Lot 46: q - MICHA ULLMAN B. 1939

inscribed with the initial and numbered 6/8

4 1/8 by 14 1/2 by 9 7/8 in.<br><br>10.5 by 37 by 25cm

steel and sand

Executed in 2000

Born in Tel Aviv in 1939, Micha Ullman studied at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem between 1960-64 and at the Central School for Arts and Crafts, London in 1965. Ullman's paintings and sculptures are in the collections of the Stedlijk Museum in Amsterdam, the Berlin National Museum and the Dusseldorf National Gallery of Art as well as the Tel Aviv Museum, the Israel Museum in Jerusalem and the Open Museum in the Industrial Park, Teffen.

The work offered here incorporates the two most significant materials in Micha Ullman's work, iron and red sand. Ullman feels connected to the earth, that it is a part of him. His years in agricultural school, in the kibbutz and then in the army as well as his philosophical intrigue with digging and with the earth all contribute to this fascination.

"Earth is the prime material which Micha Ullman uses to create his works. He digs graves and houses in it, cuts ditches and plants grass and coats his iron sculpture-containers with sand. But he is not an earth artist in the same sense as Robert Smithson and Michael Heizer... For Ullman, earth is sacred and as an artist he handles it with the reverence of a priest." (Doreet LeVitté Harten in Israeli Art around 1990: BiNationale, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Städtische Kunsthalle Düsseldorf and the Artist's House, Moscow, 1990, p. 224).

This work is the second in a series of 5 different Sand Books, each representing a different stage between open and completely shut. Each Sand Book is executed in an edition of 8.