This exhibition is a retrospective look at Ruth Schloss’s oeuvre, which dealt with the power dynamics between the powerful and the vulnerable in Israeli society. The exhibition focuses its humanistic and profound gaze on how Ruth viewed reality in her courageous and clear political statement regarding Palestinians – those who live here alongside us. This attitude naturally brought her to many years of collaboration with Sayid Abu Shaqra and the Umm el-Fahem Art Gallery.

The exhibition presents a unique encounter between Schloss’s illustrations, which generations of Israeli Jews grew up on, and her works of protest against the collective narrative; between the innocent childhood heroes in her children’s books and the underprivileged outcasts she depicts elsewhere; between her illustrations used as a “representative” intended to serve the party line in the ’40s and ’50s and her direct portrayals of injustice and suffering that society does not wish to see.      

In addition to the illustrations, which are presented for the first time alongside her works as a painter, the exhibition offers a glimpse behind the scenes with photographs documenting her studio and how it changed over her 70 fruitful years of activity.

Ruth Schloss died in 2013 at the age of 91. But her spirit is still here, living and breathing, and her works are more relevant than ever.

Were we to ask her where she would want to hold an exhibition celebrating her centennial, her answer would likely be “at Umm el-Fahem Art Gallery” – on the thin humanist line that connects the public and the personal and brings Jews and Arabs together.

Grand opening: 12:00, 21 Jan 2023
Exhibition closes: 9 Sep. 2023 with a Gallery Talk
The exhibition is open Sunday-Thursday and Saturdays between
09:00-15:00

Curator: Nurit Tal-Tenne