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9781032504087

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One of the key architects of modern Israel, both literally and metaphorically, Arieh Sharon not only brought the methods of the Bauhaus to mandate Palestine, he worked at every scale of the emerging Israeli state from the design of individual housing units to planning projects for the urban development of the entire country. Eran Neuman brings new insights to all aspects of the architect’s prodigious body of work, with equal attention to the design inventiveness and to the political and cultural stakes of a career that mirrors the development of the young nation. From the Bauhaus to Israeli architects creating key buildings for newly independent Nigeria, this study is at the very intersection of Israel's emerging place in the world in th 1950s and 1960s. Barry Bergdoll, Meyer Schapiro Professor of Art History, Department of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University The publication of Eran Neuman’s groundbreaking study dedicated to the life and long professional career of Arieh Sharon (1900-1984) marks a pivotal moment in the understanding of the values of modernity in architecture in the transition from Mandatory Palestine to post-independence Israel. The author reflects on the widely influential works of Sharon and his associates (Benjamin Idelson in the decade 1954-64, and his son Eldar, who joined the office in 1965) through a narrative that evolves in eight densely written chapters, framed between a highly interpretative introduction and an epilogue in which the readers find a critical summary of what meant to be the central figure of the new nation’s architect. Although the chapters follow a chronological account —from Sharon’s formative years at the Bauhaus to his projects in Nigeria (1961-76)—the interpretative approach reveals the complexity of intentions of the author, when he is addressing the analysis of the projects for the Kibbutzim, the development of the state planning, and the growth of a civic monumentality. The book shows in unprecedent depth and detail how Sharon’s complex modernism gave shape to the institutions of Israeli independent society. Maristella Casciato, Senior Curator, Head of Architectural Collections, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles

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Eran Neuman (B.Arch., Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem, 1996; MA, UCLA, Los Angeles, 2000; PhD, UCLA, Los Angeles, 2004) is an architect, designer and architectural historian and theoretician. He is a professor of architecture at Tel Aviv University’s Azrieli School of Architecture, which he headed from 2010 to 2018. Since October 2019, he has held the position of Dean of the Faculty of the Arts, Tel Aviv University. Neuman is also the founding director of the Azrieli Architectural Archive at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. His research concentrates on the history of Israeli architecture, both before and after the establishment of the State of Israel; architecture and commemoration; and the influence of technology on architectural design. He lectures frequently at leading institutions around the world. His numerous publications include Shoah Presence: Architectural Representations of the Holocaust, Performalism: Form and Performance in Digital Architecture (with Yasha Grobman), David Yannay: Architecture and Genetics, and Arieh Sharon: The Nation’s Architect.

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