Zvi Lachman

Zvi Lachman | Face to Face | Curator: Yaniv Shapira

The title of Zvi Lachman’s exhibition, Face to Face, reflects the multifaceted nature and significance of his work: Face to face confronting whom? God? A human face? Or is it standing in the face of nothingness? The exhibition is on view along the central axis of the Mishkan Museum of Art, known as the Colonnade Hall. It was established in 1953 to display sculptural works, and has indeed been used for that purpose for many years. Its attributes add an additional interpretive dimension to the massive, expressive, volumetric works by Lachman, who typically presents sculptures and their surroundings as opened up places or spaces. In his works, Lachman repeatedly poses questions about the clash between the Jewish tradition ensuing from the commandment “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image” and that of Western Christian art. These dilemmas, which stretch the boundaries of Western figurative sculpture, are evident in his compositions that cross Christian themes with the biblical narratives that he was raised on, linking them to key junctures in his own life.