Art and designיהושע נוישטיין

Joshua Neustein

Joshua Neustein is a conceptual and visual artist, born in Danzig, known for environmental installations, land art and torn paper works.

born 1940The Jerusalem River ProjectTorn paper worksEnvironmental installations and land artThe Carbon Copy Drawing series

Occupation: painter, draftsperson, conceptual artist

Joshua Neustein was born in 1940 in Gdańsk

Neustein was born in Danzig, now Gdańsk. His family left as refugees, passed through the USSR and Austria, and settled in Brooklyn in the early 1950s.

In New York he studied for 5 years at a Haredi yeshiva. He earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy and history at City College, studied painting at the Pratt Institute, and studied law at New York University.

He moved to Jerusalem in 1964 and was among the first artists to bring environmental and installation art to Israel. With Gerry Marx and Georgette Batlle he made Boots in 1968 and the Jerusalem River Project in 1971, which played the recorded sound of a river in a valley. He also developed torn paper works and the Carbon Copy Drawing series.

In 1981 he returned to New York and has since divided his time between Tel Aviv and New York. In 1983 he made Still Life, burning the outline of a war plane into the ground on the Israel-Lebanon border. His work is held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Israel Museum and other museums.

Milestones in Joshua Neustein's life

1964
Moved from New York to Jerusalem.
1968
Created the installation Boots in Jerusalem with Gerry Marx and Georgette Batlle.
1971
Created the Jerusalem River Project.
1977
Had a retrospective of works on paper at the Tel Aviv Museum.
1981
Returned to New York.
1983
Made Still Life on the Israel-Lebanon border.
1995
Created the Vampire Library at the Israeli pavilion of the Venice Biennale.
2012
Had a retrospective at the Israel Museum.