Mordechai Omer

Mordechai Omer (Hebrew: מרדכי עומר‎; April 1941 - 10 June 2011) was an Israeli art historian and museum administrator who served as Director of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.[1]

Mordechai Omer

Born in Haifa, he was educated at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (BA Art History, 1961), Columbia University under Meyer Schapiro (MA Art History, 1968) and the University of East Anglia (PhD, 1976) where his doctoral dissertation was on the biblical subjects of J M W Turner supervised by John Gage.[2]

Omer lived in the United States from 1967–72, studying and working at the Museum of Modern Art New York. He lived in Hampstead, London 1972 - 75 whilst completing his doctorate.

He held a professorship in Art History at the University of Tel Aviv from 1986 and was also head of the University’s Museum Studies Program. Omer was guest curator for the Saõ Paulo Biennial (1987 and 1989) and the Commissioner of the Israel Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (2003).[3] He served as Director and Chief Curator of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art from 1995 until his death in 2011 and was instrumental in the commissioning of the Herta and Paul Amir Building.[4]

Omer died from cancer after a short period of illness and was buried in Har Hamenuchot cemetery, Jerusalem. Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai was among those who delivered eulogies [5]