DANI KARAVAN

Monument to the Negev Brigade, Beersheva, constructed between 1963 and 1968.

Dani Karavan's father Abraham was the chief landscape architect of Tel Aviv from the nineteen forties to the nineteen sixties^[1]and so shared his aptitude for environmental design. At the age of 14 Dani Karivan began studying painting and later in 1943 studied with Marcel Jancoin Tel Aviv and from 1943 to 1949 at the Bezalal School of Arts in Jerusalem. After spending the time between 1948 and 1955 as a kibbutzmember he returned to studying art. From 1956 to 1957 he studied fresco technique at the Academia delle Belle Arti in Florence and drawing at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris.^[1]

Karavan made permanent installations in the form of wall reliefs in Israeli courts and research institutions.^[1] Examples of his artwork for courts are the 1966 Jerusalem City of Peace wall relief in the Knessetassembly hall and the environmental sculptures comprising 35 wall reliefs & iron sculpture made between between 1962 and 1967 at the Court of Justice in Tel Aviv. For the Weizmann Institute of Science he made the From the Tree of Knowledge to the Tree of Life wall relief in 1964 and the Memorial to the Holocaust in 1972.

"Way of Peace" constructed 1996-2000 between Israel and Egypt.

For performance groups he designed stage sets throughout the nineteen sixties and seventies. These included the Martha Graham Dance Company, the Batsheva Dance Company, and the Israel Chamber Orchestra amongst others.

After representing Israel with his Jerusalem City of Peace sculpture at the 1976 Venice Biennale, he obtained more international commissions - including sculptures in France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Spain, and Switzerland.  One such project was a memorial entitled Passages for Walter Benjamin constructed between 1990 and 1994 in Portbou at the Spanish-French border in Spain where the German-Jewish author died in September 1940.

Though their construction ended in the 50s, Dani Karavan's advocacy of Tel Aviv's modern international style buildings encouraged their restoration and the inscription of The White City as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Along with an exhibition about the city's architecture at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art in the mid-1980s, Dani Karavan convinced mayor Shlomo Lahatto form a jury of international architecture and art critics to review these buildings. The value they placed on the city's town planning and design led to conservation in the 90s and acceptance by UNESCO in 2003. 

In 1977 Dani Karavan was awarded the Israel Prize  and in 1998 was one of five recipients of the Japanese annual Praemium Imperiale art prize.

Installation called "No Way out" by Israeli artist Dani Karavan on March 13, 2008 during the presentation of his exhibition "Dani Karavan  Retrospective" running from March 14 to June 01 at the Martin-Gropius-Bau Museum in Berlin.

Dani Karavan Biography

1930   Born in Tel-Aviv 1943 - 1949   Studied art in Tel-Aviv with the painters Avni, Steimatsky, Streichmann and Marcel Janco as well as at the Academy of Fine Arts of Bezalel in Jerusalem with the painter Ardon 1943 - 1955   Member of a kibbutz 1958   First price for the design of the pavilions of the Ministry of Development -10th anniversary of Israël, Jerusalem 1973   Nominated member of the Italian Order of Arts and Letters 1977   Awarded The Israel National Prize for Art and Science (Prass, Israel) 1984   Nominated Officer "Ordre des Arts et des Lettres" 1992   Awarded UNESCO's Miro Medal 1992   Silver medal - Arts plastiques de l'Académie d'architecture, Paris 1993   Nominated "Commandeur" by Jack Lang, Paris, France 1993   Awarded UNESCO's Picasso Medal 1994   Awarded the Crystal Award, World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland for his contribution to the dialogue between artists and for his work in favor of peace 1995   Crystal Award, World Economic Forum, Davos, Suisse 1996   Awarded the Goslar Kaiser Ring for Art, Germany 1996   Nominates as UNESCO's "Artist for Peace" 1997   Doctor Honoris Causa, Doctor of Philosophy, Haifa University, Israël 1998   Praemium Imperiale – Japon (Nobel Price for the Arts) 1999   Goethe Medal, Germany 1999   Doctor Honoris Causa – Philosophy Faculty at the University of Hebraic, Jerusalem 2000   Nominated member at the Academy of Arte e disegno, Florence 2002   Doctor Honoris Causa – Weizman Institute, Israël 2002   Invited professor in different art schools (Israël, Japon, France … ) 2002   Participation at different symposiums and academic forums in the world 2002   Nominated member of the Drawing Academy of Florence, Italy 2003   Nominated honorary member of Shenkar College of engineering and design, Israel 2004   Awarded the Piepenbrock Prize for Sculpture, Germany 2005   Michel Angelo Price for Sculpture, Carrara, Italy   Married to Hava and father to Noa, Tamar and Yael   Lives in Tel-Aviv, Paris and Florence.

Selected Exhibitions

2005   Exhibition Dani Karavan : project of Murou, booth of the Galery Jeanne-Bucher at the FIAC , followed by an exhibition at the gallery Jeanne-Bucher, Paris. Models, sculptures, drawings, video and text. 2004 - 2005   Environmental sculpture, Rabin Health Center, Israel 2004   Environmental sculpture, Sculpture Symposium, Taoyuan, Taipe, Taiwan 2004   Environmental sculpture, Sculpture Symposium, University of Puerto Rico 2004   Environment, Rabin Centre, Tel Aviv, Israel (work in progress) 2004   Sculpture, Villa Lemm, Berlin, Germany (work in progress) 2004   “10 Years to Passages - Homage to Walter Benjamin”, one man exhibition, Galera d'Art Horizon, Colera & Centre Bonastruc Ca Porta, Girona, Spain 2004   “Writing Images Ideas - Walter Benjamin and the Art of the Present Day”, group exhibition, Haus am Waldsee, Berlin, Germany 2004   Awarded the Piepenbrock Prize for sculpture, Germany 2004   Environmental sculpture, Hospital, Pistoia, Italy 2003   Honorary Fellow of the Shenkar College of Engineering and Design 2003   Omaggio a Arnolfo di Cambio, Florence, Italy (work in progress) 2003   Environmental sculpture, Westergasfabriek, Amsterdam, Netherlands (work in progress) 2003   Environmental sculpture, German Federation of Trade Unions, Duisburg, Germany 2002   Inauguration of the Bridge over the Oise River, Axe Majeur, Cergy Pontoise, France 2002   "Adam & Eve", sculpture, Il Giardino di Daniel Spoerri, Tuscany, Italy 2002   "Tsmiha", sculpture, Biennale of the Carrara, Carrara, Italy 2002   Environmental sculpture, Columbia University, New York, USA (work in progress) 2002   "Pardes", installation, one-man exhibition, Institute of Modern Art in Valencia (IVAM), Spain 2002   "Dani Karavan Site Specific Works", one-man exhibition, Moscow State Museum of Architecture, Moscow, Russia 2002   “The Axe Majeur”, FIAC, Grand Palais, Paris, France 2001   “Bamot – Hommage to Martha Graham”, 18 bronze sculptures, donation to Bath Sheva Denace Company, Israel 2001   “Messages from the Arcadia”, group exhibition, Kirishima Open Air Museum, Kagoshima, Japan 2001   “Requiem for the Staircase”, group exhibition, CCCB, Barcelona, Spain 2001   “Love at First Sight”, group exhibition, Israel Museum, Jerusalem 2001   "Kadish - requiem for a Tzabar", installation (together with the Israeli sculptor Menashe Kadishman), Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura, Japan 2001   Environmental Sculpture, Habima Cultural Square, Tel Aviv, Israel (work in progress) 2001   Memorial for the Sinti and Roman, Berlin, Germany (work in progress) 2000   "Midbar", environmental sculpture, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel-Aviv, Israel 2000   Environmental project for Murou village, Nara Prefecture, Japan (work in progress)

Dani Karavan's Negev Monument

Passagen. Hommage an Walter Benjamin, 1990–94. Portbou, Spanien; © Dani Karavan, Foto: Jaume Blasi

Way to the Hidden Garden (Detail), 1992–99. Sapporo Open Air Sculpture Park, Sapporo, Japan. © Dani Karavan

Kikar Levana (White Square, Detail), 1977–88. Edith Wolfson Park, Tel Aviv, Israel. © Dani Karavan, Foto: Avraham Hai