And the land is divided into districts of memory and provinces of hope,
And its inhabitants blend with each other
As people returning from a wedding merge with those returning from a funeral.
- Yehuda Amichai, "Love of the Land," 1980 (trans. Benjamin & Barbara Harshav)
Landscape has always been a central theme in local art, depicting the land one yearns for, cultivates, lives on, and eventually returns to. Landscape is also a politically charged subject, touching on belonging, identity, national and religious struggles. In Israel—a country with disputed borders, inhabited by diverse peoples, and situated on a small piece of land with conflicting ownership claims—the artistic gaze at the landscape raises the question: Whose land is it? The gaze reflects the observer, uncovering memories hidden beneath the surface and revealing the perspectives, actions, and passions of those who coexist under the same scorching sun.
The permanent exhibition showcases masterpieces from the Haifa Museum of Art's collection, which encompasses over 8,000 works, charting major trends in the history of local art. It spans works from the late 19th century to the present, where face and topography are mutually reflected, indicating affinities between the furrows of plowed earth and furrowed faces, between sun-scorched soil and tanned skin, between cracked asphalt and wounded flesh.
