Artist Mel Alexenberg launches cyberangels from Israel to thirty museums throughout the world as an homage to Rembrandt on the 350th anniversary of his death. These museums have Rembrandt inspired artworks by Alexenberg in their collections. At Global Tribute to Rembrandt are posts for each of the museums and texts on the impact of digital culture on art by the artist, former art professor at Columbia University and research fellow at MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies.
“He had a vision in a dream. A ladder was standing on the ground, its top reaching up towards heaven as Divine angels were going up and down on it.” (Genesis 28:12)
Angels in Jacob’s dream go up from the Land of Israel and go down throughout the world.
Top image: Rembrandt inspired cyberangels arrive from the Israel Museum in Jerusalem at the café of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in time for lunch at America's table. The biblical words for angel and food are spelled with the same four Hebrew letters to teach that angels are spiritual messages arising from everyday life. Perhaps there is spiritual significance that museums that offer art also offer food.
Second image: The cyberangels begin their flight from the Israel Museum's Shrine of the Book in Jerusalem, home of ancient Bible scrolls. They gain momentum by going up from the tallest building in Israel, home of Facebook’s R&D Center, until construction is completed for the 91 story Azrieli Spiral Tower in Tel Aviv with the shape of a Bible scroll.
Third image: Cyberangels spiral up from a NASA satellite image of the Land of Israel on a smartphone screen on Mel Alexenberg’s newest book Through a Bible Lens: Biblical Insights for Smartphone Photography and Social Media. They launch the book throughout the world from the artist/author’s studio in Israel. See praise for the book at Israel365.
Bottom image: Alexenberg’s lithograph “Digital Homage to Rembrandt: Day Angeles” that has been in the collection of The National Museum of American History since 1987 as a historical exemplar of computer-generated fine art printmaking. In tribute to Rembrandt on the 350th year of his death, his digitized angels dormant in the museum’s flat files awaken to adorn the cover of the 2019 book Through a Bible Lens. The Rembrandt inspired cyberangels fly from the book cover to Washington, DC.
Gary Kulik, Chairman, Department of Social & Cultural History, at the museum wrote:
It gives me great pleasure to acknowledge, on behalf of the National Museum of American History, the receipt of "Digitized Homage to Rembrandt: Day Angels" kindly presented to our Division of Graphic Arts. This lithograph from a computer-generated image is a most valuable addition to our collection. It has been entered on our records as a gift from the Pratt Graphics Center. Please accept my thanks for your generous interest in the national collections.
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