Barbara Hines Opens First Israeli Solo Show With Jerusalem Paintings
“Jerusalem in My Soul” brings light, colour and landscape exploration into focus through 30 works about the city. The exhibition opened at the Moshe Castel Museum on October 15.
Artist Barbara Hines opened her first solo exhibition in Israel on October 15 at the Moshe Castel Museum in Maale Adumim. Titled “Jerusalem in My Soul”, the exhibition brings together 30 paintings of Jerusalem created over the past decade.
The show is scheduled to remain on view through December 31. In an interview published by eJewishPhilanthropy on opening day, Hines discussed the city’s place in her work and the connection between her painting and Jewish education.
A city approached through light
The exhibition centres on Jerusalem as a subject that Hines has returned to repeatedly. Her paintings explore the relationship between light, shadow and the shapes of the city, rather than treating the urban landscape as a single fixed view.
The selection gathers work from a ten year period, allowing visitors to see how one place can sustain a continuing artistic investigation. Jerusalem’s history and spiritual associations are part of Hines’s stated connection to the subject.
Thirty paintings give the exhibition a concentrated focus on the city. The works are presented together at a museum dedicated to Moshe Castel, whose own art also attached importance to material and texture.
Earth becomes part of the painting
Hines described mixing earth from Jerusalem with pigments in some of her work. The material connects the surface of a painting with the place it depicts, adding a physical element to an image built from colour and light.
That attention to material creates a point of contact with the museum’s namesake. Castel became known for incorporating ground basalt into his artistic practice. The two artists’ materials and methods are different, while both give viewers reasons to look beyond the represented scene to the surface itself.
Art and Jewish education
Hines’s work has also appeared in Jewish cultural institutions in the United States. Her project “A Celebration of Survival” was commissioned by Holocaust Museum Houston and is held permanently at the Museum of Biblical Art in Dallas.
In the eJewishPhilanthropy interview, she described directing proceeds from painting sales toward Jewish education, including education for women and girls. That philanthropic activity provides context for her public work alongside the new exhibition.
The Maale Adumim show is specifically a presentation of her Jerusalem paintings and marks her first solo exhibition in Israel. Its focus is the work itself and the sustained relationship between the artist and the city as a subject.
Planning a museum visit
The Moshe Castel Museum is at 1 Kikar HaMuseon in Maale Adumim. Its published visitor information lists opening hours of 10:00 to 16:00 on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, with Wednesday opening at noon.
The museum is closed on Fridays, Saturdays and holidays. Visitors planning a Wednesday visit should confirm the closing time directly, as the museum’s published pages give differing evening times. Group visits and questions about access can be arranged with the museum before travelling.
