International Journal of Art and Art History

Revisiting Israeli Art Canon: The Story of Mashkof Group, 1968-1970
Noa Avron Barak

Abstract
This historiographical article’s main goal is to fill the critical gap in the historical narrative of Israeli art by uncovering the activity of a previously unstudied, yet highly influential, Mashkof group - a multidisciplinary group of painters, poets and musicians operated in Jerusalem during the years 1968 to 1970. The group aimed to challenge old forms of art made in the city and to undermine institutional conventions of art presentation. Mashkof operated duringan important era in Israeli art as it shifted from art of the object to conceptual art.While Mashkof is not considered to be part of the local, narrow-based, art canon, its role in this conceptual turn is crucial. This article will fill this lacuna in the research of Israeli art and argue that Mashkof’s unique group activity formed the basis for the growth of conceptual art and conceptualism in Jerusalem as early as the late 1960s, and established the institutional and public acceptance that allowed its nationwide spread in the 1970s.

Full Text: PDF       DOI: 10.15640/ijaah.v4n2a3