Nahum Tevet () (Born 1946, Kibbutz Messilot, Israel) is one of the leading Israeli artists whose work was among the earliest to respond to the minimalist canon by introducing into his installations everyday domestic objects, metaphors and images like in: Corner (1973-4) and Arrangements of Six Units.
Starting the 1980's Tevet’s work turned reductivism upside-down by using geometrical-abstract vocabulary in large-scale intricate labyrinth-like complex sculptures and installations. Those turned into even more extensive installations in the later years 1990s – to today. Tevet has been the subject of major survey exhibitions at both the Israel Museum in Jerusalem and the Tel Aviv Museum
His work has been part of exhibitions worldwide since 1975, such as numerous solo and group exhibitions in Europe and the United States, among which Documenta 8 (1987), the Sao Paulo Biennale (1994), the Biennale of Lyon (1997), the Venice Biennale (2003) and the Carnegie International (1999), and museum shows at the Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig in Vienna (1997), Dundee Contemporary Art (2004), the Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Roma (2008), the Kunstmuseum Bochum (2015), Museum Sztuki Łódź (2017) and Museum Villa Stuck, Munich (2017). His work is included in many important museum collections including MOMA, New York, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Museum Sztuki, Łódź, the Ludwig Foundation, Vienna, the Kaiser Wilhelm Museum, Krefeld, Magasin3, Stockholm, Kunsthalle Mannheim, FRAC Bretagne, the Israel Museum, Jerusalem and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.
Life and career
Nahum Tevet (Toib) Was born in 1946 in Kibbutz Messilot, Israel, to his father Mendel Toib and mother Feiga Merin -Toib, both immigrated from Poland in the 1930's. His mother died when he was a baby.
Nahum was raised in the Kibbutz, and while in high school he starts taking art classes at the art teachers’ school of Oranim Collage (1962-3), with teachers like Marcel Janco, Claire Ianiv and Sima Slonim.
In 1965 he was drafted to the army and after 3 years of obligatory service he returned to his home in the Kibbutz where he set an art studio and worked as a gardener. He started studying on a private mentoring basis with painter Rafi Lavie (1969). Influenced by Lavie he painted on Plywood, However, unlike his mentor, Tevet was not interested in what's going on within the paintings format but rather in the painting as an object, its place and its function within the given space. As early as 1970-71 he stops creating traditional painting and made objects and installations mostly from found materials.
In 1970 he married Neta Dominiz, they kept living in Messilot, and have their first son Yaal in 1972.
In 1972 his first one-person exhibition took place at Sara Gilat Gallery, Jerusalem, in this show Tevet exhibited few sculptural objects made from plywood, paper, masking tapes etc (pic.) and some of his Works on Glass from the same year.
The American Artist Robert Rauschenberg saw Works on Glass while visiting Sara Gilat’s home and got very excited, he purchased five pieces from this series, he then asked to meet Tevet and later sent him a small grant and invited him to come to NYC and meet/work there, Tevet, having no money, arrived in NY only few years later in 1979-1980.
After Yom Kippur War in 1973 the young family moved from the Kibbutz to Petah Tikva, a city near Tel Aviv, where they lived for few years.
In 1975 Tevet had his first show in Europe at the prestigious Galerie Schmella, in Dusseldorf and by 1976 had his first museum solo show at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem (curated by Yona Fischer).
In 1979 he moved, with his family to New York, with the support of the America-Israel Cultural Foundation AICF. On the same year he has his second solo show in New York at the Bertha Urdang Gallery. There he exhibited: Installation for Two Rooms, a work that drew a lot of attention.
In 1980, while still in New York, Nahum Tevet was invited to teach at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, where he quickly became an influential figure as Professor for the Sculpture at the Art Department. By the summer 2000 Tevet was asked to become head of the Advance studies program and was leading the opening of the Bezalel Branch of Salame Street in Tel Aviv. The program shortly became the first recognized MFA program in Israel. Tevet was its director 2001-2010 during this time the program quickly gained local importance and international respectful status and success. Nahum Tevet thought at Bezalel Academy during 1980 -2013.