Professor Mordechai (Moti) Omer (in memoriam)
Posted by admin | 20th June 2011The Board and staff of Ben Uri are deeply saddened to announce the untimely passing of International Advisory Board member and our loyal supportive friend Moti Omer. Born in Haifa 1941 and died in Tel Aviv 2011.
Moti died on Friday morning, 10 June, after a six-month courageous fight against cancer.
He was a unique character and force for good throughout his life of service to the museum and cultural life in Israel. He was a scholar of great distinction, a considered and imaginative curator, a highly efficient chief executive and a successful ambassador not just for his museum but for the reputation of Israeli art and artists.
His scholarship was renowned in academic circles, but ever modest his range of expertise outside Israeli art was seldom brought to the fore. His books on British master 'Turner' and curatorship of the seminal exhibition 'J.M.W. Turner and the Romantic Vision of the Holy Land and the Bible', in Boston in 1996; his articles in the Burlington Magazine, Studio International, and Cambridge Criticisms are examples of his breadth of interest and knowledge.
His curatorial career was extraordinary including Museum of Modern Art in New York (1968-1971), Victoria and Albert Museum in London (1976), The Bavarian State Painting Collections, Munich (1979), The Ashmolean in Oxford (1981), The Haim Attar Museum of Art, Ein Hod, The Haifa Museum of Modern Art, The Museum of Israeli Art, The Israel Museum all through the 1980s. He was appointed Israel's Commissioner at the Biennial of Young Artists in 1983, in Paris, and again at Sao Paulo in 1987 and 1989.
In 1974 he founded the Tel Aviv University Art Gallery, and in 1995 he was in appointed Director of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, which he led with great distinction.
Under his leadership the Tel Aviv Museum of Art has established an international reputation for excellence and diversity of programming. The museum is a cultural hub in Tel Aviv and a no-fail destination stop for visitors to the city from home and abroad. His vision and decade of planning for a new wing for Israeli art to be showcased is only months away and the Herta and Paul Amir Wing will open this October YEAR.
In 2003 Moti generously and willingly agreed to join Ben Uri's fledgling International Advisory Board and has been a source of constant advice and engagement since. No matter how busy, Moti always returned calls and found time to meet and or visit when in the UK for BFAMI SPELL or other occasions. It was a privilege to work so closely with him and curator Dr Batsheva Goldman Ida on their 2009 exhibition 'Fragmented Mirror: Reconstructing the Exhibition of Jewish Artists, Berlin 1907'.
His lasting legacy is the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, with its extraordinary collection of Israeli and International art; its seamless blending with remarkable exhibitions of local; national and international artists of fame and promise; its dedication to scholarship; its engagement with young artists, curators and students alike; and its new physical future.
We pay tribute to his immeasurable contribution to museum and cultural life in Israel and thank him for his friendship, guidance and contribution to Ben Uri.
We wish his family long life and send our condolences to all our friends and his extended family at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.
Blog
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