Tel Aviv Museum of Art
The Tel Aviv Museum of Art (Hebrew: מוּזֵאוֹן תֵּל אָבִיב לְאֻמָּנוּת, romanized: Muzēʾon Tēl ʾĀvīv Ləʾommānuṯ; Arabic: مَتْحَف تَلّ أَبِيب لِلفُنُون, romanized: Matḥaf Tall ʾAbīb Līl-funūn) is an art museum in Tel Aviv, Israel. The museum is dedicated to the preservation and display of modern and contemporary art both from Israel and around the world.
Also recorded as Tel Aviv Museum · TAMA
Tel Aviv Museum of Art

Itayba at Hebrew Wikipedia · Public domain
- Founded
- 1932.
- Headquarters
- Tel Aviv.
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The Tel Aviv Museum of Art (Hebrew: מוּזֵאוֹן תֵּל אָבִיב לְאֻמָּנוּת, romanized: Muzēʾon Tēl ʾĀvīv Ləʾommānuṯ; Arabic: مَتْحَف تَلّ أَبِيب لِلفُنُون, romanized: Matḥaf Tall ʾAbīb Līl-funūn) is an art museum in Tel Aviv, Israel. The museum is dedicated to the preservation and display of modern and contemporary art both from Israel and around the world.
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wikidata · Q1267958 · wikipedia · Tel Aviv Museum of Art
In this article
History
History
The Tel Aviv Museum of Art was established in 1932 in a building at 16 Rothschild Boulevard that was the former home of Tel Aviv's first mayor, Meir Dizengoff, who had donated the property for a museum in memory of his wife, Zina, following her death in 1930. Haim Gamzou was tapped to lead the foundation of the new museum as its first director. On 14 May 1948, 250 delegates quietly gathered at the museum for the historic signing of the Israeli Declaration of Independence. In 1971, the building became Independence Hall when the museum relocated to 27 Shaul Hamelech Boulevard. Curator Nehama Guralnik began working at the museum in 1971, when French was the common language among staff, including Gamzou the director, administrators, and the curators. Catalogues were printed in French and Hebrew, with English introduced later that decade. Guralnik curated more than 40 exhibitions during her 34-year tenure as international art curator. The Helena Rubinstein Pavilion for Contemporary Art opened in 1959. Planning for a new building began in 1963 when the museum's collections of modern and contemporary art began to outgrow the premises. Construction commenced in 1966 but stopped for two years due to shortage of funds, before moving to its current location in 1971. Another wing was added in 1999 and the Lola Beer Ebner Sculpture Garden was established. The museum also contains "The Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Art Education Center", opened in 1988. The museum houses a comprehensive collection of classical and contemporary art, especially Israeli art, a sculpture garden and a youth wing. Suzanne Landau, following 34 years at the Israel Museum, was appointed director and chief curator of the museum in 2012. In 2018, the museum set an all-time attendance record with 1,018,323 visitors, ranking 70th on the list of most visited art museums. In 2019, the museum set a new attendance record, ranking 49th with 1,322,439 visitors. In 2022, it again ranked 49th, with 1,070,714 visitors. In 2023, it was ranked 48th on The Art Magazine's list of the 100 most popular museums in the world. On 23 March 2023, Tel Aviv Museum of Art was partially closed, in participation with Israel's "day of paralysis" during the 2023 Israeli judicial reform protests. Following the 7 October attacks and subsequent incidents related to the Gaza war, the Israel–Hezbollah conflict, and the 2024 Iran–Israel conflict, the museum removed several items on display and stored them for safekeeping in a secured basement. It also moved other exhibitions to a more protected space on the facility's lower levels. The plaza in front of the museum also became an encampment dedicated to the hostages in Gaza called Hostages Square. In July 2023, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art initiated review of a $670,000 donation by Austrian billionaire Ingrid Flick, whose fortune was allegedly inherited through marriage to the heir of Friedrich Flick, a German industrialist found guilty of war crimes. In response, Flick stated that “As a person with an affinity for art and a collector of modern art, it has been a personal desire of mine for many years to support art that is also open to the public. [...] The Tel Aviv Museum of Art was, therefore, only one of several institutions to which I am pleased to donate. This donation and my personal motivation to contribute to the Tel Aviv Museum of Art has nothing to do with the history of my late husband’s family. Such speculation serves only to insult the valuable work of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, which I will gladly continue to support in the future.”
Buildings (21st century)
Buildings (21st century)
The Tel Aviv Museum of Art includes The Paulson Family Foundation Building, its main structure on Shaul Hamelech Boulevard; the Herta and Paul Amir Building; and the Eyal Ofer Pavilion.
Paulson Family Foundation Building
Paulson Family Foundation Building
Marking its 90th anniversary, the museum's main building was refurbished and renamed The Paulson Family Foundation Building in 2021, in honour of its benefactors.
Herta and Paul Amir Building
Herta and Paul Amir Building
In November 2011, the Herta and Paul Amir Building on the western side of the museum opened. It houses an Israeli Architecture Archive, and a new section of Photography and Visual arts. The new building was designed by architect Preston Scott Cohen. The new wing houses 18,500 square feet of gallery space over five floors. The Amir building also contains Pastel, a fine dining restaurant led by Chef Hilel Tavakuli.
Eyal Ofer Pavilion
Eyal Ofer Pavilion
In May 2023, following an extensive renovation of the Helena Rubinstein Pavilion for Contemporary Art, it was reopened as the Eyal Ofer Pavilion, in honour of its contemporary benefactor, with the first retrospective of the works of Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti in Israel exhibited on all four levels. The renovation was led by architect Amnon Rechter, whose father, Israel Prize laureate architect Yaakov Rechter, built the original pavilion in 1959.
Institutional history
Dated record
Institutional history
The full dated record · 2 entries
1932
Tel Aviv Museum of Art established.
1932
Tel Aviv Museum of Art is recorded from 1932.
Permanent collection
Permanent collection
The Museum's collection represents some of the leading artists of the first half of the 20th century and many of the major movements of modern art in this period: Fauvism, German Expressionism, Cubism, Futurism, Russian Constructivism, the De Stijl movement and Surrealism, French art from the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists to the School of Paris including works of Chaïm Soutine, key works by Pablo Picasso from the Blue and Neo-Classical periods to his Late Period, Cubist paintings by Albert Gleizes, Jean Metzinger, several sculptures by Jacques Lipchitz, and Surrealists works of Joan Miró. One section of the Museum displays the history of Israeli art and its origins among local artists in the pre-state Zionist community of the early twentieth century. In 1989, the American pop artist Roy Lichtenstein created a giant two-panel mural especially for the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. It hangs in the entrance foyer. The Collection includes several masterpieces, among them the painting Friedericke Maria Beer, 1916 by the Austrian artist Gustav Klimt and Untitled Improvisation V, 1914, by the Russian master Wassily Kandinsky. The Peggy Guggenheim Collection, donated in 1950, includes 36 works by Abstract and Surrealist artists, including works of Jackson Pollock, William Baziotes, and Richard Pousette-Dart, and Surrealists works by Yves Tanguy, Roberto Matta, and André Masson.Sculptures are displayed in the entrance plaza and in an internal sculpture garden. In addition to a permanent collection, the museum hosts temporary exhibitions of individual artists' work and group shows curated around a common theme.
Documents and archives
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q1267958: Tel Aviv Museum of Art
Reputable secondary · Wikidata
- “Tel Aviv Museum of Art”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
scholarly publication
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.About \ Tel Aviv Museum of Art. www.tamuseum.org.il.
- 2.Goloperov, Vadim. Meir Dizengoff: The Odessan Who Built Tel Aviv. odessareview.com. The Odessa Review. 30 October 2017.
- 3.Slavicek, Louise. The Establishment of the State of Israel. Infobase Holdings, Inc. 3. 1 September 2021. 9781646936618.
- 4.Newsweek Digital. Declaring the State of Israel on May 14, 1948. newsweek.com. 14 May 2015.
- 5.Raymont, Henry. Declaring the State of Israel on May 14, 1948. The New York Times. 19 April 1971.
- 6.Gilerman, Dana. No Room for Another Ego at the Museum. Haaretz. 21 March 2005.
- 7.Tel Aviv's new museum to be dedicated today, New York Times
- 8.Tel Aviv Museum.
- 9.About \ Tel Aviv Museum of Art.
- 10.Israel Office of Information. Facts and Figures. 121. 1985.
- 11.Riba, Naama. After Decades at the Top of the Israeli Art World, Suzanne Landau Is Back With a New Adventure. Haaretz. 25 November 2020.
- 12.Tel Aviv Museum of Art drew over a million visitors in 2018. Haaretz.
- 13.Tel Aviv Museum of Art.
- 14.Cheshire, Lee. The 100 most popular art museums in the world—who has recovered and who is still struggling?. The Art Newspaper. 27 March 2023.
- 15.Steinberg, Jessica. Tel Aviv Museum of Art among 50 most popular museums worldwide. The Times of Israel. 4 April 2023.
- 16.Seymour, Tom. Tel Aviv Museum of Art partially closes in support of Israel's 'day of paralysis'. The Art Newspaper. 23 March 2023.
- 17.Steinberg, Jessica. Tel Aviv Museum of Art to darken galleries in protest on Thursday. The Times of Israel. 22 March 2023.
- 18.Fearing Iran attack, Israeli museum hides top artworks. France 24. 14 August 2024.
- 19.Staff, ToI. Tel Aviv Museum reexamines donation from fortune of Nazi war criminal. July 15, 2023.
- 20.The Tel Aviv Museum of Art Is Reviewing Its $670,000 Donation by Austrian Billionaire Ingrid Flick, Whose Fortune Is Rooted in Nazi Crimes. July 13, 2023.
- 21.Algemeiner, The. Tel Aviv Museum of Art Reviews Large Donation Tied to Convicted Holocaust War Criminal.
- 22.Roy Lichtenstein, Tel Aviv Museum Mural.
- 23.Tel Aviv Museum of Art. Buildings and Architecture.
- 24.Galanti, Michael. Tel Aviv Museum of Art receives $15m. donation on 90th anniversary. The Jerusalem Post. 7 June 2021.
- 25.Steinberg, Jessica. Tel Aviv Museum of Art receives $15 million gift. The Times of Israel. 2021-06-08. 0040-7909.
- 26.Tourist Israel. Tel Aviv Museum of Art. 30 October 2011.
- 27.Flocking to Tel Aviv Art Museum's new wing.
- 28.Pastel in the Tel Aviv Museum is a pleasure for the palate.
- 29.The world's most beautiful restaurant. Is in Tel Aviv. Haaretz.
- 30.World's most beautiful restaurant is in the Tel Aviv Museum. 28 January 2015.
- 31.Riba, Naama. Tel Aviv Museum Renames Building After Richest Man in Israel. Haaretz. 17 March 2019.
- 32.Opening of the first exhibition of Alberto Giacometti in Israel The Jerusalem Post. 7 May 2023.
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