Thursday, November 21, 2019

Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City: 5,696 miles from Jerusalem, Israel; 305 miles from JerUSAlem, New York; or 0 cybermiles

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, research fellow at MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies, and professor at universities in Israel.


“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 Israel at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City in time for lunch.  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 virtual 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, the 91 story Azrieli Spiral Tower in construction 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 They launch the book throughout the world from the artist/author’s studio in Israel. See praise for the book at Israel365.

Bottom image: This experimental mixed media artwork by Mel Alexenberg was presented in the “The Second Emerging Expression Biennial: The Artist and the Computer” exhibition at the Bronx Museum of the Arts in New York, September 1987- January 1988, and was acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art for its Department of Drawings and Prints. It is based on a Rembrandt drawing in the same collection.

The text in the The Met’s website reads: “Digitized Homage to Rembrandt: Jacob's Dream, 1986–87, Mel Alexenberg, American (born 1937). Etching, photoetching, and aquatint from computer generated-image, Accession Number 1987.110”

Rembrandt and Chagall Angels of Peace Meet in Jerusalem

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