Hebrew Calligraphy
Hebrew Calligraphy
On September 15th, WINZAVOD, the Centre for Contemporary Art hosted the first lecture of the mini-series entitled Hebrew Art: The Signs of Creation. Hebrew Calligraphy in Visual Arts organized by the Eshkolot project: Hebrew Culture Through Edutainment in Lectures, Seminars, and Master-classes.
Hebrew calligraphy and typography play an important part in the world’s history of visual arts. Since book printing was invented, many typographers and artists have set their minds on creating new script design for the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Every one of them faced a two-fold challenge: to devise an easily legible script that would retain its aesthetic and decorative aspect.
During his lecture, Alexander Mishori, Doctor of Art History (Israel) has traced the usage of Hebrew alphabet in visual arts from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century paying special attention to the transformations of the alphabet’s religious and ritual function in the modern secular Israeli culture.
In particular, his lecture featured a series of works by contemporary Israeli artists who employ the Hebrew alphabet to create postmodern art pieces based on pun, polysemy, slang, and numerology.