Focus Gallery: Mordecai Ardon

The Israeli artist Mordecai Ardon’s (1896–1992) final triptych, Hiroshima – Il fut soir, il fut matin (1988), is the latest in a series of Art in Focus installations in the museum’s collection galleries. Ardon rendered Hiroshima as a bustling metropolis before the nuclear bomb ( Nocturn ), during the exact moment of destruction in 1945 ( 8h15 du matin ), and in its aftermath ( L’Ombre – requiem final ). Grappling with the devastating magnitude of the bombing at Hiroshima, the work embodies the artist’s reflections on trauma during the last years of his life. This focused installation is located on Floor 3 within Identity, Culture, and Continuity: Stories from the Collection of the Jewish Museum .