Ben Uri Research Unit

for the study and digital recording of the Jewish, Refugee and wide Immigrant contribution to British visual culture since 1900.


Michael Druks artist

Michael Druks was born in Jerusalem, Mandated Palestine (now the State of Israel) in 1940. He was educated in Israel and soon established himself as the nation's leading young artist. Druks immigrated to London in 1972 where he continued his artistic career.

Born: 1940 Jerusalem, Mandatory Palestine

Died: 2022 London, England

Year of Migration to the UK: 1972


Biography

Conceptual artist and painter Michael Druks was born to Jewish parents in Jerusalem, Mandatory Palestine (now the State of Israel) on 26 September 1940. During his studies in the 1960s at the Art Institute in Bat Yam and the Advanced School of Art in Tel Aviv, he was part of local avant-garde and theatre networks. By the 1960s, his art practice was focused on environmental concerns and in this decade, he became recognised as a leading young Israeli artist. In 1970, Druks won the Working Award for the Creative Artist from the American-Israeli Cultural Foundation and worked in the USA for three months. That same year he was also awarded a British Council Scholarship for Study in Britain. After finishing his residency and studies abroad, Druks returned to Israel and in 1971 he took up a teaching position at the Bezalel Academy of Art in Jerusalem. During this period, he also staged his first street event, removing a public notice-board in Tel-Aviv. During the 1960s and 70s, he emerged as a pivotal figure among the new wave of Israeli artists, belonging to a group who merged various art forms, including experimental theatre, painting, and graphic mapping with the then-emerging medium of video art.

After launching his art career in his native land and finishing the residency in the USA, Druks left for Europe in the early 1970s. He first briefly settled in the Netherlands and then immigrated to London in 1972, where be soon established himself as a conceptual artist. He acquired dual citizenship: Israeli and British. In 1974, Druks assisted in founding the Art Meeting Place in Covent Garden, London. During the 1960s and 1970s he was also recognised as a progressive media activist. For example, his 1973 video Reordering of Communication: Forgery/Action, composed of six photo panels, critiqued the 1970s media and empty political rhetoric.

Druks’ oeuvre is diverse and includes painting, drawings, collage, photography, installation, photography, video and conceptual avant-garde works. Druksland Physical & Social 15 January 1974, 11.30 am, – a conceptual avant-garde map and self-portrait which plays with concepts of boundaries, land and identity, is one of his most well-known pieces. This example of an intimate geography that maps both private and personal identity in relation to political maps has a wide-reaching appeal and, as such, became an iconic piece of both Israeli and international art. It is an example of what might be considered ‘speculative geography’ or ‘global weirding’ that subverts standard maps, replacing them with creative and subjective coordinates that seek to destabilise the viewer’s understanding of the globe (Czemiel, 2019, p. 219). This work also blends the inner emotional and mental realities with the outer physical world (Bar Or, 2007, p. 293). ‘Why a map?’, Druks asked himself, ‘Because maps are a kind of Esperanto, a shared language that knows no barriers. In this sense I used the geographical language to express myself,’ (Kopp-Oberstebrink and Weiss, 2012, p. 131).Druksland inevitably carries political undertones: it encompasses the borders, the territories under occupation, the state of affairs in Israel, the names and locations of people, including the artists parents and many others he was intimately connected with at that time. The philosopher, Walter Benjamin is also mentioned.

In the UK Druks' work has featured in exhibitions at the Whitechapel Gallery, Serpentine, ICA and Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, among other venues. Worldwide, he participated in notable events, including Dokumenta 6 in Kassel, and he exhibited in many cities across the globe, including Berlin, Bern, Brussels, Buenos Aires, Caracas, Cologne, Maastricht, Montreal, and São Paulo, as well as in his native Israel. In 1977 he staged a performance in the Ludwig Forum, formerly the Neue Galerie in Aachen, West Germany, which laid the foundation for the video work, Territory – Living Space. He was also the recipient of several prestigious awards, including the Aika Braun Prize for a Young Artist (1972), Sandberg Prize for Israeli Art (1973), and others. Michael Druks died in London, England on 22 April 2022. In the UK public domain, his works can be found in public collections including the V&A, London.

Related books

  • Grezegorz Czemiel, ‘Weirding Earth: Reimagining the Global Through Speculative Cartographies in Literature, Art, and Music’, in Other Globes Past and Peripheral Imaginations of Globalization, Simon Ferdinand, Irene Villaescusa-Illán and Esther Peeren eds., (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019)
  • Herbert Kopp-Oberstebrink and Judith E. Weiss, 'Michael Druks. Wenn man reagiert, ist man nicht frei. Zur Topografie des Gesichts', Kunstforum International, Vol. 216, 2012, pp. 129-135
  • Galia Bar-Or ed., Michael Druks: Travels in Druksland, (Ein Harod: Museum of Art, 2007)
  • Arturo Schwarz, Love at First Sight (Jerusalem: The Israel Museum, 2001)
  • David Buckman, Artists in Britain Since 1945 (Bristol: Sansom & Co., Art Dictionaries, 1998)
  • Sarah Kent and Michael Druks Ambiguous Aefinitions: An Exhibition of Works by Michael Druks (London: Institute of Contemporary Art, 1978)
  • Michael Druks, Michael Druks: Everybody’s Own Yard, a Photographic Study (London: Whitechapel Art Gallery, 1976)
  • Jan Debbaut ed., Michael Druks Systeem, Beeld, Identiteit (Antwerp: Internationaal Cultureel Centrum, 1975)

Public collections

Related web links

Selected exhibitions

  • Michael Druks: Zoom Out, Weitzmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel (2021)
  • Michael Druks: View, Material, Thought, Loushy Art & Projects, Tel Aviv, Israel (2013)
  • Michael Druks, England & Co, London (2013)
  • Michael Druks: A Journey Through Druksland, Mishkan Museum of Art, Ein Harod, Israel (2007)
  • Druksland, Haifa Museum, Haifa, Israel (2004)
  • Michael Druks: Pictures, 1991–1992, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel (1992)
  • Michael Druks: Projection on Photographical Situations, Israel Museum, Jerusalem (1983)
  • Ambiguous Definitions, Institute of Contemporary Art, London (1978)
  • Documenta 6, Kassel, West Germany (1977)
  • Everybody’s Own Yard, a photographic study, Ideas Gallery, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London (1976)
  • The Video Show, Serpentine Gallery, London (1975)
  • Flexible Geography & Location Piece, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford (1973)
  • Michael Druks: Environment, Israel Museum, Jerusalem (1970)
  Michael Druks
   
Ben Uri archive

Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Michael Druks]

Ben Uri library

Publications related to [Michael Druks] in the Ben Uri Library