A major exhibition of contemporary Israeli art opened last week in Rome.
It features 40 works from a private collection that Tel Aviv University art historian Mordechai Omer described as the most important display of Israeli paintings ever seen here.
The exhibition is co-sponsored by the Italian Ministry of Culture, the Parliamentary Association of Italian-Israeli Friendship and the Israeli Embassy.
The paintings, from the collection of Israeli businessman Joseph Hackmey, represent the work of eight artists.
While all have attained international stature, their paintings, whether abstract or representational, are distinctively Israeli, Omer points out in the catalogue.
The exhibition recently toured Peru, Germany, Belgium and Portugal and will go to Czechoslovakia from Rome.
The artists are Michael Gross, Moshe Kupferman, Ori Reizman, Aviva Uri, Raffie Lavie, Moshe Gershuni, Uri Lifshitz and Ofer Lelouche.
All except Lelouche and Kupferman were born in Israel.
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