistic evolution was underlain by abstract language. As members of another generation operating in different circumstances, however, the post-New Horizons generation artists developed new facets of abstract art. While Moshe Givati’s abstract painting indeed continues the 1950s and 1960s abstract tradition, it introduces fascinating questions about the essence of abstract as a language whose syntax relies to a greater and greater extent on the artist’s intrinsic sources of creation rather than on the external, perceptual sights that informed the approach of the New Horizons artists. We are happy to present Givati’s achievements to Museum visitors, and re open the discussion about the formal and contextual origins of abstract painting in Israel.

Our heartfelt thanks to Moshe Givati for his full collaboration and for elucidating processes of life and art that gave rise to the book and exhibition. Thanks to Dov Shiff for his support in locating Givati’s paintings and for closely accompanying the project throughout the works’ gathering, photography and cataloging, an enterprise initiated by his late father, Haim Shiff; thanks to Hana Kofler, the curator of the exhibition and editor of the book; to Estee Cohen, associate curator, for her dedicated work and her special treatment of every detail required for the realization of the project; thanks to all the collections and collectors who willingly lent their works for the duration of the show; thanks to Marc Scheps for his essay relating to Givati’s later works which make their debut here; to Yael Bedarshi for her text describing “Studio Givati” in the 1980s; to Yona Fischer for his wise counsel; thanks to Eldad Maestro, the photographer; Sharif Waked, the book designer; Daphna Rosenbluth, the Hebrew copy editor; Daria Kassovsky, the English translator; to Schilaci Packing and Moving for the dedicated, highly professional transportation of the paintings; and to Hadas Shapira for the PR.