The Moshe Castel Museum of Art in Ma’ale Adumim
Nowhere else can the spiritual world and unique story of this legendary artist be experienced as vividly and deeply as at the Moshe Castel Museum of Art in Ma'ale Adumim.
The museum of the artist Moshe Castel in Ma’ale Adumin opened in 2010, eighteen years after the death of the artist himself. In his lifetime, Moshe Castel won acclaim both in Israel and abroad, and his works are now part of the public collections of museums all over the world, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate Modern gallery in London, the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, etc., as well as private collections. Moshe Castel’s phenomenal works, which were created not just in the Land of Israel, but out of the substance of the Land of Israel, can be seen in Israeli government institutions, including the Knesset and the Israeli President's Residence, and even in the Vatican!
And yet, nowhere else can the spiritual world of this legendary artist be as vividly and deeply experienced as in Ma’ale Adumin. The Castel Museum houses an extensive and versatile collection of his works, showcasing the full range of techniques that he used: oil paintings on canvas, watercolors, sculptures and lithographs, carpets and bronze reliefs – and, naturally, the amazing works created by Castel out of basalt and oil paints. The Castel Museum has opened all its treasures to the public! By the decision of the Museum director general, Haggai Sasson, and its curator, Dr. Alek D. Epstein, all the works in the collection have been taken out of storage and assigned their natural places in the permanent exhibition. Some of the works, such as The Woman with the Fox Pelt, Landscape in the Suburbs of Paris, and Portrait of a Woman, which used to be part of the permanent exhibition, have now been restored to it, following years of absence – they are masterpieces created by the artist while a student at the Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem in the 1920s, or during his sojourn in Paris. These works have featured in books dedicated to Moshe Castel and his oeuvre, and they are beloved by art connoisseurs. Hence, it is only natural for them to be restored to these art lovers.
However, many other works that can be seen by visitors to our Museum have never been exhibited here previously, and some of them have never been published in any album, catalogue, or monograph. From the dramatic painting The Crucified Jew, described by Dr. Amitai Mendelsohn as an artist’s self-portrait, to Basalt from Korazim; from the fantastic High Priest (1965), with its vivid blue colors, to the lyrical and touching Talisman (created in 1984, when Castel was already seventy-five years old) – all these works can now be seen by museum-goers for the first time. Let us ponder the meaning of Basalt from Korazim: This was an ancient Jewish town, which existed from the early 1st century CE to the 8th century, and was swallowed up by the sands of time 1300 years ago; Moshe Castel has breathed new life into it through these wonderful artworks. One of the powers of great art is its ability to ‘turn back the clock’ and allow us to travel not only to faraway places, but to distant historical epochs. The Moshe Castel Museum invites you to take just such a journey through time. This collection of Moshe Castel's works attests to the depth of our historical roots in the Land of Israel, and showcases the international level of the culture that has grown and developed here over the last century.
The Moshe Castel Museum of Art Team:
Director-General – Hagai Sasson
Curator – Dr. Alek D. Epstein
Chief Guide – Eli Raz
Accounting – Orit Rahamim
Receptionist – Pazit Sharvit
Public Relations – Michal Sadan
