Commissioned in the 1920s from Israel's first art academy as street signs
and architectural ornaments, the originally-designed tiles - now featured
in a new book - tell the story of pioneer dreams and aspirations.
by Daniella Ashkenazy
The story of a nation's early days is not told only in the history books,
sometimes, it finds expression in the least likely of places. A new book,
recently published in Israel, provides a unique angle on the country's
early days - the wishes, hopes and aspirations of the country's founders
as reflected in the decorative ceramic tiles created in the 1920s at
Bezalel Art Academy in Jerusalem, Israel's first art school. While the
genre had little effect on the direction of Israeli art in decades to
come, the ceramic tiles - some of which still embellish the facades of
public institutions and private residences - constitute fascinating period
pieces of historic and educational value.
The new book, Tiles Adorned City - "Bezalel" Ceramics on Tel Aviv Houses
(1923-1929) is based on the research of Batia Carmiel, director of the
Historical Museum of Tel Aviv-Yafo. It was published in 1997 by the Eretz
Israel Museum in Tel Aviv.
Zionist pioneers dreamed of creating a new kind of Jewish society,
fundamentally different from Jewish life in the Diaspora. Alongside the
establishment of the necessary political, social and economic
institutions, the new society would need to revitalize the Hebrew language
and nurture modern Hebrew culture, including both the performing and the
plastic arts.
The creation of the tiles - each an original design - grew out of a
mixture of pragmatic and ideological considerations. Professor Boris
Schatz, founder and director of Bezalel (established in 1909), saw the
proceeds from artistic tiles produced by the school's ceramics department
as both a source of much-needed revenue and as a part of his endeavor to
develop a local art tradition.
The workshop established by Schatz in 1923 produced decorative street
signs and name plaques, as well as complex architectural embellishments
for public buildings and private homes. Schatz succeeded in convincing Tel
Aviv's mayor and others to commission Bezalel wall tiles, both as a form
of art patronage and as a fitting element for "their" city, which
perceived itself as a symbol of modern Zionism and national awakening.
Several dozen buildings were embellished with such ceramic tiles between
the years 1923 and 1927. Some fifteen structures containing Bezalel
ceramics were subsequently demolished, but a good number of street signs
and house plaques, and approximately fifteen structures embellished with
large decorative Bezalel tiles from this period, remain and are
photographed in the new book.
National aspirations were also clearly registered in the choice of motifs
for large decorative facades adorning such places as the entrance to a
municipal boys' school and the walls of the synagogue in an old-age home.
Some depict Biblical events and utopian prophesies, such as the biblical
phrase "the wolf shall dwell with the lamb"; others are based on symbols
such as the "Lion of Judah" and emblems of the Twelve Tribes. Four wall
tiles on the Municipal Boys School juxtapose ancient holy places (the Tomb
of the Patriarchs in Hebron) and new places built by Zionist endeavor (the
Technion in Haifa). A particularly popular subject were landscapes of the
Land of Israel with their characteristic flora and fauna.
One of the most interesting motifs catalogued by Batia Carmiel are a pair
of tiles depicting two coins, found on matching columns in the house of
Hebrew "national poet" Haim Nachman Bialik. One is a facsimile of an
ancient coin bearing the inscription "Judea capta" (Judea is captured),
cast to mark the end of the Jewish Revolt against Rome in the first
century CE. The other is a matching Coin - most probably conceived by
Bialik himself - with the words "Judea libera" (Judea is liberated).
The cyclical "boom or bust" nature of the construction industry brought an
end to the brief heyday of ceramic embellishments on Tel Aviv buildings.
When an economic crisis hit the Jewish community in the late 1920s,
commission of decorative tiles ceased. By the time the economic crisis
passed, Tel Aviv had been transformed into a major city, the country's
main cultural and economic center, reducing the need for external
expressions of Zionist identity and aspirations.