The Negev Museum of Art is honored to present the exhibition Five Women by artist Hava Mehutan (1925-2021), one of the most important sculptors in the history of local art, and a pioneer of the art scene in Beersheba and the Negev.

This exhibition centers on the representation of women through a selection of Hava Mehutan’s works. While these sculptures are of different periods, different materials, and different visual values, every one of them is a sculpture of a woman. “Female identity has always interested me,” said Mehutan, explaining that “it sometimes appears as the subject matter and other times unconsciously. My work is personal, subjective, emotionally expressive and stems from my own identity as a woman.”

This modest exhibition of Hava Mehutan turns a spotlight to the work of an important artist who has largely fallen out of the public eye. This is also an opportunity to celebrate Mehutan’s work from the museum’s collection, which is usually kept in the darkness of the collection storage; and of course, this is also an opportunity to bring Hava Mehutan back to the Negev Museum of Art, which has been like a home to her.

Curator: Ron Bartos