Want of Matter

“Want of Matter” (in Hebrew: דלות החומר; Dalut HaHahomer) is an Israeli style of art that existed in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Characteristics of this style include the use of “meager” creative materials, artistic sloppiness, and criticism of the social reality and the myth of Israel society. Among the artists identified with “Want of Matter” are Raffi Lavie, Yair Garbuz, Michal Na'aman, Tamar Getter and Nahum Tevet.

The “Want of Matter” style grew out of a historical-retrospective view of Israeli art. The name originated in an exhibition called “The Want of Matter: A Quality in Israeli Art” curated by Sara Breitberg-Semel, which took place in March 1986 at the Tel Aviv Museum. Breitberg-Semel, then curator of Israeli art at the museum, mounted this exhibition as a summation and continuation of the exhibitions “Artist,Society,Artist” and “Different Spirit” (1981). It was an attempt to distinguish between local art and the style of international art of this period by means of a sociological and esthetic survey of Israeli artists and their attitude toward European artistic traditions. Breitberg-Semel saw the roots of the style in Pop Art, Arte Povera and Conceptual art. Another highly significant element in Breitberg-Semel’s view was the concept “anesthetic,” the roots of which could be found in the Jewish Talmudic tradition, which puts the text in the center of culture.

Breitberg-Semel’s attempt to trace the development of “Want of Matter” gave rise to a clear historical line, beginning with the painting of the “New Horizons” group. The members of this group developed an abstract style that came to be known as “lyrical abstract” within the framework of which the painters created an abstraction of form influenced by Expressionism. The artists who followed in the footsteps of these artists, Aviva Uri and Arie Aroch, used the artists of the “Want of Matter” group as their esthetic model with regard to their relationship to the materials they used in their paintings, to their ascetic materialism, and to their combined use of the abstract and veiled iconography.

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Wikipedia