Yona Fischer, Israeli Curator and Art Critic, Dies at 89

Yona Fischer, the influential Israeli curator, art critic, and museum director, died on March 3, 2022, in Tel Aviv at age 89. Fischer began his career at the Bezalel Museum in 1960 and joined Willem Sandberg at the future Israel Museum in Jerusalem in 1965. He later served as chief curator of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art and founded Art Focus, a contemporary art biennial, in 1993. A Francophile, he directed an artist residency in Jerusalem and curated the 1982 exhibition 'Israel Through the Ages' at the Grand Palais in Paris. Fischer established the Ashdod Museum of Art in 2003, serving as director and artistic advisor until 2010. In 2018, a museum curator school in Israel was named after him. He was known for building bridges between Israeli and French artists, inviting figures like Christian Boltanski, Daniel Buren, and Annette Messager to work in Israel. Fischer authored books including 'Tel Aviv 75 Years of Art' (1984) and 'Chronologie: Artistes français en Israël, 1988-1998'. He was the son of Maurice Fischer, Israel's first ambassador to France. Bernard Blistène, former director of the Musée National d'Art Moderne at Centre Pompidou, wrote a tribute recalling Fischer's dedication to artists and his role in bringing Israeli art to international attention.