Jacob El Hanani's Four-Decade Micrography Exhibition at Acquavella Galleries

Jacob El Hanani's exhibition at Acquavella Galleries showcases four decades of his micrography practice, where minuscule script forms abstract compositions. The Casablanca-born, Israel-raised artist, educated in Paris and based in New York, adapts the medieval Jewish technique of micrography—originally used to circumvent prohibitions on imagery—into contemporary abstract works. His recent pieces show a stylistic shift toward greater freedom and lyricism, with titles referencing J.M.W. Turner's landscapes and Piet Mondrian's cityscapes. El Hanani notes that after decades of self-imposed austerity, he now embraces a looser approach, a common evolution among aging artists. The exhibition, featured on October 2, 2017, is located at 18 East 79th Street in New York City, between Madison and Fifth Avenues. R.B. Kitaj's description of El Hanani's work as a 'portable ark of the covenant' from his First Diasporist Manifesto highlights the artist's connection to ancestral traditions. The show presents ethereal, mind-boggling feats of line and text, blending minimalism's iconoclasm with historical craft. This display at Acquavella Galleries underscores El Hanani's unique position in contemporary art, merging rigorous technique with evolving expressive freedom.