The works donated by Fine Art Shippers’ co-founder, Ilya Kushnirskiy, to The Moshe Castel Art Museum in Ma’ale Adumim, Israel have become part of a permanent display.
Donations by Fine Art Shippers Go on Permanent Display at The Moshe Castel Art Museum
The gifts are two graphic works by the celebrated Israeli artist Moshe Castel. One is “Yad Absalom,” depicting the tomb of Avshalom (Absalom), son of David, in Jerusalem, and the other is a depiction of an ancient gate in the wall of Old City in Jerusalem. Both works are signed by the artist, with the second one also dedicated to Kalman Gintsburg, an influential Israeli impresario active in the 1950s and 1970s.
Because of space limitations, the museum can only display around 25 graphic works at a time and rotates them every few months. The donated works are now part of the “Hallelujah” gallery, which offers a stunning view of Jerusalem. This gallery is dedicated to showcasing the museum’s most significant printmaking works, serving as both a part of the permanent collection and a permanent exhibition.
Castel was a versatile artist who painted, sculpted, worked with ceramics, and crafted pieces from basalt. He decorated tableware, produced numerous drawings, and created a few watercolors. He developed a remarkable graphic technique—silk-screen prints with gold leaf with a 3D effect.
“Unfortunately, since there is no catalog raisonné of Moshe Castel’s works, we do not know the total number he created,” explained the museum’s curator Dr. Alek Epstein. “We are working to create a catalog raisonné and are constantly looking for ways to acquire new pieces.In the year and a half I’ve been working as a curator, we’ve managed to obtain six new graphic works, increasing our collection from 58 to 64 pieces, he went on to say. “One of the most important acquisitions is “The Tomb of Absalom” donated by Ilya Kushnirskiy. It is one of Castel’s finest lithographs, which we hadn’t had in our collection. “The Gate in the Wall” is especially important as it was dedicated by Castel to Kalman Ginsburg, a leading Israeli impresario. We already had “Gate in the Wall” in our collection, but we did not have a copy with a dedication from Castel himself. We now have around 40 graphic works by the artist, two of which have been donated by Ilya Kushnirskiy, who also gifted a copy of Ginsburg’s posthumously published memoirs. We are deeply grateful to him for enriching our collection. Considering the importance of these lithographs, we have decided to include them in our permanent exhibition.”