World renowned artist and designer Ghiora Aharoni has been named as the Humanities Council’s Spring 2024 Belknap Visitor in the Humanities. As part of Aharoni’s visit, he will deliver a public lecture on March 28 at 4:30 pm in 016 Robertson Hall. The lecture, titled “‘What is, it already was, and what will be, it already is’…Time and Text as a Creative Lens,” will explore the theme of interconnectivity.
The lecture is co-sponsored by the Princeton University Art Museum, the Department of Art & Archaeology, the Department of Religion, the Department of Near Eastern Studies, and the Program in Judaic Studies. Aharoni will be introduced by Esther Schor, chair of the Humanities Council and the John J. F. Sherrerd ’52 University Professor and professor of English.
“Ghiora Aharoni is a force of nature,” said Schor. “His works, which involve both scientific and religious artifacts, are intimately involved with a variety of mystical traditions; they are syncretic in the deepest sense.”
Through his artwork, Aharoni invites audiences to question basic assumptions about time and language, to expand perceptions of culture, religion, and gender, and to rethink established social constructs.
Prior to the talk, Aharoni will install and display “GER/The Stranger” in the adjacent Bernstein Gallery in Robertson Hall. The sculpture, which explores duality and coexistence, contains engraved glass with Hebrabic/Arabrew © text, an amalgam of Hebrew and Arabic created by Aharoni himself.
Aharoni’s work has been exhibited internationally and is displayed in the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Centre Pompidou, The Morgan Library & Museum, The Vatican Library, The National Gallery of Art, The Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, The Anu Museum and The Huntington Library and Museum.
The Belknap Visitors in the Humanities program was created to recognize distinguished individuals in the arts and letters. Previous visitors include Toni Morrison, Eudora Welty, Nadine Gordimer, Roy Lichtenstein, John Updike, Peter Sellars, Arthur Miller, Adrienne Rich, Maurice Sendak, Wim Wenders, Twyla Tharp, Robert Alter, Meryl Streep, Maya Lin, and Stephen Sondheim.
Read more about Ghiora Aharoni’s public lecture on the Humanities Council website.
