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Marcel
Duchamp
Fountain, 1917/1964
Assisted Readymade: porcelain urinal turned on its back,
I/II, 36 x 48 x 61 cm.
The Vera and Arturo Schwarz Collection of Dada and Surrealism |
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About
the Collection
Dada and Surrealism rank among the most significant
movements of our time. They challenged tradition, introducing
materials and visual strategies that would change the vocabulary
of art and creating an enduring legacy that has transformed
art history.
The connection between Surrealism and the Israel Museum began
as a “chance encounter” more than fifty years ago, and it has
since evolved into a deep and lasting relationship. Thanks in
great part to generous gifts from donors and artists alike,
the Museum has been able to form a spectacular holding of Dada
and Surrealist material, comprising everything from paintings,
readymades, and photographs to works in the wide variety of
new and innovative mediums employed by these groundbreaking
movements. |
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This
repository also includes an extensive library and documentary
materials that make the collection an important international
research resource.
The Museum owes this richness first and foremost
to Arturo Schwarz, who in 1972 gifted thirteen replicas of
readymades by Marcel Duchamp, followed in 1991 by his gift
of the Arturo Schwarz Dada and Surrealist Library, a rare
accumulation of documents, periodicals, books, manuscripts,
and letters. In 1998, on the occasion of Israel’s 50th anniversary
year, he donated his vast collection of Dada, Surrealist,
and pre-Surrealist art, comprising hundreds of works. This
treasury – The Vera and Arturo Schwarz Collection of Dada
and Surrealist Art in the Israel Museum – includes unparalleled
holdings of individual artists, |
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Littérature,
Paris, Au Sans Pareil, 1919-24
Edited by André Breton, Louis Aragon, and
Phillippe Soupault Nouvelle Série, no. 10,
May 1923 Arturo Schwarz Library |
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Minotaure, Revue
artistique et littéraire,
Paris,
Albert Skira, 1933–39
Edited
by Albert Skira and Efstrathios Tériade
Cover
by René Magritte
No.
10, November 1937
Arturo
Schwarz Library
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among
them Duchamp and Man Ray, as well as an ensemble of other artists
of remarkable breadth, reflecting a life committed to the Surrealist
spirit. Other major gifts and bequests from a great many Museum
friends worldwide have also enriched our holdings immeasurably.
Harry Torczyner recognized the Museum’s 20th Anniversary in
1985 with his magnificent donation of Magritte’s signature
Castle of the Pyrenees, 1959. In the 1980s, a bequest of
Marc Engelhard, Paris, brought us Surrealist works acquired
directly from practitioners of the movement. And the bequest
of the Arthur and Madeleine Chalette Lejwa Collection in 1999
featured important additions of works by Arp, Picasso, and Gonzáles. |
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