View artwork »

View exhibitions »

View videos and articles »

Visit our Information Center to browse the artist file »

File includes:

189 Articles
176 Artwork reproductions
24 Exhibition invitations

Gideon Gechtman, Israeli, born in Egypt, 1942-2008.

Gideon Gechtman was born in Alexandria, Egypt in 1942. In 1945, he immigrated with his family to Palestine. In the early 1970s, after returning from studies in London, he began to create works that were a blend of conceptual art and elements of his own biography. His show “Exposure” at Yodfat Gallery in 1975 was an artistic look at the medical procedures he had undergone during heart valve surgery. On May 18, 1975, after the show closed, Gechtman published an obituary for himself in two Israeli newspapers. Haaretz and the Jerusalem Post, and posted death notices on billboards near his home in Rishon Lezion.

In 1971, he started planning a conceptual work entitled “Mausoleum” that would serve as a kind of archive of his work and commemorate him after death. The project, which he began to assemble from the 1980s, highlighted post-modern theatrical elements of imitation and substitution that had already appeared in his early work. In the 1990s, Gechtman created several works exploring the duplication and break down of readymade objects and the relationship between copies and the original. In 1999, following the death of his son, Gechtman created a large installation entitled Yotam that incorporated many elements of his artistic oeuvre.

Gechtman’s work examines the connection between reality and art. His biography, illness and future death were motifs that accompanied him throughout his artistic career. He created objects that looked like readymade. Among his best-known works are "Brushes (Bat-Sheva, Gideon and Yotam Gechtman)" (1974), Colorful Obituaries (1975), "Preparation for Mausoleum No. 1" (1998) and "Archive" (2003).

Education

1961-62 Avni Institute of Art & Design, Tel Aviv
1962-63 Ealing School of Art, London, England
1968-70 Hammersmith College of Art, London, England
1975-76 Tel Aviv University, philosophy and art history.

Teaching

1972-75 Bezalel Academy of Art & Design, Jerusalem
1971-1992 Art Teachers College, Beit Berl, Ramat Hasharon .
Kalisher Art Academy, Tel Aviv. .
2002-03, Art Teacher's College, Beit Berl College, Ramat Hasharon .
Musrara Institute of Art, Photography, Jerusalem
2003-06, Senior Lecturer in the Art Teacher's College, Beit Berl, Ramat Hasharon

Awards And Prizes

1970 Royal Academy of Arts, Prize for contemporary young artists, Royal Academy of Arts, London
1989 Prize for Completion of Project, Ministry of Education and Culture
1990 Histadrut Prize for Art
1993 Prize for Creations in the Realm of Plastic Arts, Ministry of Science and the Arts
1995 Tel Aviv Museum of Art and Isracard Prize, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv
1997 The Israel Discount Bank Prize for an Israeli Artist, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Jurors: Meira Perry-Lehmann (chairwoman), Yigal Zalmona, Dr. Michael Levin
1999 George and Janet Jaffin Prize for Excellence in Plastic Arts, America-Israel Cultural Foundation
2002 Aptowitzer Foundation Award for Distinguished Achievement in Contemporary Creative Arts, Haifa Museum of Art
2006 Life Achievement Award, Ministry of Science, Culture and Sport