Amnon Barzel


Amnon Barzel is an internationally known art curator and author.

Education

Barzel is a graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he majored in Natural Science. He earned his post-graduate degree in Art History at the University La Sorbonne in Paris.

Career

Upon his return to Israel Barzel became a lecturer at the Avni Institute. From 1970 onwards he contributed regularly to the Israeli Newspaper Ha'aretz; in addition he was a lecturer at the University of Haifa on 20th-century art and in 1971 he was a founding Editor of the IsraelI Art Magazine "Painting and Sculpture".
Barzel was appointed Curator at the Venice Biennale for the Israeli Pavilion in 1976 and 1980 where he presented the work of Dani Karavan, Menashe Kadishman, Micha Ullman and Moshe Gershuni. In 1985 he curated the Israeli Pavilion at the São Paulo Art Biennial. In 1977-78, he was Art Consultant to the mayor of Tel Aviv. Other international posts Barzel has been appointed to include being Artistic Director of The European Sculpture City, Turku, Finland ; Artistic Director of the Targetti Art Light Collection, Florence, Italy; Consultant for the Phoenix International Art Collection, Tel Aviv ; Consultant of the Leube Foundation, Gartenau, Salzburg Artistic Director of the Mercedes Benz Prize for Contemporary Art, Monte Firidolfi, Italy ; Artistic Director of Artostrada ; and Curator of the International Project of Environmental Sculpture in Israel.
Barzel was also the founding director of Centro per l'arte contemporanea Luigi Pecci in 1988. He left the museum in 1992.
In 1994 Barzel was appointed Director of the Jewish Museum in Berlin. His departure in 1997 followed a controversy about the museum's independence.

Publications

Barzel authored and edited more than 100 art books, monographs and exhibition catalogues, including: