SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY, REVIEWS, CATALOGUE ESSAYS

~ Tamar Hirschl’s Exchange Point, by Linda Weintraub, Ex. Cat. Essay, July 2008
~ artis Contemporary Israeli Art (Spring 2008), ed. Yael Reinharz & Frances Barrow, March 2008
~ ‘Cool Globes’ Teaches While It Delights, by Alan G. Artner, The Chicago Tribune, June 2007
~ Cool Globes-Hot Ideas for a Cooler Planet, by Rubin Lloyd, Art Knowledge News, June 2007
~ “Portraits” television interview, produced by Blazer Media for Jewish Life Television (JLTV), Jan 2007
~ Tamar Hirschl’s Time Bomb, by Tsipi ben-Haim, Yedioth America, January 2007
~ Things Fall Apart: Tamar Hirschl and Collage, by Tom Finkelpearl, The Queens Courier, Dec. 2006
~ Moment Gallery: Tamar Hirschl-Mementos III, Moment Magazine, October 2006
~ Things Fall Apart: Tamar Hirschl and Collage, by Tom Finkelpearl, Ex. Cat:, September 2006
~ The Art of Tamar Hirschl, Artists’ Archive documentary film for Queens Museum, NY. August 2006
~ Speed Limit, by Sophie Fels, Time Out NY, May 2006
~ A Museum Grows In Queens, by Leil Liebowitz, The NY Jewish Week, January 2006
~ Bienalde ‘Iki Kita ve Otesi’, CNN Turkey, October 18, 2005
~ Krasdale Galleries Nurture Art in the Workplace, by John Roche, Bronx Times, Sept 2005
~ Conflict Resolution, by Susan Hagen, The Philadelphia City Paper, Nov. 2004
~ At Home and In Israel, Expressing Passions, by D.Dominick Lombardi, The NY Times, 2001
~ Bridges of Memories, documentary film, 2000, produced by the Government of Croatia and
   Jerusalem Film: Jakov Sedlar, Producer, narrated by Martin Sheen
~ Art the Thread of her Existence, by Michelle Boos, Art Tribune, May 2000
~ Returning to the Childhood City: Souls Portrayed on Canvas, Sineva Pasini, GLORIA, 1999
~ Tamar Hirschl’s Spectrum, by Cynthia Nadelman, ArtNews, 1999

Biography

Tamar Hirschl was born in Zagreb, Croatia, when Europe was facing the first bitter winter of the World War II. Encouraged by her mother, she began drawing at an early age. A bright Zagreb childhood was deeply darkened when her father was abruptly kidnapped and later discovered perished in the Jasenovac concentration camp. An unsuccessful escape attempt brought Tamar, her mother and sister to a detention camp in Hungary. Eventually they were released to find their way back to Zagreb on foot. The family relocated to Israel in 1948, when the new state was embroiled in a struggle for its existence, and Tamar’s early years were filled with fear of war, terrorism, and the isolation imposed by the new language barrier.

Overcoming those early obstacles, Tamar worked on theatrical set designs and designed textiles in her teens, and studied art at the Bezalel School of Art in Jerusalem and the Tel Aviv Kalisher School of Art and State College of Art in Tel Aviv. Garnering solo exhibitions in Israel, Europe, and the United States, she established a successful artistic career in Israel, where she lived for 51 years before moving to New York City in 1999.

Since opening her New York studio, Tamar’s works have grown larger in format, more varied and daring in materials and techniques, and stronger, more gestural and expressive in response to her new surroundings.

With her European, Middle Eastern and American background, Tamar has been deeply concerned, as a world citizen, with the forces in life that disrupt and separate people, nations and religions. Tamar speaks five languages, and in the last five years, she has visited 33 countries, finding inspirations during her travels which, in turn influence her art. She records her impressions constantly, exploring new ways of seeing and synthesizing the world, and everything in it.

“Ever since I can remember, I’ve lived partly in my imagination and partly in the real world, not really with my two feet on the ground,” Hirschl says. “I would say that in my paintings I have a kind of dialogue with myself and among the images which are always appearing to me…In my imagination, I try to bridge the past and the future through different forces which come together in the present…..what I end up with is the paintings, which have a kind of personal archeology contained in them.”

Copyright © 2007