Israel’s 30th anniversary celebrations in Bolivia were officially inaugurated last week with the opening of an exhibition of paintings by the Israeli artist and professor of fine arts, Alexander Plutzer. The exhibition is being held in the National Museum of Art situated at the central square of Bolivia’s capital, La Paz, next to the Presidential palace and the Metropolitan Cathedral. The exhibition is under the auspices of the Bolivian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Israeli Embassy.
The opening of the exhibit was a major social cultural event of the season. Hundreds of guests were present, including Cabinet ministers, ambassadors, intellectuals and artists.
Plutzer, 88, an Impressionist, was born in Poland. He was a well-known figure in artistic circles of pre-World War II Europe. Since 1943 he has lived in Tel Aviv.
The critics of all Bolivian papers unanimously praised Plutzer’s art and some of them dedicated entire pages to their remarks. Special attention was attracted by the monumental painting, “Rescue of Torah Scrolls from a Burning Ghetto Synagogue,” which for years hung at the Yad Vashem Museum in Jerusalem and is considered a national treasure. The painting shows rabbis and a crowd of praying Jews flee from a burning synagogue rescuing burning scrolls.
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