Ma'ayan Noy

Date of Award

2026

Document Type

MA Project - Open Access - With Distinction

Project Type

MA Project - Curatorial Proposal

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Contemporary Art

First Advisor

Agnes Berecz

Second Advisor

Morgan Falconer

Abstract

From the 1940’s to the 70’s the California-based artist Wallace Berman produced a wide-spreading oeuvre, encompassed drawing, collage, assemblage, single channel video, and three dimensional object making. His practice was deeply informed by his interest in Jazz, Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism, film, and poetry, and more. The transmission and reception of an everflowing stream of references which informs Berman’s creative intake and output adopts a mystical undertone in his grand oeuvre. The unifying theme for Transmission/Reception asserts the centrality of Kabbalistic influences on Berman’s practice, his affinity and spiritual regard for the act of creating. Transmission/Reception underscores Berman’s underlying belief of a unifying force which connects all inputs and outputs in a significant and personal creative flow.  This historical exhibition explores Wallace Berman’s work, and its evolution over time. Berman’s emphasis on cultivating a circle of artists and intellectuals, within the fine arts and beyond, who helped shape his interdisciplinary practice is also an essential component to the exhibition. Contextualizing his practice through his exchange with his peers places Berman f irmly in the countercultural movement of postwar California, and helps ground his work in the ideologies of his wider circle and the sociocultural moment.  Berman’s influence by Kabbalistic mysticism is affirmed through his common inclusion of the Hebrew Letter in his works, his motto of ‘Art is Love is God’, and his reverence for mystics and poets which inform his practice both implicitly and explicitly. The word Kabbalah itself translates to Transmission or reception (depending on the intended use), and underscores the leitmotif as adamantly present in the multiple facets of Berman’s varying, multimedia practice. This exhibition adopts the lens of the spiritually charged transmission of an endless stream of references in displaying Wallace Berman’s art. Transmission/Reception aims to shed light on the overlooked countercultural figurehead, emphasizing Wallace Berman’s significance in the larger artistic movements of the era, and his influence among the artists of the day.

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