Yigal Zalmona

Yigal Zalmona is an Israeli curator, art critic and historian. He was the chief interdisciplinary curator of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

Biography Yigal Zalmona was born in Tel Aviv. He grew up in the city's Neve Shaanan neighborhood. His father was a dentist. At the age of 20, Zalmona enrolled in art studies at the Sorbonne in Paris, completing a bachelor's degree and a master's degree. He wrote his master's thesis on Jean Dubuffet, a French painter and sculptor who pioneered the theory of "low art" and what is now called outsider art. Zalmona was offered a job as a teaching assistant at the Sorbonne, but chose to return to Israel.

In 1996, he was promoted from Curator of Israeli Art at the Israel Museum to Senior Curator and deputy director of the museum, until his retirement from the museum in 2012.

He teaches at the art department of the Shenkar College of Engineering and Design in Ramat Gan.

Published works in English Art about art: Two texts and one interview with Osvaldo Romberg, Delson-Richter Galleries, Old Jaffa, 1978 Creation and Involvement in Israeli Art: a Sketch, in: The Shadow of Conflict: Israeli art 1980–1989, The Jewish Museum, New York, p. 15–19, 1989 Ali Baba's Cave, Philip Rantzer: I love Art and Art Loves Me, Museum Moderne Kunst, Passau On the Exhibition 'Kadima': Orientalism in Israeli art, The Jerusalem Review, p. 51–55, 1997 Landscape of the Bible: Sacred Scenes in European Master Paintings, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 2000 Uri Katzenstein, Home, Israeli Pavilion, Venice Biennale, 2001 New Jew, Old Orient: Reflections on Art, Place and Identity, in: Israele Arte e Vita 1906–2006, Palazzo Reale, Milano Treasures from the Holy Land, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, 2009 A Century of Israeli Art