Michal Na'aman

From the point of view of values, her work is characterized as conceptual art and deals with such subjects as the limitations of language and sight, the possibilities for expression, and gender issues.

[1] In an interview many years later Na'aman noted that her parents' "non-pioneer" careers drew an unenthusiastic response from the kibbutz members.

In 1969, Na'aman began studying at the Hamidrasha Art Teachers' Training College, which at that time was next to the Beit Histadrut Ha-Morim (Teachers' Union House)[4] At Hamidrasha she studied art with Ran Shechori, Dov Feigin, and Raffi Lavie.

The other artists who exhibited along with Na'aman were Tamar Getter, David Ginton, Nahum Tevet, and Efrat Natan, who knew each other through their connection to Raffi Lavie.

In her series of works entitled "Blue Retouch" (1974–1975), Na'aman made use of photographic images of Zalman Shoshi, Uri Zvi Greenberg, and of a female criminal whose eyes were gouged out.

In the review in the newspaper Al HaMishmar, Chana Bar-Or wrote about the works in Na'aman's exhibition that they represent "one long, difficult system of 'conceptualism' trying to break out of the concept".

Sarah Breitberg Semel described the work retrospectively as a "strip show" by a woman whose body can't be seen.

The fan, as Na'aman described it, "turns and, as it does, mixes white with black, life with death, penguin with nun".

[12] This mixing of different species can be seen also in other works, such as "Lord of Colors" (1976), in which Na'aman created a divergent and mistaken spelling of the name of God, or the series "Fish Bird", the beginning of which dates from 1977.

From 1978 to 1980, Na'aman lived in New York, where she studied in the School of Visual Arts, with the help of a grant she received from the America Israel Cultural Foundation.

In her works from this period Na'aman returned to painting techniques that included the use of stencils and the dribbling on of color.

The paintings, which were dominated by shades of red and black, were composed of strips of newspaper, arranged along vertical and horizontal axles, like a kind of cross.

On the cross images of the "rabbit-duck' appeared, alongside of text fragments and sentences in English connected to the concept of identity".

[13] The works, Na'aman declared, were concerned with "the increase in genetic reproduction" in family images, and in the reciprocity of looks exchanged between you and the world.

One of the paintings she exhibited, "Woman Gazing at a Turtle" (1981), showed schematic human forms performing various physical activities.

The bomb caused a fire in Tamar Getter's exhibition and Na'aman's painting on plywood, "Blood Connection" (1982), was seriously damaged in the blast.

Sarit Shapira claimed, in spite of the increasing use of bodily symbols in Na'aman's works, that these paintings were subjugated to the Zionist intellectual system.

In February 1999, a large solo exhibition of Na'aman's works opened at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art under the title, "ha-Tzvaim".

"The works sometimes look monochromatic," Na'aman testified, "because of the single color brushed across the squares, which stains the masking tape and is left on it.

On February 16, 2002, for example, an exhibition opened at Beit Gabriel in Tzemach, on the Sea of Galilee, called "Miracles on the Water", curated by Gideon Ofrat.

The surface of the work by this name that was shown in this exhibition was painted in monochromatic drips and splatters of the "German" color.

The drips as the presence of the concrete randomness of liquid color and, at the same time, as the artistic expression of catastrophic events, "of injury".

[26] In honor of her winning the prize a retrospective exhibition of her art called "Miki-Mouth" opened on November 25 at HaMidrasha Gallery in Tel Aviv.