The Billy Rose Sculpture Garden.

The Billy Rose Sculpture Garden and the Israel Museum Sculpture Collection When the Israel Museum opened in May 1965, one of its most striking features was the seven-acre Billy Rose Sculpture Gar- den. Designed by the sculptor Isamu Noguchi to house the Billy Rose collection, it is a rarity in sculpture gardens and parks. The photographs in this book do greater justice than words could to the flowing space, the beautiful vistas, the powerful rock- structured hemispheres, the stone-paved terraces, the sculpted concrete courtyards, the carefully planned flora and the meticulously situated sculptures. As in Noguchi's sculpture, the Garden blends two traditions: the Western European and the Japanese. The wide empty spaces, the scattered rocks, the extended areas of gravel and the subdued colors of the trees and plants, give one a sense of the Orient, while the sculptures themselves on their modern socles of concrete are Western. The consuming interest of the Israeli for art, and their appreciation for diverse cultural expression, motivated the world famous American showman and philanthropist, Billy Rose, to donate his collection of modem sculpture to the Israel Museum. The eminent landscape architect-sculptor, Isamu Noguchi, was commissioned to design a fitting outdoor repository for the collection. The regard for the sanctity of Jerusalem, the earth and the sky above was fundamental. He saw the whole hill, and the adjacent area, as a sort of new Acropolis manifesting the spirit of the times. Noguchi "wished to raise a song of praise to the place. The earth itself would be the means. The completed garden was photographed by the noted Swiss photographer, Leonardo Bezzola. These photographs reflect what is considered today to be one of the most art gardens in free world.