Yigal Zalmona () is an Israeli curator,

art critic An art critic is a person who is specialized in analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating art. Their written critiques or reviews contribute to art criticism and they are published in newspapers, magazines, books, exhibition brochures, and catalogue ...

and historian. He was the chief

interdisciplinary Interdisciplinarity or interdisciplinary studies involves the combination of multiple academic disciplines into one activity (e.g., a research project). It draws knowledge from several fields such as sociology, anthropology, psychology, economi ...

curator of the

Israel Museum The Israel Museum (, ''Muze'on Yisrael'', ) is an Art museum, art and archaeology museum in Jerusalem. It was established in 1965 as Israel's largest and foremost cultural institution, and one of the world's leading Encyclopedic museum, encyclopa ...

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

.Art Incarnate

Haaretz ''Haaretz'' (; originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , , ) is an List of newspapers in Israel, Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel. The paper is published in Hebrew lan ...

Biography

Yigal Zalmona was born in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

. He grew up in the city's Neve Shaanan neighborhood. His father was a dentist. At the age of 20, Zalmona enrolled in art studies at the Sorbonne in Paris, completing a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

and a master's degree. He wrote his master's thesis on

Jean Dubuffet Jean Philippe Arthur Dubuffet (; 31 July 1901 – 12 May 1985) was a French Painting, painter and sculpture, sculptor of the School of Paris, École de Paris (School of Paris). His idealistic approach to aesthetics embraced so-called "low art" a ...

, a French painter and sculptor who pioneered the theory of " low art" and what is now called

outsider art Outsider art is Fine art, art made by Autodidacticism, self-taught individuals who are untrained and untutored in the traditional arts with typically little or no contact with the Convention (norm), conventions of the art worlds. The term ''ou ...

. Zalmona was offered a job as a

teaching assistant A teaching assistant (TA) or education assistant (EA) is an individual who assists a professor or teacher with instructional responsibilities. TAs include ''graduate teaching assistants'' (GTAs), who are graduate students; ''undergraduate teach ...

at the Sorbonne, but chose to return to Israel. Zalmona wrote his

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...

on the Eastern influences on Israeli art in the early 20th century. In 1996, he was promoted from Curator of Israeli Art at the Israel Museum to Senior Curator and deputy director of the museum, until his retirement from the museum in 2012.Cloning of a curator

Jerusalem Post ''The Jerusalem Post'' is an English-language Israeli broadsheet newspaper based in Jerusalem, Israel, founded in 1932 during the British Mandate of Palestine by Gershon Agron as ''The Palestine Post''. In 1950, it changed its name to ''The Je ...

He teaches at the art department of the Shenkar College of Engineering and Design in

Ramat Gan Ramat Gan (, ) is a city in the Tel Aviv District of Israel, located east of the municipality of Tel Aviv, and is part of the Gush Dan, Gush Dan metropolitan area. It is home to a Diamond Exchange District (one of the world's major diamond exch ...

Published works in English

*Art about art: Two texts and one interview with Osvaldo Romberg, Delson-Richter Galleries, Old Jaffa, 1978 * Creation and Involvement in Israeli Art: a Sketch, in: The Shadow of Conflict: Israeli art 1980–1989, The Jewish Museum, New York, p. 15–19, 1989 * Ali Baba's Cave, Philip Rantzer: I love Art and Art Loves Me, Museum Moderne Kunst, Passau * On the Exhibition 'Kadima': Orientalism in Israeli art, The Jerusalem Review, p. 51–55, 1997 * Landscape of the Bible: Sacred Scenes in European Master Paintings, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 2000 * Uri Katzenstein, Home, Israeli Pavilion, Venice Biennale, 2001 * New Jew, Old Orient: Reflections on Art, Place and Identity, in: Israele Arte e Vita 1906–2006, Palazzo Reale, Milano * Treasures from the Holy Land, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, 2009
A Century of Israeli Art

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zalmona, Yigal Living people People from Tel Aviv Israeli curators Israeli art critics Israeli art historians People associated with the Israel Museum 20th-century Israeli Jews Year of birth missing (living people) College of Sorbonne alumni 21st-century Israeli educators People from Ramat Gan 21st-century Israeli Jews

Biography

Published works in English

See also

References