On the Rise, Israeli Art Hits Town

Reuven Rubin may not have the cachet of de Kooning or Picasso, but he's a star among collectors of modern Israeli art. Fifteen Rubin paintings go on sale today at Sotheby's, which is holding its annual auction of Israeli and International Art. ("International Art" is a euphemism for early 20th-century European Jewish art.) Rubin's auction record is $442,500, for a 1929 painting of sycamores that sold at Sotheby's Tel Aviv in 1999.

The sale moved to New York from Tel Aviv in 2004. "We felt it would be a great way of generating interest in Israeli art," Sotheby's senior vice president, Jennifer Roth, said, adding that 2003 and 2004 weren't great years for tourism in Tel Aviv.

The topical conflicts facing Israeli artists also became global after 2001. "Issues such as borders and terrorism - Israelis have lived with these things for years," Ms. Roth said. Even though the old guard represented by Rubin - and Chagall, who has two paintings on offer today - still earns bigger sale prices, contemporary Israeli artists have attracted the most critical attention.

In the past five years, Israeli contemporary art has become more prominent in international exhibitions. Michal Rovner (b. 1957) had a solo show at the Whitney Museum in 2002, represented Israel at the Venice Biennial in 2003, and currently has a solo show at PaceWildenstein Gallery on West 25th Street.

Today Sotheby's is selling two 1991 photographs by Ms. Rovner, each estimated at $5,000 to $7,000. As in most of Ms. Rovner's work, Israeli politics are present, though veiled and elliptical, in these blurry views of a lone outbuilding that suggests a settler's shack or abandoned home. In the Whitney show, her video "Mutual Interest" (1997) tracked shadowy figures that could have been birds or bombers. Ms. Rovner's auction record is $83,650 for "Border #1" (1998), a photograph sold at a Christie's day sale in 2004.

Prices for the vanguard of contemporary Israeli artists are creeping up toward those of such classic Jewish landscape painters as Rubin and Mordechai Ardon, who were trained in the European style. Last year, a photograph by Adi Nes (b. 1965) sold at Sotheby's for $102,000, double its estimate. An untitled 1995 image by Mr. Nes, of a young soldier dying in the arms of another, is estimated to bring between $9,000 and $12,000 today.

Buyers and sellers of Israeli art have traditionally been Israeli, but the market is broadening. "We have a strong base of Israeli collectors, but at the same time the move to New York has created a large base of American collectors," the managing director of Sotheby's Israel, Rivka Saker, said.

Ms. Saker added that the sale was deliberately timed to take advantage of the international collectors in town for the Armory Show, and that total sales were up relative to previous auctions in Tel Aviv. The New York sale took in $2.6 million in 2004; in 2005, it brought $4 million, which is the low estimate of today's sale. The inclusion of the earlier European artists also helps make the sale more substantive.

The very existence of an Israeli art sale category points to the genre's relative newness and the developing market for it, as well as the unique history and politics of the country. Conflict, arguably, provokes radical art, which is one reason contemporary Israeli art may appear prescient at international exhibitions.

National categories in sales of art usually emphasize a period of formative cultural change for a country. American art at auction generally means works from the 19th century that have a particular fixation on Western themes and landscape. German and Austrian art auctions stick to the works of stylistic innovators before World War II. At the Israeli art auctions, the works cover the nation's entire history, before statehood and up to today, which amounts to a century.

But the categories also cater to buyers, and to aesthetic criteria. Americana buyers tend to be from the West and Russian art buyers tend to be Russian, just as the Israeli art buyers have been predominantly Israeli or Jewish. "At auction, we've seen many Jewish collectors but not exclusively," Ms. Roth said.

Dealers for contemporary Israeli artists say the works are sought after by collectors who are not necessarily looking for something specifically from Israel. Yehudit Sasportas is another contemporary artist in the sale; her untitled abstracted landscape from 2000 is estimated at $4,000 to $6,000. "I think the no. 1 interest in her is because of the vision of her work," Ms. Sasportas's U.S. dealer, Houston gallerist Barbara Davis, said. "It's a universal language. The collectors that have bought her work are contemporary collectors."

As for Mr. Nes, he is sought after "more as a contemporary and international artist, although there is a very strong market for him in Israel," according to his New York dealer, Jack Shainman. On the other hand, being sold as an Israeli artist has not restricted Mr. Nes's market, Mr. Shainman said.

"Can you spot something particularly Israeli about the work in the auction? Not really," Ms. Roth said. "But I think artists everywhere have their fingers on the pulse, the heartbeat of the nation. The concerns of the people come out in the art one way or the other."

Today at 2 p.m. (1334 York Avenue at 72nd Street, 212-606-7000).