When the rockets began to fall on Tel Aviv this time, the Tel Aviv Museum hid their valuable works in vaults under ground.  That included the exhibit of which Shalom Sebba’s portrait of Kurt Gerron was part.  Almost everything else had been lent to us from a German collector and was concerned with the new Objectivism between the wars. 

It could have stayed in the sheltered space with the other treasures until next month when it was scheduled to return to Germany. But the curators knew how important it was for Israelis to become acquainted with the pain, desperation and emptiness of this period.  Naama Bar On and the others took it upon themselves to rehang the exhibit in the underground dressing tooms and rehearsal halls .The eyes of desperate people – decadent, defiant, beautiful, ugly….

we have so much to learn from them, from the direct confrontation, the innovation it demands.

and the fact that it is hanging in a protected space only adds to its power.  

I hope you all get a chance to see it.